Agenda - Planning Commission - 07/01/2004

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feet in area and a minimum width of 8 feet. For even/too square feet of landscaped area, one shade tree and a ground cover feature must be pianted. Perimeter standards apply to parking lots that face public streets, have to or more spaces, and are !ocated within 20 feet of a lot line. The basic requirements for The perimeter landscape strip is that it must be seven feet wide and contain one shade tree for every 4o feet and one shrub for every Three feet of yard length. The plantings can be clustered or spaced evenly in a ;inear pattern, ~e whole length of the perimeter yard must be iand- scaped il' adjacent to a residential use and 75 percent landscaped if adjacent to a non<esi- dentia[ use. The 81acksourg. ordinance covers both the interior and exterior portions oi: ,.*he park- ing Lot, At least five percent of the parking must be!andscaped. Psrl<ingareacaicu[a- lions include parking' spaces, aisles, and islands, but exclude access drives not con- raining parking spaces. The requiremen[ is one tree for every to parking spaces. Islands are ;8 square feet and parking is permitted only on three sides, a provision that essen- tially prohibits stand-alone islands. The regu- lations sta[e that if the parking lot is adjacent . to a public street, a perimeter plantin§ bed must be provided at a width of at least in feet. The requirements allow the overall park- ing percentage to be satisfied in the perimeter bed if necessary. The 8rewnsburg landscape ordinance has separate regulations for interior and perimeter parking !ors. Interior parking lot landscaping is based on the square footage of the parking Int. For every ~,25 square feet, five square feet must be on a landscaped island. The regulations dictate isiand place- ment and the maximum allowable area for parking to,vs, islands can have one tree and four sinai[ shrubs. Perimeter landscaping is required only for lots ihat contain more than 20 spaces or when (he tot is located along a property line or street frontage. Landscaped areas must be at ieast five feet wide and extend the full lan§th of the parking Int. The landscaping standards call for one tree per 30 linear feet and one medium shrub per three linear feet. Veg.etation can be clustered or spaced. So a hardship is not created, and to reduce the burden on the property owner to provide the entire level of landscaping required in the ordinance, parking tot landscaping credit can be applied to on-site buffer yard and street tree [andscaping. Costly maintenance prevents some com- munities from requiring' parking islands. Public works departments, often responsible for.clearing snow on nomresidential parking tots, may see the islands as hazardous to equipment, and police departments may dis- coura§e the planting of targa buslies on islands so as to not compromise visibility. Tree preservation. Some communities have made tree preservation mandaton/. Others just encourage it, The key ~o ~hese reg- ulations is ~he caliper of the tree and how communities make developers measure it. free caliper is a standard trunk diameter measurement usually taken six inches above ground loc up to and including four-inch caliper size and z2 inches above ground for larger sizes. Communities should presenze trees higher than eight caliper and encourage developers to measure only those with a greater caliper, as tree inventories can be costly. Under a mandatory system, removed trees often have {o be replaced. As with all landscape provisions, standards for tree preservation can be simple or complex, depending on the desires of the community. Tree preservation in 8rownsburg is done through the tandscape ordinance, but a grow- ing number of communities are adopting' tree preservation ordinances. Landscape ordinances have other func- tions not herein discussed, including provi- signs for site visibility triangles, screening' of heating and coating units, replacement val- ues, site plan review, enforcement provi- sions, and maintenance. Some ordinances also include a list of recommended {roes and shrubs. The list can be adop[ed as part of the zoning ordinance, but snouid serve onh/as a guideline so changes can be made in the future. 108 ZONINGi:t.'.,:tCT';':::; o4,0~ .AMERICAN PLANNING 2, SSOCIATION { page 6