§ 122-1004. Screening and interior landscaping.

(a)

All off-street parking areas shall be screened from the bordering streets with a minimum of five feet of landscaped buffer strip between the parking area and the bordering street, excluding sidewalks, driveways or necessary appurtenances. This five-foot strip shall have a minimum three-foot-high continuous hedge or acceptable alternative as approved by the planning director.

(b)

All parking areas and other paved ground surface areas used for vehicular parking and access shall have interior landscaping to provide visual and climatic relief from broad expanses of pavement and to channelize and define logical areas for pedestrian and vehicular circulation.

(c)

Interior landscaping shall account for a minimum of ten percent of parking areas, except for the situations described in section 122-923(m)(2).

(d)

Other paved ground surface areas shall have one square foot of interior landscaping for each 50 square feet of pavement in all areas exceeding 5,000 square feet.

(e)

Each separate interior landscaped area shall contain at least one shade tree. Each shade tree will be planted in a landscaped/open space area that will be no smaller than 360 square feet, with a minimum width of six feet as measured from back of curb to back of curb.

(f)

All interior landscaping shall be protected from vehicular encroachment by curbing or wheel stops. Landscaping dividing strips, with or without walkways, shall be used to subdivide parking areas into parking bays with not more than 40 spaces. No more than ten of these spaces shall be in an uninterrupted row.

(g)

If the site contains both parking areas and other paved ground surface areas, the two areas may be separated to determine the interior landscaping requirement by multiplying the total number of parking spaces by 200 and subtracting the result from the total square footage of the paved ground surface area.

(Code 1985, § 7-938.1; Ord. No. 2275, § 48, 5-5-92; Ord. No. 2751, § 40, 8-19-97)