Agenda - Planning Commission - 04/04/1995

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THE ZONING REPORT Page Two zoning codes as an overlay district over com- mercial/industrial 'zones. The buffer area has a defined width, 100-300 ft, typically 150 ft, within which, special development standards and regulations apply to assure compatibility with adjacent residential areas. Height is re- duced to about 35 ft and three stori.es; zone yards and landscape screens or zone walls, or both, are required on all lot lines within the overlay area; certain intensive uses may be prohibited in the overlay district; major signs and billboards might be prohibited or positioned so they are not visible to or face residential areas; and street yards are required and must be landscaped to specified planting standards. The fourth type of buffer prevents direct access between major streets and abutting lots. It is platted in subdivisions as a strip of land of defined width interposed between non-local streets and adjoining lots platted in reversed frontage, along rear Iot lines. It is owned in fee by the homeowners association or is an easement of the association on the rear of the abutting lots. It is landscaped or fenced by the developer, the association or the owner of each lot abutting the strip~ The fifth type of buffer is common open space required in PUDs and cluster housing projects, to interpose distance between uses within the project and along the perimeter of the tract. Codes provide generalized standards for this open space, whose buffering adequacy in each case is judged by the approving body in the preliminary development plan. The sixth type of buffer is imposed around mapped sensitive environments located in de- velopment projects.' It is imposed around the boundary of wetlands and shorelines of lakes and streams at a distance from development sufficient to ameliorate most of its adverse impacts. The width of the buffer ranges in codes from 20-100 ft, with 20-30 ft most com- mon in urban areas. The buffer must be retain- ed in open spaceD but some minor water-orient- ed structures might be allowed, such as docks~ piers and boat houses and launches. Prohibited in the buffer area are parking lots, outdoor storage and septic distribution fields. There are four types of conventional screens Obviously, the most common screen in zoning codes is that required in buffers and zone yards along lot lines of dissimilar specific uses or zones. Almost all recent codes impose de- tailed landscaping standards for height, thick- ness and opacity of plants in screens, specify- ing the species of plant materials, their spa- cing, size when installed and expected at ma- turity, and whether plant materials must be combined with fences' or walls' of prescribed construction and minimum and maximum height. Another type of screen is required around the perimeter of parking lots to obscure the view of vehicles and the glare of vehicle head- lights from adjoining residential uses and zones. For front-yard parking lots, screens are required in the setback area to obscure them from abutting streets. Typically, the screen is an opaque fence, wall, hedge or row of shrubs, 3-4 ft high, in a strip about 5 ft wide around the outside perimeter of parking lots. Screens are required by all recent codes around trash areas~ dumpsters and outdoor storage areas visible from any street and from residential uses and zones. A 6-8 ft opaque fence or masonry wall is required on three sides around the trash receptacle, with a gate on the access side. In residential projects, the walls surrounding trash areas might be land- scaped to soften the appearance of the walls. A fourth type of screen are fences and walls allowed or required for safety or security around specified uses, in contrast to most screens whose decorative function is to block incompatible views, glare and noise. Uses re- quiring or allowing security fences are utitity substations; heavy, dangerous or unsightly in- dustrial uses; junk yards; and. designated out- door storage areas on commercial/industrial tracts. The fences can be chain link, of extra height, up to 12 ft, perhaps allowed to be top- ped with barbed wire. Many codes require landscaping along these fences tO Obscure them from view in residential, open space and tran- sitional office/business zones. March 24, 1995 issue