This Section provides standards for the installation and maintenance of landscaping, walls, and screening devices to promote the general welfare of the community. This is accomplished by encouraging the creation of an attractive appearance along streets and by screening from view uses that may be unattractive to the public eye. Landscaping materials, including ground covers, shrubs, and trees, further facilitate the control of erosion and the reduction of glare and dust, as well as the visual softening of building masses. Low-water-use plant materials are preferred for required landscaping. Walls and screening devices allow for the separation of incongruous uses and for the buffering of intensive activities. Landscaping, walls, and screening devices together help to effectuate privacy, logical development, and enhancement of property values.

(a)

Landscape and site plan. Any proposed building or use shall be shown on a landscape or screening plan, indicating the location of existing and proposed buildings, parking areas, street improvements, and locations and types of landscaped areas, walls and screening devices that comply with the following criteria:

(1)

The landscape plan conforms to all requirements of this Article and is consistent with the currently adopted comprehensive plan and any other applicable plans.

(2)

The plant materials or landscape features are designed and situated in a manner that makes the project visually compatible with its surroundings to the greatest extent possible.

(3)

The landscape design includes the installation of a diversity of species and sizes of vegetation with preference given to native and naturalized vegetation.

(4)

No plant materials or landscape features are situated in such a manner so as to inhibit vehicle sight distances or otherwise create a traffic hazard.

(5)

No woody plant materials are situated within any utility easement unless shrubs or other limited height materials are of a size that has been approved by the utility provider.

(6)

The facilities for watering and drainage are adequate to ensure the landscape area is maintained and that no soil, bark, mulch, gravel, stone, or similar materials are allowed to wash off the landscape area into parking areas, driveways, public streets, sidewalks, gutters, or storm drainage facilities.

(7)

The design, selection, and layout of such landscaping is such so as to minimize maintenance requirements.

(b)

Location of utilities. Proposed utilities shall be located, when possible, so that their installation will not adversely affect vegetation to be retained on a site.

(c)

Plant selection.

(1)

Tree and plant materials shall be selected for: Energy efficiency and water efficiency; adaptability and relationship to the native environment; color, form and pattern; ability to provide shade; soil retention; and resistance to fire. The overall landscape plan shall be integrated with all elements of the project, such as buildings, parking lots, and streets, and to achieve a desirable microclimate and minimize energy demand.

(2)

Native or naturalized trees, shrubs and grasses, as identified by the Colorado State University Extension Service, shall be utilized in order to minimize the consumption of water.

(3)

Plants identified as noxious weeds by Montezuma County are not permitted for use as planting materials.

(4)

Existing native and naturalized vegetation within sensitive land and resource areas shall be preserved unless the Town approves an alternative naturalized landscaping plan that preserves significant desirable naturalized vegetation.

(5)

If turf areas are included in landscaping, they must use a sod or seed mix specifically cultivated to thrive in the conditions present at the particular site.

a.

The use of non-naturalized, high water consumptive turf or other monoculture seeding such as Kentucky Blue Grass is prohibited. The use of artificial turf is also prohibited.

b.

The applicant must provide information regarding the composition of a sod or seed mix as part of the detailed plant list as required.

c.

No person or organization shall impose private covenants, conditions, deed clauses, or other agreements that require the installation of turf or prevent the utilization of water efficient landscaping, provided such landscaping receives appropriate approval. No person shall prohibit landscaping materials and designs solely on the basis that they make use of water-efficient landscaping.

(d)

Installation. Landscaping, watering devices, walls and screening structures shall be installed in accordance with the approved landscape or screening plan prior to issuance of a final certificate of occupancy for the building or use. The Zoning Administrator may grant a temporary certificate of occupancy during the winter months when installation is impracticable or not feasible.

(e)

Maintenance requirements.

(1)

Landscaped areas shall be reasonably maintained by the owner or lessee of the property, including pruning, trimming, watering and other requirements necessary to create an attractive appearance for the development. Lack of maintenance of required landscaping material shall constitute a violation of this Land Use Code.

(2)

Any plant materials not surviving shall be replaced within thirty (30) days of its demise or in the next appropriate season.

(f)

Irrigation. All required landscaped areas may be required to include an irrigation system as defined herein to ensure the health and growth of the landscape. Where possible, irrigation systems shall utilize untreated irrigation water instead of treated water.

(Ord. No. 751, § 1, 11-13-2019)

(a)

Applicability. This Section shall apply to all development in the multifamily, mixed-use, and commercial districts; provided, however, that single-family detached development in all districts shall be exempt from the requirements of this Section.

(b)

Landscaping required. All undeveloped areas of each lot or tract and the adjacent right-of-way shall be landscaped with trees, shrubs, grasses, ground cover, or other organic and inorganic materials that create an attractive appearance.

(1)

Smooth concrete or asphalt surfaces are not considered landscaping.

(2)

Tree canopy is not considered ground cover; landscaping shall also be provided on the ground plane underneath a tree.

(Ord. No. 751, § 1, 11-13-2019)

(a)

Required screening.

(1)

Single-family uses and districts.

a.

Nonresidential and multi-family residential development, including off-street parking areas associated with such development, shall be screened from view of adjacent (within fifty (50) feet or across the street from) single-family uses and districts.

b.

Allowed visual screening techniques are opaque fences, vegetative buffers, and berms, or a combination of such techniques along the lot line that is adjacent to the single-family use or district.

(2)

Parking areas.

a.

