Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinance 859 . ~e . e . ORDINANCE NO. 859 FIRST READING: 11-19-85 SECOND READING: 12-17-85 CITY OF OCOEE LANDSCAPE ORDINANCE An Ordinance relating to the landscaping of paved ground surface areas within the incorporated areas of the City of Ocoee; providing definitions; providing general landscaping requirements; providing specific landscaping requirements for properties adjacent to public rights- of-way; and certain other properties; providing for internal landscaping; providing for and maintaining visibility at intersections; providing for existing developed areas; providing for rules and regulations; providing for variances; providing for severability; providing for liberality of construction; providing penalties; and providing an effective date. Be It Ordained by the Board of City Commissioners of the City of Ocoee: Section 1: This ordinance is enacted for the purpose of providing minimum landscaping standards for paved ground surface areas in the City of Ocoee in the interest of the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Ocoee. Section 2: Definitions. For the purposes of this ordinance, the following words and terms are defined: (a) Encroachment: The protrusion of a vehicle into a vehicular accessway, pedestrian way or landscaped area. ( b ) containing landscaping bays. Landscaoed Dividing Strios: Lanscaped areas ground cover, shrubs and trees or other used to partition parking areas into individual (c) Landscaping: Landscaping shall consist of, but not be limited to, grass, ground covers, shrubs, vines, hedges, trees, berms and complementary structural landscape architectural features such as rock, fountains, sculpture, decorative walls and tree wells. (d) Paved Ground Surface Areas: Any paved area, excluding public rights-of-way, used for the purpose of driving, maneuvering, parking, storing or display of motor vehicles, boats, trailers, mobile homes, and recreational vehicles including new and used automobile lots, other parking lot uses and paved outdoor sales areas. Parking structures and covered drive-in parking areas shall not be considered as paved ground surface areas. (e) Parking Area: A paved ground surface area used for the temporary parking of vehicles by employees or customers, 1 . e . e . either for compensation or to provide an accessory service to a commercial, industrial or residential use. (f) Parking Bavs: Parking areas subdivided into uninterrupted rows of parking spaces and their adjoining accessways, the individual spaces of which are generally separated by only single or double painted lines. (g) Parking Soaces: A paved ground surface area used for the temporary storage of a single vehicle to serve a primary use. Groups of spaces and abutting accessways are called parking bays. (h) Trees: Self-supporting woody plants of species which normally grow to a minimum overall height of fifteen (15) feet and have an average mature crown spread greater than fifteen (15) feet within Orange County, Florida. Sable Palms (cabbage) are considered trees; however, the total number of Sable Palms used shall not exceed fifty percent (50%) of the trees required to be on site. (i) Shrubs: A self-supporting woody species of plants characterized by persistent stems and branches springing from the base. (j) Vehicle: A form of transportation, including motorized and non-motorized vehicles designed and required to be licensed for use upon a highway in the State of Florida. (k) Vines: reach mature form. Plants which normally require support to Section 3. General Landscaping Requirements. All paved ground surface areas, other than those areas required for single family and duplex dwelling units, which require landscaping shall meet or exceed the following general landscaping requirements which shall be considered complementary to the landscaping provisions of any other City of Ocoee ordinance or resolution. (a) Installation: All landscaping shall be installed according to accepted commercial planting procedures. Soil, free of lime rock, pebbles or other construction debris shall be provided. All landscaped areas shall be protected from vehicle encroachment by wheel stops or curbing. If curbing is used abutting landscaped areas, it shall be perforated to permit drainage from the paved ground surface area onto the landscaped areas. (b) Maintenance: The owner of a property shall be responsible for the maintenance of all landscaping in good condition so as to present a neat, healthy and orderly appearance free of refuse and debris. All landscaped areas shall be provided with an irrigation system or a readily available water supply with at least one outlet located , . e . e . within one hundred fifty (150) feet of the plant material. Periodic inspections will be conducted by the Building Official to assure compliance with this section. Notice of non-compliance may be given by the Building Official by certified mail and a re-inspection will be made thirty days after first notice. Continued violation after thirty days will be referred to the Code Enforcement Board. Deteriorated and destroyed materials must be replaced with plant material consistent with the original landscape plan as to quantity and quality or as approved by Building Official. (c) Planting: All plant material shall meet or exceed Standards for Florida, No.1, as presented in "Grades and Standards for Nursery Plants," Part I, 1963, and Part II, State of Florida, Department of Agriculture, Tallahassee, and any amendments thereto. Trees shall have a minimum height of ten (10) feet immediately upon