BATON ROUGE, LA ?EUR??,,????'??+ A new commercial landscape ordinance is causing a riff between Baton Rouge?EUR??,,????'???s city-parish and a handful of builders and developers who say the city can?EUR??,,????'???t afford to be so green. Part of the Unified Development Code, the revised landscape ordinance, was scheduled to take effect Nov. 11. Critics to the ordinance said they saw more costs and this could discourage developers. ?EUR??,,????'??The changes we?EUR??,,????'???ve made are baby steps,?EUR??,,????'?? Planning Commission member Buck Abbey, a landscape architect and associate professor at Louisiana State University, told LASN. ?EUR??,,????'??They?EUR??,,????'???ve made it sound like the world is falling apart.?EUR??,,????'?? Abbey said both positive and negative results come from the new ordinance, although more good than bad. ?EUR??,,????'??If laws are changed then people may see some scary things about it until they work with it,?EUR??,,????'?? Abbey observed. Landscape Ordinance Act No. 12692 recently passed, with the majority in the developmental industry supporting the ordinance. Sometimes developers get involved in projects without getting everything they want. It?EUR??,,????'???s difficult for Abbey to put a dollar figure on compliance, but he said it could be around $500 per project. The ordinance in the long run could save the developer money, as it requires the landscape plans to have the stamp of approval from a landscape architect. Abbey said he believes there should be technical standards for design codes. Different standards are needed for industrial areas as opposed to office buildings. ?EUR??,,????'??I?EUR??,,????'???m a big supporter of landscape overlay districts,?EUR??,,????'?? explained Abbey. ?EUR??,,????'??New Orleans has four or five overlay districts and Baton Rouge should do the same thing. A landscape ordinance can apply to certain areas in town with different standards.?EUR??,,????'?? The committee wanted to find ways to mitigate the impact of the new ordinance and approached the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition, a group representing developers, but got no response. ?EUR??,,????'??This is all new to the developers and they?EUR??,,????'???re not used to incentive,?EUR??,,????'?? said Abbey. ?EUR??,,????'??If they?EUR??,,????'???re required to add plantings to private property in order to reduce an obnoxious view of a building, it would only be right to find them a rebate in user fees, reduce impact fees or abate property taxes for a year.?EUR??,,????'??