(a) Materials. Landscape buffering may include, but shall not be limited to, trees, shrubs, bushes, earth berms or a combination thereof.
(b) Screening. Screening shall consist of plant material or nonliving durable landscape material.
(c) Buffered Areas.
(1) Location and width. Buffering shall be located on those less restrictive portions of land bordering or abutting a more restrictive zone or use district and shall be a minimum of ten feet in width. In Business Districts, Industrial Districts, Light Manufacturing Districts and Office Building, Research Laboratory and Light Manufacturing Districts, buffering width shall not be less than fifty feet when bordering or abutting a Country Home District. Plant material and screening shall be distributed within the buffer area so as to provide the desired opacity and visual screening.
(2) Use. Designated buffered areas shall be used for no other purpose than planting or screening. Required buffer areas shall not be used for open retention basins or driveway access, unless approved by the Planning Commission.
(3) Design. A buffered area shall be designed to permit access to easement tracts to grantees to perform the functions for which the easements were granted and to facilitate the use of such easement areas for fire protection purposes.
(4) Opacity. Where buffering is required, the buffer material and screening shall provide a maximum of eighty percent opacity in the summer and sixty percent opacity in the winter when viewed from two feet to ten feet above the ground level.
(d) Fences and Walls. Fences may be accepted or required as part of a landscape buffer where traffic noise, parking areas and lights create a need for a greater buffer. When used, they shall be of a decorative style and type. Walls and berms may be used in unusual cases, as may be required by the Planning Commission to fulfill the buffering requirements.
(e) Natural Planting Requirements. Where natural plantings and trees exist in yards requiring buffering, such natural plantings and existing trees shall be preserved and grades maintained so as to provide eighty percent summer opacity and sixty percent winter opacity when viewed from two feet to ten feet above ground level. Additional landscape material and screening may be required to supplement the natural plantings to meet the desired opacity.
(f) Buffering Effect. The desired buffering shall be achieved not later than twelve months after the initial installation. The Planning Commission may extend this period of time when a hardship would be created because of expected growth or material shortages, but the Commission shall not extend such period beyond two years from the time the initial installation was to have been or has been installed.
(g) Modification Requirements. The Commission may modify or change the location of a buffer area continuous to side and rear property lines where topographical problems prevent the installation of buffer materials or where the buffering effect cannot be reasonably obtained at the lot line, such as in the case of substantial grade elevation differences.
(Ord. 95-2-12. Passed 4-4-95.)