Other communities include more specific design guideline language. Typical landscape standards set design parameters for street yards, buffers, parking lot interiors, habitat preservation areas and parking lot screening. These rules are generally scattered through the municipal code. A majority of communities have adopted landscape standards in this manner. They are known as decentralized landscape codes and may occur in several different types of written ordinances.

Newer communities, primarily in the Southeast, South and West, have comprehensive landscape codes in which all landscape standards are concentrated in what is typically called a ?EUR??,,????'??free standing?EUR??,,????'?? community landscape ordinance. Concentrating the landscape standards within specific chapters of zoning or land use regulations makes them easier for designers to locate and follow. Placing all landscape standards, technical specifications and administrative procedures in one area of the codebook makes the job of the landscape administrator more efficient. Grouping technical specifications for design, installation and landscape maintenance in one location makes a more efficient written code.

Comprehensive landscape codes, as a result of being more complete and thorough in nature, always require stamped landscape plans signed by registered landscape architects as proof of compliance.

Professionally prepared drawings and specifications make it easier for communities to directly enforce the landscape standards with the use of conditional-use permits, building permits and occupancy permits. Wonderful examples of this type of landscape code are found in North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

Communities write landscape regulations in many ways. The methods mentioned above may be different, but the intended outcome is the same?EUR??,,????'??+better site design.

Mid-West Green Laws

In the mid-west, landscape standards are drafted a little differently. A review of several Iowa communities?EUR??,,????'??+Des Moines, West Des Moines, Clive, Johnston, Iowa City, Urbandale, Norwalk and Polk County?EUR??,,????'??+reveal commonalities between landscape standards in this part of the country. An analysis of the landscape standards of these communities was conducted in 1999 by Joseph Bohlke, ASLA, who is with the city of Des Moines in the permit and development center in the community development department. Bohlke undertook this study in preparation of new landscape standards for planting and hardscape design to enhance the environmental, functional and aesthetic impacts of streets, parking lots and properties in the city. New standards were prepared for a limited palette of land uses in 2000 that proved so popular with city officials and the development community that the landscape standards were enhanced and revised to include all zoned districts over the next four years. New landscape rules adopted in 2004 set a standard for communities in this part of the nation.

The Des Moines, Iowa landscape code is found in the Des Moines Municipal Code within Chapter 82, Article 5, Sec 82-206. This is the Site Plan Review Ordinance and this home to landscape regulations is one of the most unique aspects of this mid-western landscape code. Rather than cluttering up the zoning ordinances with scattered standards, or even concentrating them in a comprehensive landscape code, Des Moines chose to cluster all landscape design standards in their site plan review ordinance. This is what makes the Des Moines approach different.