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Jacksonville Approves Landscape Ordinance07-11-05 | News

Jacksonville Approves Landscape Ordinance

Jacksonville, Alabama City Square.

The Jacksonville, Alabama City Council has approved an ordinance making landscaping mandatory in new construction projects ?EUR??,,????'??around and/or within off-street parking and vehicular areas?EUR??,,????'?? (PVAs), reports The Jacksonville News.

The ordinance requires:

planting and preservation of trees and other landscaping elements to improve paved and unpaved off-street PVAs;
establishing criteria for off-street parking areas to protect and preserve the appearance, character and value of surrounding properties;
partitioning large PVAs with planting islands and peninsulas;
insulating public rights-of-way and adjoining properties from noise, glare and other distractions originating from off-street PVAs;
providing safer vehicle and pedestrian circulation within off-street PVAs and along public right-of-ways; and

protecting streams and watercourses from excessive runoff and erosion, and to replenish underground water reservoirs by using natural drainage and infiltration systems.

Parking lots with 1-39 spaces require perimeter landscaping only; lots with 40-500 spaces require perimeter and internal landscaping; those with over 500 spaces require landscaping for four percent of the land use area. Existing parking lots will not be held to the new ordinance unless the parking capacity expands by five percent or more.

Artificial or synthetic materials are not allowed and landscape plans cannot include the following tree species:

large trees: box elder, silver maple, tree-of-heaven; catalpa; sycamore; cottonwood true poplars; native elms (American, winged, cedar, slipper and September); Colorado blue spruce; red spruce; live oak and laurel oak.
medium trees: camphor; cutleafe European birch; silktree (mimosa); Chinaberry; yellowwood; mulberry; princesstree (paulownia); slash pine; eastern white pine; willows; sassafras and Siberian elm.
?EUR??,,????'????small trees: sumacs.

The ordinance also specifies size, type, shape and how trees are planted.