The intent of these guidelines is to provide a conservation plan to improve the appearance of vehicular use areas and property abutting public rights-of-way; to require buffering between noncompatible land uses; and to protect, preserve and promote the esthetic appeal, character and value of the surrounding neighborhoods; to promote public health and safety through the reduction of noise pollution, visual pollution, air temperature and artificial light glare.

13.21

New Sites

No new site development, building, structure or vehicular use area should hereafter be created and used unless landscaping is provided as required by the provisions of these guidelines.

13.22

Existing Sites

No property lines should be altered nor should any building, structure, or vehicular use area be expanded, unless the minimum landscaping provided by the provisions of these guidelines is provided for the property to the extent of its alteration or expansion, and not for the entire property.

This section describes the minimum requirements that shall be met in regard to interior and perimeter landscaping for vehicular use areas, and perimeter landscaping for noncompatible land use areas.

13.31

Perimeter Landscaping Requirements

Unless otherwise provided, landscape materials shall be installed to provide a minimum of fifty (50) percent winter opacity and a seventy (70) percent summer opacity between one (1) foot above finished grade level to the top of the required planting hedge, fence, wall, or earth mound within four (4) years after installation. The required landscaping should be provided either in easements in certain zones (Section 13.311) or adjacent to vehicular use area (Section 13.312). A plant list shall be maintained by the planning department to provide more detailed information on the acceptable plant material.

13.311 Property Perimeter Requirements

¹  Grass or ground cover shall be planted on all portions of easement not occupied by other landscape material.

²  OFT means "or fraction thereof". Trees do not have to be equally spaced, but may be grouped.

³  To determine required area of landscape easement, multiply required average width by length of common boundary. Using item 1C as an example, the ten-foot average required width times as assumed one hundred (100) feet of common boundary equals one thousand (1,000) square feet of required landscape area. Thus, if some sections of the easement are only three (3) feet in width, other sections will have to be greater than ten (10) feet in width in order to obtain the required one thousand (1,000) square feet of landscape area.

13.312 Vehicular Use Area Perimeter Requirements

¹  These provisions may be included within the property perimeter required by Section 13.311, where landscape easements are also applicable.

²  A vehicular use area (V.U.A.) is any open or unenclosed area containing more than one thousand eight hundred (1,800) square feet of area and/or used by six (6) or more, of any type of vehicle, whether moving or at rest, including, but not limited to, parking lots, loading and unloading area, mobile home parks, and sale and service areas. Driveways are considered to be vehicular use areas whenever they are adjacent to public streets or other vehicular use elements described previously in this paragraph (and intervening curbs, sidewalks, landscape strips, etc., do not eliminate adjacency).

³  Grass or ground cover shall be planted on all portions of the easement not occupied by other landscape material.

⁴  OFT means "or fraction thereof".

13.313 Who Provides Easement—The landscape easement and material required adjacent to any street under Section 13.312 should be provided by the property owner adjoining street, unless the authority building the street has fully met all requirements on the street right-of-way. When adjacent to other common boundaries the landscaping easement and materials, (a) may be placed on either adjoining parcel, or astride the boundary, if both are owned and being processed by the same owner; or (b) generally should be placed on the activity listed under 13.311, B, and 13.312, B, when adjoining parcels having different owners; or (c) may be placed astride the boundary of adjoining parcels having different owners if a written agreement, signed by both owners, is filed with the building inspection office, as a public record; or (d) should be placed on the activity or parcel being processed when adjoining property is already developed with the except of 13.311, item 9.

13.314 Requirement Conflicts—Whenever a parcel or activity falls under two or more of the categories listed in the table of Section 13.311 or 13.312, only one category (that with the most stringent requirements) should be enforced.

13.315 Easement Conflicts—The required landscape easement may be combined with a utility or other easement as long as all of the landscape requirements can be fully met, otherwise, the landscape easement should be provided in addition to, and separate from, any other easement. Cars or other objects should not overhang or otherwise intrude upon the required landscape easement more than two and one-half (2½) feet, through the use of wheel stops or curbs.

