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From Fairbanks, Alaska down to Dallas Texas, on to New Orleans, Louisiana and eastward to Miami, Florida there is surprisingly great consistency in the way landscape codes are written. Landscape codes exhibit very little difference region to region and often show little originality.
This is largely because little academic documentation occurs on the proper methods of drafting green laws and even less information on the effects of regionalism on landscape code writing. This is compounded by the general practice of copying a landscape code from another community and adapting it for local use.
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Regionalism in community landscape codes must be dealt with as each new code is drafted. This allows Fairbanks to recognize the affects of snow on parking lot design and prompts Miami-Dade to consider the affects of tropical hurricanes on site detailing for the promenade/paseo streetscapes. The Dallas code might fully recognize the importance of shade, and wetlands would be acknowledged in the New Orleans area.
Regional expression ought to be a factor in the drafting of any landscape code. The landscape code of the island of Saipan should be brimming with tropical details. Saipan is the largest island and capital of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a chain of 15 tropical isles in the Marianas archipelago of the western Pacific, south of Tokyo, east of Manila and north of the U.S. Territory of Guam.
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Regional variation in code writing might express the character of this island, account for its mild climate and note elevation changes from seashore to mountaintop. Regionalism might bring into the Saipan code special planting for commercial tourism development through the use of flowering plants, tropical fruits and various palms. Daily rain storms and ocean breezes and mild evening hours encourage the mixing of ethnic groups in the market place might also add a regional touch to this tropical landscape code. The Saipan code does not do that. However, the code enacted into law by Saipan Gov. Benigno Fitial in October of 2008 is a remarkably interesting code and in some ways is more up-to-date and modern than many contemporary mainland U.S. landscape codes.
The Commonwealth has a rich mixture of cultures, including native Chamorro and Carolinian ethnicities. Filipino, Chinese, Micronesian, Korean, Japanese. Caucasians, Blacks and other peoples comprise a very small minority of the population. Catholicism is the main religion and English, Chamorro, Carolinian are common languages. CNMI is 176 square miles of natural tropical paradise. Saipan is nine time zones west of Washington D.C. and seven hours by air from Honolulu, making this landscape code one of the most remote in the U.S.
Chapter 8 of the Saipan zoning law notes the landscape of the island is an important asset to this growing tourism community. The landscape code seeks to ensure the use of native materials to unify community character with the design of both naturalized and cultivated landscapes. Further, it is the intent of the code to provide visual screens and transitions between land uses and in particular between pedestrian spaces and parking areas. The code addresses drought and typhoon-tolerant landscape design and works to protect existing significant trees.
The code provides increased areas of permeable surfaces for infiltration of surface water into groundwater resources and reducing the quantity of storm water discharge.
It also calls for maintaining a green corridor along principal streets, except where buildings are encouraged to front directly onto the roadway.
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The code sets forth three landscape types referred to as type A, B, and C. Type A is basic screening, designed to separate adjacent properties. A minimum of one dense-foliage tree must be planted for every 15 lf. of planting strip, arranged in a manner to obstruct views into the property. Each tree shall be at least 8 ft. tall and 2-inch caliper diameter, as measured 3 ft. above grade. The planting strip must be at least 10 ft wide. Shrubs are planted based upon a one per five-ft. factor and to mature to a height of six feet, giving this strip a cultivated appearance.
Landscape Type B is a more open buffer to offer visual relief and integrate built elements into the natural environment. This landscape helps preserve existing trees in a more informal composition than in Type A. Shrubs must comprise 50 percent of the plantings. There must be a minimum of one tree per 30 lf. of landscaped strip. The landscape strip must be a minimum of six feet wide and fully covered with ground covers within one year.
Landscape Type C promotes more naturalistic plantings where planting arrangements are more informal and asymmetrical. This more naturalized planting requires a landscape strip a minimum of 12 feet in width. Specifications for trees, shrubs and ground covers are not given but the intent is to integrate new development into existing site conditions.
The code does address parking lot design for lots containing more than 14 spaces within 100 ft. of a public street. These parking lots must have interior plantings spaces and landscape types A, B, or C for screening adjacent development. One tree must be provided for each six parking spaces and five shrubs per 100 sq. ft. of interior parking space. The minimum interior parking space varies from 15 to 35 sq. ft. per parking space based upon a sliding scale from 15 spaces to 100 or more.
Taken together, these landscape types offer design standards similar to those found in form-based codes. What is missing is a full appreciation of common site plan elements found in most landscape codes, including the planting of site interiors, services areas, entries, street yards and minimum tree canopy coverage. No standards are provided for the design of green corridors along public streets.
Sadly, little emphasis is placed on the unique horticultural qualities of the region. To regionalize this code, more emphasis would go to those tropical plants with lush course textures, exotic palm-like leaves, flowering vines and foliage color variations. More emphasis might be given to night lighting to bring out the tropical flowers and fruit trees. Still, it is interesting to see a tropical landscape code for an exotic island in the Western Pacific.
The miracle of the internet allows you to view the Saipan Zoning Law of 2008 at www.zoning.gov.mp/pubs/170.pdf
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
November 12th, 2025
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