A. Applicability.
1. Parking lots include the parking use area, access drives, driveways, aisles and loading areas for the purpose of this section.
2. The standards of this section applies to all off-street parking lots containing five or more off-street parking spaces for any use, except in those districts defined in Section 1108.0300 and IG Districts unless the IG District abuts a residential use.
3. Where an existing parking lot is expanded by 20 percent or more, landscaping must be provided for the entire area and not merely to the extent of its expansion.
B. Area and Dimensional Standards.
1. The total interior landscaping required in parking lots is 20 square feet per parking and stacking space. Any landscaping required for frontage greenbelt plantings (Section 1108.0202) or that required between the building and parking lot does not account for required interior parking lot landscaping.
2. Landscape areas within the parking area must be peninsular or island types and must be constructed with 6 inch by 18 inch concrete curbing, cast-in-place, extruded, or by some other process approved by the Planning Director, to minimize damage to plant material. Where the landscape area is part of the stormwater treatment facility for the parking lot, curb openings or wheel stops shall be required to allow for drainage into the stormwater treatment facility.
(Ord. 155-16. Passed 4-26-16.)
3. Topsoil must be back filled to provide positive drainage of the landscape peninsula or island, unless landscape peninsula or island is being utilized as a stormwater treatment facility.
(Ord. 155-16. Passed 4-26-16.)
4. All parking spaces must be within 100 linear feet of a landscaped area.
5. All landscaping areas must have a minimum dimension of at least 9 feet and be at least 160 square feet in area.
6. Landscaped areas may not contain bare soil, aggregated stone or decorative rock. Any ground area must be covered with hardwood mulch, grass or other vegetative ground cover, unless approved as part of the stormwater treatment facility.
(Ord. 155-16. Passed 4-26-16.)
7. Landscaped terminal islands must be provided at the end of each parking row.
8. Divider medians that form a continuous landscaped strip may be installed between abutting rows of parking spaces. The minimum width of divider medians must be 10 feet.
9. Perimeter landscaping must be installed along any parking lot area adjacent to a street, place, or driveway, or which is visible from an immediately adjacent property.
a. Perimeter landscaping must consist of a landscape area at least 10 feet in width, exclusive of sidewalks, walkways, trails, or right-of-way and must be located between the parking lot and the property line.
b. For overlap with another perimeter buffer area see Section 1108.0204D.
10. Wheel stops must be provided to ensure that vehicles cannot overhang directly on plant material.
C. Quantity Requirements.
1. Interior.
a. Two canopy trees are required to be installed in interior landscape areas for each 10 parking spaces within the parking lot.
b. Six shrubs are required to be installed in interior landscape areas for each 10 parking spaces within the parking lot. One canopy tree may substitute for three shrubs.
c. Trees and shrubs do not have to be equally spaced, but may be grouped.
2. Perimeter.
a. A perimeter landscape buffer shall be provided abutting the parking area and to visually screen all off-street loading facilities from view of Residential districts and public right-of-ways. A minimum of at least one canopy tree must be provided for each 30 linear feet, plus a continuous shrub with a minimum height of 18 inches (when installed so as to achieve full screening at maturity).
3. Credit.
Existing healthy trees and shrubs on a site may be used to meet these requirements upon review and approval by the Planning Director.
D. Overlapping Requirements.
(Ord. 170-04. Passed 3-23-04.)