The requirements of this article shall be applied to the installation, erection, enlargement increase in capacity of any building or change in type of use, except that landscaping shall not be required for the following:

(a)

One-family residence, halfplex, or a two-family residence;

(b)

Landscaping which is a part of a registered historic site, park, golf course facility, or cemetery.

(§ 8-5.6001, Ord. 010-94, eff. January 5, 1995; § 1, Ord. 07-95, eff. August 31, 1995; § 1, Ord. 10-96, eff. December 19, 1996)

(a)

Preliminary plan. For projects that must go through Planning Commission and/or City Council review, preliminary landscape plans are required. The preliminary landscape plan is a conceptual plan that depicts the location of the following:

(1)

Property lines;

(2)

Building(s), existing and proposed;

(3)

Location of existing trees (with trees to be saved and removed identified);

(4)

Planter areas;

(5)

Location of tree and plant materials;

(6)

Walkways;

(7)

Streets within and adjacent to the project property;

(8)

Walls, fences, or other structure of site feature that may affect landscape design;

(9)

Shading requirements; and

(10)

Parking areas and percentage of parking lot to be landscaped and shaded.

(b)

Detailed landscape plan. The detailed landscape plan must be submitted after an applicant has Planning Commission or City Council approval of the project, or when a project is submitted for staff approval if Commission or Council approval is not required. The detailed landscape plan must show all the information as required on the preliminary plan plus the following additional information:

(1)

Plans shall include the name, address, phone number, date and signature of person who prepared the plans;

(2)

Plans shall be prepared to delineate all proposed improvements, including utilities, such as gas, electrical, water and sewer lines;

(3)

Show location and size of plant materials;

(4)

Botanical and/or common names of all plants;

(5)

Specification of quantity, and installation of plants;

(6)

Meter size and location;

(7)

Type, size, and location of backflow device(s) proposed;

(8)

Location of control valves;

(9)

Location of automatic controllers;

(10)

Outdoor lighting plan.

(§ 8-5.6002, Ord. 010-94, eff. January 5, 1995; § 1, Ord. 10-96, eff. December 19, 1996)

(a)

Parking lots. Parking lots of five spaces or more shall provide landscape areas in the interior of the parking lot covering a percentage of the total parking area as follows:

(b)

Property perimeters.

(1)

Street frontages. All areas adjacent to a street shall be landscaped with a planter averaging at least ten ft. in width excluding curbing. For commercial and industrial developments exceeding 75,000 square ft. in building area the planter shall average a minimum of 20 ft. in width, excluding curbing. In commercial and industrial districts where a building is constructed a distance from the right-of-way line of less than the required landscaping, then the remainder area shall be landscaped. In addition, any area within the street right-of-way between the back edge of the sidewalk and the property line shall be developed as a planter or landscaped area in conjunction with the required landscape area mentioned above, subject to approval of an encroachment permit, unless this requirement is waived by the Public Works Director or his or her designee.

(2)

Interior property lines. Planting shall be required along interior property lines in commercial and industrial districts abutting a residential district and in the R-3 District when abutting a commercial, industrial, R-1 or R-2 Districts. The planting shall be placed along the length of side and rear interior property lines in a five-ft. wide planter.

(c)

Building perimeters. The portion of a building that faces onto a customer parking lot or fronts directly onto the street shall have a landscape planter(s) installed along at least 20% of that building face.

(d)

Trash enclosures. For specific details see Article 64 of this chapter.

(§ 8-5.6003, Ord. 010-94, eff. January 5, 1995; § 1, Ord. 07-95, eff. August 31, 1995; § 1, Ord. 10-96, eff. December 19, 1996)

(a)

Shading and tree standards.

(1)

Existing trees. Existing healthy trees shall be maintained whenever possible and may be used in lieu of planting new trees.

(2)

Parking lot shading. All parking lots shall include shade tree planting designed so that a minimum of 50% of the parking area (including parking spaces and maneuvering areas) is shaded by the tree canopies within 15 years of planting.

Tree coverage shall be determined by the approximated crown diameter of each tree type at 15 years, as estimated on the approved tree list by the Planning Director. The percentage of area required to be shaded shall be calculated based on the uncovered above ground parking spaces and their respective maneuvering areas and shall not include the maneuvering area that is attributable to covered parking spaces.

(3)

Street trees. Street landscape areas must be planted with trees from the approved tree list at 30-ft. intervals. When abutting a street, trees shall be planted at least five ft., but not further than ten ft., from the back of the sidewalk.

(4)

Minimum tree size. All trees shall be a minimum of 15 gallons in size with a one in. dbh (diameter at breast height).

(5)

Orchard parking. As required by Section 8-5.6102(a), orchard parking shall consist of trees planted toward the rear of parking stalls to create a grid of trees rather than isolated rows of trees. It provides more trees than typical parking lot landscaping approaches without the need for islands between the parking bays. This type of tree placement provides better shade on the passenger compartment and more even shade and vegetation throughout the parking area.