13.316 Existing Landscape Material—Existing landscape material should be shown on the plan, and any material in satisfactory condition may be used to satisfy these requirements in whole or in part when, in the opinion of the public approval authority such material meets the requirements and achieves the objectives of these guidelines.

13.317 Landscaping at Driveway and Street Intersections—To insure that landscape materials do not constitute a driving hazard, a "sight triangle" should be observed at all street intersections of driveways with streets. Within this sight triangle, no landscape material nor parked vehicles except for required grass or ground cover, should be permitted. Within the sight triangle, trees should be permitted as long as, except during early growth stages, only the tree trunk (no limbs, leaves, etc.) is visible between the ground and eight (8) feet above the ground, or otherwise does not present a traffic visibility hazard. The sight triangle is defined in the following sections.

13.3171 Driveway Intersection Sight Triangle—At intersections of driveways with streets, the sight triangle should be established by locating the intersection of the street curb with the driveway edge perpendicular to the curb.

13.3172 Street Intersection Sight Triangle—At street intersections, the sight triangle should be formed by measuring at least thirty-five (35) feet long curb lines and connecting these points.

13.32 Interior Landscaping for Vehicular Use Areas

Any open vehicular use area containing more than six thousand (6,000) square feet of area or twelve (12) or more vehicular parking spaces, shall provide "interior" landscaping in addition to the previously required "perimeter" landscaping.

13.321 Landscape Area—For each one hundred (100) square feet, or fraction thereof, of vehicular use area, five (5) square feet of landscaped area shall be provided.

13.3211 Minimum Area—The minimum landscape area permitted shall be sixty-four (64) square feet, with at least dimension of eight (8) feet.

13.3212 Maximum Contiguous Area—In order to encourage the required landscape areas to be properly dispersed, no required landscape area shall be larger than three hundred fifty (350) square feet, in vehicular use areas under thirty thousand (30,000) square feet in size, and no required area shall be larger than one thousand five hundred (1,500) square feet in vehicular use areas over thirty thousand (30,000) square feet. In both cases, the least dimension of any required area shall be eight (8) feet. Landscape areas larger than above are permitted as long as the additional area is in excess of the required minimum.

13.322 Minimum Trees—A minimum of one (1) tree shall be required for each two hundred fifty (250) square feet, or fraction thereof, of required landscape area. Trees shall have a clear trunk of at least five (5) feet above the ground, and the remaining area shall be landscaped with shrubs, or ground cover, not to exceed two (2) feet in height.

13.323 Vehicle Overhang—Parked vehicles may hang over the interior landscaped area no more than two and a half (2½) feet, as long as concrete or other wheel stops are provided to insure no greater overhang or penetration of the landscaped area.

The landscaping materials shall consist of the following and are described in more detail in the planting manual on file at the office of planning and community development.

13.41 Walls and Fences

Walls shall be constructed of natural stone, brick, or artificial materials arranged in a linear, serpentine or other alignment; while fences shall be constructed of wood. Chain link fencing will meet approval only if covered with wood strips or plant material. In industrial zones, there should be no height limitation on walls or fences; in all other zones, however, there should be a six-foot height restriction for walls or fences in front yards, an eight-foot height restriction in all other required yards. All walls or fences shall have a minimum opacity of eighty (80) percent.

13.42 Earth Mounds

Earth mounds shall be constructed with proper slopes and adequate plant material to prevent erosion.

13.43 Plants

All plant materials shall be living plants (artificial plants are not permitted) and shall meet the following requirements.

13.431 Quality—Plant materials used in conformance with provision of these guidelines shall conform to the standards of the American Association of Nurserymen and shall have passed any inspections required under state regulations.

