[Amended by Ord. No. 17-86]
Buffer areas and screening shall require site plan or subdivision approval and are required along all lot lines and street lines which separate a nonresidential use from either an existing residential use or residential zoning district, and where specified elsewhere in this title. Buffer areas shall also be provided between residential buildings of different types in multifamily or PRD developments. Buffer areas shall be developed in an aesthetic manner for the primary purposes of screening views and reducing noise perception beyond the lot. Buffer widths shall be measured horizontally and perpendicularly to lot and street lines. No structure, activity, storage of materials, or parking of vehicles shall be permitted in a buffer area. These standards are intended to provide flexibility in order to provide effective buffers and screens. The location and design of buffers and screens shall consider the use of the portion of the property being screened, the distance between the use and the adjoining property line, differences in elevations, the composition, height, and width of the buffer, and natural features. Buffer shall be designed, planted, graded, landscaped and developed with the general guideline that the closer a use or activity is to a property line, or the more intense the use, the more effective the buffer area must be in obscuring light and vision and reducing noise beyond the lot.
A. 
Buffers shall be a minimum of 15 feet wide and designed, planted, graded and landscaped to provide an aesthetically pleasing separation of uses. In meeting this standard, the applicant may consider use of the following alternatives for buffer areas:
(1) 
Fencing or wall screening in a landscaped area not less than 10 feet wide;
(2) 
Evergreen tree or shrubbery screening in a landscaped area not less than 15 feet wide;
(3) 
A landscaped berm having a minimum height of six feet with 3:1 side slopes;
(4) 
Locating proposed building with a minimum setback of 200 feet from the residential zone or use with an average ground slope in the setback area of less than 20%. Landscaping and trees shall be provided in this area;
(5) 
A parking area setback of 15 feet that is screened as required under the off-street parking provisions of this chapter.
B. 
If in the judgment of the approving authority any of these alternate provisions will not provide sufficient buffers for the portion of the site proposed, the approving authority may require the development plan to be modified to show the extension of the buffer area, require that the proposed alternatives be landscaped differently or be relocated until, in the approving authority's judgment, they provide the desired buffering effect.
All buffer areas shall be planned and maintained with either grass or ground cover together with a screen of live shrubs or scattered planting of live trees, shrubs or other plant material. The preservation of all natural wooded tracts shall be an integral part of all development plans and may be calculated as part of the required buffer area, provided the growth is of a density and the area has sufficient width to serve the purpose of a buffer. Additional plantings may be required by the reviewing board to establish an appropriate tone for an effective buffer.
A. 
Screening shall be provided with buffer strips or as required elsewhere in this title so as to provide a year-round visual or partial acoustical barrier to conceal the view or sounds of various utilitarian operations and uses from the street or adjacent properties.
B. 
Screening shall be so placed that at maturity it will not be closer than three feet from any street or property line.
C. 
All plants for screening shall be of a species common to the area, be of balled or burlapped nursery stock, and be free of insects and disease. Plants which do not live shall be replaced within two years or two growing seasons. Screen plantings shall be broken at points of vehicular and pedestrian ingress and egress to assure a clear sight triangle at all street and driveway intersections.
D. 
Screening shall consist of the following materials:
(1) 
Solid masonry. A solid masonry wall not less than five feet six inches above ground level;
(2) 
Shrubbery.
(a) 
"Low" type shrubbery screening may be used in and around parking areas, roadway or accessways where sight distances for vehicular and pedestrian traffic are a prime consideration. Shrubbery shall be a minimum of three feet high when planted and be of such density as will obscure, throughout the full course of the year, the glare of automobile headlights emitted from the premises.
(b) 
All other shrubbery for screening shall be a minimum of five feet high at the time of planting.
(c) 
Dense hedges of shrubbery planted at a maximum of 30 inches on center may be used.
(3) 
Trees. Trees for screening shall be evergreens having a minimum height of five feet above the ground when planted. Trees shall be placed five feet on centers in a single row, or five feet on centers in two or more staggered rows with a five-foot separation between rows. Evergreens may be supplemented with deciduous trees having a minimum eight-foot height at time of planting with a minimum caliper of 1 1/2 inches.