All development subject to site plan review shall include the following required landscaping for parking lots.
(a) Interior Parking Lot Landscaping: For parking areas in any district designed to accommodate twenty or more vehicles, a minimum of five percent (5%) of the parking lot shall be planted as landscaped island areas, developed and distributed throughout the parking lot so as to provide visual and climatic relief from broad expanses of pavement. Each landscaped island shall be a minimum of ten (10) feet in any horizontal dimension and shall provide at least one major shade tree have a clear trunk height of at least six feet and a minimum caliper of two inches. Shrub plantings adjacent to a building along the perimeter of the parking lot, or in any part of a yard, shall not be counted as interior landscaping. For the purpose of this section the area of a parking lot shall be the total vehicular surface area including circulation aisles.
(b) Additional Plantings along Public Streets: Whenever parking areas consisting of five (5) spaces or more are located such that the parked cars will be visible from a public street, landscaping, in addition to the interior landscaping required in subsection (a) hereof, shall be planted and maintained between the street and the parking lot. Such landscaping shall be a minimum height of two and one-half (2 ½) feet, located adjacent to the parking lot and shall be placed to effectively obscure a minimum of fifty percent (50%) of the parking area.
(c) Screening of Parking Lots Abutting Residences in Residential Districts: Parking areas accommodating five (5) or more vehicles for non-one-family uses abutting one-family residential lots in a Residential District, shall be screened from view from such properties through landscaping or ornamental walls or fences, to promote harmony with the adjacent development.
(1) Screening shall consist of one or any combination of the following:
A. A dense vegetative planting incorporating trees and/or shrubs of a variety which shall be equally effective in winter and summer.
B. A nonliving opaque structure such as a solid masonry wall, solidly constructed decorated fence, or louvered fence.
C. A landscaped mound or berm.
(2) The height of screening shall be in accordance with the following:
A. Visual screening walls, fences or mounds and fences in combination shall be a minimum of six (6) feet high in order to accomplish the desired screening effect.
B. Vegetation shall be planted with such minimum height to assure that the required six (6) feet screening effect shall be achieved not later than twelve (12) months after the initial installation.
(3) All screening shall be free of advertising or other signs, except for directional signs and other signs for the efficient flow of vehicles.
(4) The required landscaping shall be maintained in healthy condition by the current owner and replaced when necessary. Replacement material shall conform to the original intent of the landscape plan.
(5) Materials used in any ornamental wall or fence shall be compatible with the character of the proposed development and abutting properties.
(Ord. 2020-21. Passed 2-18-20.)