All parking areas shall be screened to a minimum height of three (3) feet above the highest finished grade of the parking area.

b.

The minimum width of the landscaped street buffer from the street line to the parking area shall be five (5) feet; provided, however, that the minimum landscaped buffer along the highway shall be fifteen (15) feet. Such screening may be accomplished using plants, earth berms, walls, fences, or trees, and shrubs in combination.

(3)

Outdoor storage areas. All outdoor storage areas for materials, mechanical equipment (including ground-based satellite dishes), vehicles, or other similar items shall be screened from street view by a minimum six-foot-high screening consisting either of plant material or a wall constructed of or finished with materials that match or complement the main building of the site. Trash enclosures shall be screened with a fence or wall only, not plant materials. Landscaping is permitted outside of the structural screen.

(4)

Mechanical equipment.

a.

Mechanical equipment, outdoor storage areas, and refuse collection areas shall be completely shielded from view of adjacent single-family uses and districts by an opaque fence or wall that is at least one (1) foot taller than the site feature being screened from view, provided that this provision shall not be interpreted as requiring screening fences or walls to be taller than ten (10) feet. Fences, walls, and buffers must comply with all other applicable zoning requirements.

b.

Roof-mounted mechanical equipment shall be screened by parapet walls or other screening devices to be no lower in height than three (3) feet below the height of the mechanical equipment on side, front, or rear walls, whichever are adjacent to public streets or residential districts.

(b)

Height of screening devices. The height of screening devices is measured from the highest finished adjacent grade of the element to be screened.

(Ord. No. 751, § 1, 11-13-2019)

(a)

Applicability. The following requirements shall be applicable to all new off-street surface parking lots with ten (10) or more spaces.

(b)

Required landscape area. All surface parking lots shall incorporate the following interior landscaping:

(1)

All parking stalls shall be within one hundred thirty-two (132) lineal feet of a required parking lot landscape area. For purposes of determining tree spacing, parking spaces may be counted in any rational sequence.

(2)

Landscape terminal islands that are a minimum of nine (9) feet wide and four (4) feet shorter, at the entry end, than the adjacent parking stalls in the parking row shall be provided at the ends of each parking row.

(3)

Parking lots with one hundred (100) or more spaces shall also be divided into subsections of no more than fifty (50) spaces with landscape divider strips placed between the sections.

(c)

Plant materials.

(1)

All of the required parking lot landscaped areas must contain a minimum of seventy-five percent (75%) organic landscaping material, with a maximum of twenty-five percent (25%) inorganic landscaping material. Approved sidewalks are not counted toward the percentage of inorganic material unless specifically provided for in this Section.

(2)

A landscape divider strip shall be planted with one (1) tree every forty (40) feet.

(3)

Islands shall be planted with one (1) tree and at least seventy-five percent (75%) of the ground plane shall be covered with organic material that will remain in place on the island through typical local weather. Turf grass is prohibited in or on parking lot landscape islands. Deciduous trees are encouraged to provide shade within the parking lot, while evergreen trees should be used where screening is required.

(d)

Snow storage.

(1)

A portion of the site equal to five percent (5%) of the surface areas to be plowed shall be provided as one (1) or more snow storage areas that:

a.

Are adjacent to and within twenty (20) feet of the edge of the pavement to be plowed;

b.

Are located so as not to interfere with the safe movement of pedestrians and traffic, including outside of any required clear vision areas;

c.

Are provided with appropriate drainage and where refreezing of any sheet drainage will not pose safety issues; and

d.

Remain accessible, useable, and clear of obstructions.

(2)

Plowed snow may be placed in a required bufferyard or parking lot interior landscape area that has been designed as follows:

a.

Snow storage areas shall be planted with plant materials that are salt-tolerant and that can withstand the weight and compaction of the snow. Mulch shall cover less than thirty percent (30%) of the landscape area within three (3) years of installation.

b.

Trees, shrubs and other woody plants shall be protected from adjacent snow storage areas by separation by a minimum at grade separation from tree trunks or shrubs of four (4) horizontal feet, or planters, elevated landscaping elements, walls or other approved mechanisms.

(Ord. No. 751, § 1, 11-13-2019)

(a)

Height of fences. In any residential district or along the common boundary between any residential or nonresidential district where a wall, fence, or screening separation is erected or where a screening wall or fence is required by ordinance, resolution, regulation, or law, the following standards for height and design shall be observed:

(1)

No fence or wall erected within a required front yard shall exceed four (4) feet in height above the adjacent grade.

(2)

Fences or walls erected within utility easements or public rights-of-way may be moved or removed by the Town or by the utility, without any responsibility to replace or restore, as necessary to facilitate normal utility maintenance.

(3)

Maximum height for fences or walls in a required side or rear yard, measured at adjacent grade:

a.

In residential, mixed-use, commercial, and public districts: Six (6) feet.

b.

In industrial districts: Ten (10) feet.

(4)

Fences and walls shall be subject to the corner visibility requirements.

(b)

Exterior building materials. At least a two-hour, exterior firewall shall be required for all structures with less than ten (10) feet of separation between buildings.

(c)

Dumpsters and solid waste receptacles. Dumpsters and solid waste receptacles shall be set back at least twenty (20) feet from the lot line of adjacent property that is zoned SFR, single-family residential or that contains an existing single-family use. Dumpsters and receptacles shall be completely screened from view by an opaque fence or wall that is at least one (1) foot taller than the dumpster or solid waste receptacle.

(Ord. No. 751, § 1, 11-13-2019)