(b)

Perimeter screening. Required perimeter planters shall include trees, shrubs, hedges and other features such as a berm, designed to form a partial visual screen at least three ft. in height, except within the sight distance triangle, see Section 8-5.5901(d), where landscaping (excluding trees) shall not exceed 30 in. in height. Along interior property lines, where no vehicular traffic is involved, there shall be no height limitation.

(c)

Amount/combination of vegetation. Within five years of planting all landscape areas shall have a combination of at least 50% area coverage by ground cover, lawn or shrubbery or other type of living vegetation. All unpaved areas shall be planted with an affective combination of trees, ground cover, lawn, shrubbery and/or approved dry landscape materials.

Required interior perimeter landscaping intended to buffer differing uses, as required in Section 8-5.6003(b)(2) of this chapter, shall be heavily landscaped to provide a visual barrier between uses.

Varied tree and plant species shall be used throughout the parking lot. No one species shall comprise more than 60% of the plantings within each site.

(d)

Turf allowance/drought tolerant materials. The maximum amount of lawn in required landscape areas shall be 25%. The use of drought tolerant plant materials is encouraged.

(e)

Clearance. Landscaping in planters at the end of parking aisles shall not obstruct the driver's vision of vehicular and pedestrian cross traffic. Mature trees shall have a foliage clearance of eight ft. from the grade of the parking area with other plant materials not to exceed 30 in. in height.

(f)

Protection of vegetation.

(1)

Design. All required parking lot landscaped areas shall be designed so that plant materials, at maturity, are protected from vehicle damage by providing a minimum of 2½-ft. clearance of low growing plants where vehicle overhang is permitted or wheel stops are set 2½ ft. from the back of the curb.

(2)

Curb. All required parking lot landscaping shall be within planters bounded by a concrete curb at least 6 in. wide by 6 in. high. No planter, except building perimeter planters, shall be smaller than 25 square feet, excluding curbing.

(g)

Walkways. A barrier-free, 4-ft. wide walk shall be provided through the required planter at primary street and driveway intersections to the parking lot. Such a walkway shall be located so as to facilitate the most direct movement of persons using sidewalk curb ramps to access buildings.

(h)

Lighting vs. landscaping. Design and placement of security lighting in landscaped areas shall be coordinated with the landscape plan to assure that vegetation growth will not interfere with the intended illumination.

(§ 8-5.6004, Ord. 010-94, eff. January 5, 1995; § 1, Ord. 07-95, eff. August 31, 1995)

An irrigation system shall be installed that consists of underground piped water lines with low water flow sprinklers and/or a drip or trickle irrigation systems. Each system shall be designed to provide adequate coverage to all plant material. Water meter and line sizes shall be calculated for total water demand, which should be, at least, the sum of the maximum irrigation demand and all building demand unless on separate meters. Due to varying irrigation requirements, separate control valves and/or sprinkler/emitter heads shall be used when shrubs and turf all appear on the same landscape plan. The irrigation system shall be designed to minimize over-spray and runoff onto streets, sidewalks, windows, walls and fences. The irrigation plans shall include the following to provide better water efficiency for all landscape areas:

(a)

Sprinklers and sprays should not be used in areas less than 5 ft. wide. Drip and bubbler systems shall be used in areas where watering needs do not exceed 1½ gallons per minute per device.

(b)

Sprinkler heads must have matched precipitation rates within each control valve circuit.

(c)

All irrigation systems shall be equipped with an automatic controller capable of dual or multiple programming. Controller must have multiple cycle start capacity and a flexible calendar program.

(d)

Pop-up sprinklers in lawn areas shall have at least 4 in. pop-up height.

(e)

All required irrigation systems shall be equipped with automatic rain shut-off devices.

(§ 8-5.6005, Ord. 010-94, eff. January 5, 1995)

(a)

All of the required landscaping must be installed prior to issuance of a certificate of occupancy in conformance with the requirements and standards; or

(b)

A surety in the amount equal to 150% of the estimated cost of landscaping, including materials and labor, is on file with the City which guarantees that the required landscaping shall be installed within 120 days of issuance of a certificate of occupancy and an agreement is filed with the City to assure completion of the landscaping within such time. The surety may take the form of cash deposit, irrevocable letter of credit or bond; and together with the agreement, would provide for payment to the City of any costs incurred in contracting for completion of the required landscaping.

(§ 8-5.6006, Ord. 010-94, eff. January 5, 1995)

All planting shall be maintained in a good growing condition. Such maintenance shall include, where appropriate, pruning, mowing, weeding, cleaning, fertilizing, and regular watering. Wherever necessary, planting shall be replaced with other plant materials to ensure continued compliance with applicable landscaping requirements. Landscaping and irrigation systems shall be located, designed and maintained as specified on the approved plans. Trees shall be maintained by property owners to be free from physical damage or injury arising from lack of water, chemical damage, accidents, vandalism, insects and disease. Trees showing such damage shall be replaced with another tree.

(§ 8-5.6007, Ord. 010-94, eff. January 5, 1995)