13.432 Deciduous Trees (Trees which normally shed their leaves in the Fall)—Shall be species having an average mature crown spread of greater than fifteen (15) feet and having trunk(s) which can be maintained with over five (5) feet of clear wood in areas which have visibility requirements, except at vehicular use area intersections where an eight-foot clear wood requirement will control. Trees having an average spread of crown less than fifteen (15) feet may be substituted by grouping of the same so as to create the equivalent of a fifteen-foot crown spread. A minimum of ten (10) feet overall height or a minimum caliper (trunk diameter, measured six (6) inches above ground for trees up to four (4) inches caliper) of at least one and three-fourths (1¾) inches immediately after planting shall be required. Trees of species whose roots are known to cause damage to public roadways or other public works shall not be planted closer than fifteen (15) feet to such public works, unless the tree root system is completely contained within a barrier for which the minimum interior containing dimension shall be five (5) feet square and five (5) feet deep and for which the construction requirements shall be four (4) inches thick, reinforced concrete.

13.433 Evergreen Trees—Evergreen trees shall be a minimum of five (5) feet high with a minimum caliper of one and one-half (1½) inches and a minimum spread of three (3) feet immediately after planting.

13.434 Shrubs and Hedges—Shall be at least two (2) feet for Section 13.312 (and three (3) feet for Section 13.311) in average height or spread when planted and shall conform to the opacity and other requirements within four (4) years after planting.

13.435 Vines—Shall be at least twelve (12) or fifteen (15) inches high at planting, and are generally used in conjunction with walls or fences.

13.436 Grass or Ground Cover—Grass (of the fescue (Gramineak) or bluegrass (Poaceae) family) shall be planted in species normally grown as permanent lawns in Clark County, and may be sodded, plugged, sprigged, or seeded: except in swales or other areas subject to erosion, where solid sod, erosion reducing net, or suitable mulch shall be used, nurse-grass seed shall be sown for immediate protection until complete coverage otherwise is achieved. Grass sod shall be clean and free of weeds and noxious pests or diseases. Ground cover such as organic material shall be placed in such a manner as to present a finished appearance. In certain cases, ground cover also may consist of rocks, pebbles, sand, and similar approved materials.

13.44 Maintenance and Installation

All landscaping materials shall be installed in a sound, workmanship like manner, and according to accepted good construction and planting procedures. The person in charge or in contract of the properties whether as owner, lessee, tenant, occupant or otherwise shall be responsible for the continued proper maintenance, free from refuse and debris, at all times. All unhealthy or dead plant material shall be replaced within one (1) year, or by the next planting period, whichever comes first; while other defective landscape material shall be replaced or repaired within three (3) months. Violation of these installation and maintenance provisions should be grounds for the building inspector to refuse a building occupancy permit or institute legal proceedings as set forth in other sections of the zoning regulations.

Whenever any property is affected by these landscaping requirements, the property owner or developer should prepare two (2) copies of a landscape plan for submittal to, and approval by, the planning office. The building inspector shall follow the requirements of these guidelines in approving or disapproving any landscape plan required by these guidelines. Landscape plans also may be submitted as part of any development plan required by the planning commission.

13.51 Plan Content

The contents of the plan should include the following: (a) Site plan, drawn to an easily readable scale, showing and labeling by name and dimensions, all existing and proposed property lines, easements, buildings, and other structures, vehicular use areas (including parking stalls, driveways, service areas, square footage, etc.), water outlets, and landscape material (including height at planting time, average mature height, and on-center planting dimension for all plants): (b) Typical elevation and/cross sections as may be required: (c) Title box with the pertinent names and addresses, (property, owner, person drawing plan, and person installing landscape material), scale, date, north arrow and zoning district: and (d) A performance bond whenever required to insure proper installation of landscape materials, with complete cost of all work certified by landscape contractor, with the bond amount to include the accurate cost plus no more than twenty-five (25) percent and the bond should be released upon satisfactory completion of the work as determined by the public agency that holds the bond.

13.52 Building Permit

Where landscaping is required, no building permit should be issued until required landscaping plans has been submitted and approved; and no occupancy permit should be issued until the landscaping is completed, as certified by an on-site inspection by the representative of the planning office, unless a performance bond, or irrevocable letter of credit from a banking institution, has been posted.