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Ann Arbor (pop. 113,934, 2010 census), home to the University of Michigan, is a community in the southeast region of the state (the lower peninsula), and where I first worked as a landscape architect in training.

Codes Going Green
The Ann Arbor Charter Township, 38 miles west of Detroit, was built on sandy, gravelly glacial drift deposited by the last ice age. The township was founded in 1824. It was a small agricultural village within a beautiful wooded oak, elm, maple and hickory-covered landscape of ridges and low hills that follow the course of the Huron River.

Huron River Park curves and winds its way through the center part of the city and is a major focus of local recreation. This park was the first project I worked on while employed as a summer student with the city of Ann Arbor.

The landscape of the University of Michigan is as beautiful now as it was when I worked there almost 40 years ago. The city has realized for a long time that nature will perform critical ecosystem services if left as an important element of city design. For this reason, it is not surprising that Ann Arbor has one of better landscape codes in the Midwest. (www.municode.com)

Ann Arbor Landscape Code
This code, Title V, Zoning and Planning Chapter 62 Landscape and Screening was first adopted into the municipal code (Ord. No. 5-57) in 1969 and further modified in 1978, 1986, 1994, 2005 and 2008. There is a draft form to be undated this year. (Editor????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<

Design components include vehicular use areas, VUA screens, service area screening, street buffers, conflicting land-use buffers, street tree planting areas and delightfully interesting snow pile storage areas. The latter is rarely considered a part of the landscape code????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<

Of particular interest are components that provide technical standards for the design of drainage and stormwater management (ref. Chapter 63, ????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????< Bringing onsite storm water management into the code is the new idea elevating this code in to the realm of sustainability.

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Under Sec. 74-586 of the Ann Arbor Charter Township (adopted March 21, 2011) it states: ????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<

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Draft Landscape Code
The draft code, dated Jan. 28, 2011, is of interest since it reinforces my view that green parking will slowly evolve through revision of local landscape codes.

And that is exactly what is happing in Ann Arbor. The code is being changed to incorporate improvements to ????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<

In addition, revisions to the code will improve ????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<

New language inhibits the use of invasive plants and promotes the ????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<

Specific green design standards for parking lots included in this code are spacing and size of tree planting islands, flow-through curbs and bioretention infiltration capability. Depressed bioretention areas must also meet the requirements of the storm water management code enunciated in Chapter 63. For parking areas larger than 5,000 sq. ft., detention is required of the first flush rainfall event. For larger parking surfaces (over 15,000 sq. ft.), detentions must be designed to hold first flush, bank full and 100-year storm volumes.

As we learn from Ann Arbor, more and more community landscape codes are going to be tied very closely to community storm water codes. In fact it is essential that all community landscape codes be directly connected to a community????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<

For a landscape code to go green, it must define ????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<

Storm water management is one of the essential elements of the design of green parking lots. In a football town where the spirit slogan is ????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<????????(R)?????????EUR??,,????'?????<

 

D.G. ''Buck'' Abbey, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University, is LASN's Associate Editor for Ordinances.