planting. No planting area shall have an area of less than twenty-five (25) square feet and a minimum radius of two and one-half (2.5) feet measured from the center of the tree trunk to the near edge of the landscaped area. (d) Additional Permissive Landscaping: Where a wheel stop or curb is utilized, the paved area between the curb and the end of the parking space may be omitted, providing it is landscaped in addition to the required landscaping herein, and further provided said landscaping is of material such as ground cover, rock or gravel, that requires minimal maintenance. (e) Natural Vegetation: Preservation of the existing landscape material and landforms is desirable, particularly when mature trees are a part of the site. The preservation and utilization of the property's natural trees and shrubbery is required as otherwise specified by the City of Ocoee Arbor Ordinance # 8~. If possible, trees and shrubs in the parking and building area are to be preserved where the area can be reasonably altered to allow for such preservation. Preservation of mature trees is also required in perimeter areas of the parking lot, and the City shall have the power to require the relocation of driveways or to require the loss of parking spaces when such a relocation or loss will permit a tree to be retained on the site. Section 4. Specific Landscaping Requirements. All paved ground surface areas shall meet the following specific landscaping requirements which shall be considered complementary to the landscaping provisions of any other City of Ocoee ordinance or resolution. (a) Required Landscaping Adjacent to Public Rights-of- Way: Where paved ground surface areas are located adjacent to sidewalks, streets and other public rights-of-way, landscaping shall be provided between the public right-of-way and the paved ground surface area. Said landscaping shall ~ . e . e . include: a landscaped yard at least five (5) feet in width containing an opaque screen of landscaping at least three (3) feet in height. Said screen may be composed of a berm at least two (2) feet in height or maintenance-free wall at least three (3) feet in height, or a screen of landscaping at least two and one-half (2.5) feet in height at time of planting. If a berm is utilized, additional landscaping at least one (1) foot in height shall be planted. If a screen of living landscaped material is utilized, it shall attain opacity and a height of three (3) feet within twelve (12) months of planting under normal growing conditions. One tree shall be planted for each fifty (50) linear feet, or fraction thereof, of frontage on a public right-of-way. Landscaping is not required if the paved ground surface area is completely screened from the public right-of-way by an intervening building or structure. (b) Required Landscaping Adjacent to Other Properties: Where paved ground surface areas are adjacent to surrounding properties, landscaping shall be installed to screen paved ground surface areas from adjacent properties as provided below. Landscaping is not required if the paved ground surface area is completely screened from surrounding properties by intervening buildings or structures. 1. Where paved ground surface areas are adjacent to properties zoned exculsively for residential land uses, all land between the paved ground surface area and the property line shall be landscaped. Said landscaping shall include: a buffer yard at least five (5) feet in width, containing either a berm at least two (2) feet in height, or a hedge or other durable screen of landscaping at least six (6) feet in height. If a berm is utilized, additional landscaping at least one (1) foot in height at time of planting shall be installed. Where said screen of landscaping is composed of living plant material, it shall be thirty (30) inches in height at time of planting and shall attain opacity within twelve (12) months under normal growing conditions. A minimum of one (1) tree shall be planted for each seventy-five linear (75) linear feet of common lot line or fraction thereof. 2. Where the adjacent property is zoned for non- residential land uses or where the adjacent property contains a conforming hedge, wall or other durable landscape feature, the provisions of Section 4 (b) 1. shall not apply to the rear or side lot lines, except that the tree planting provisions shall still apply. Said trees shall be installed in the buffer areas adjacent to each of the adjoining properties. 4 . e . e . (c) Internal Landscaping Regulations: All parking areas and other paved ground surface areas used for vehicular parking shall have internal landscaping to provide visual and climatic relief from broad expanses of pavement and to channelize and define logical areas for pedestrian and vehicular circulation. Interior landscaping shall account for a minimum of five (5) per cent of parking areas. Other paved ground surface areas shall have one (1) square foot of interior landscaping for each fifty (50) square feet of paving in all areas exceeding five thousand (5,000) square feet. Each separate landscaped area shall contain at least one (1) tree, and a tree shall be planted for each one hundred (100) square feet on interior landscaping. All interior landscaping shall be protected from vehicular encroachment by curbing or wheel stops and should be raised. Landscaping dividing strips with or without walkways shall be used to sudivide parking areas into parking bays with not more than forty (40) spaces, provided that no more than twenty (20) spaces shall be in an uninterrupted row. If the site contains both parking areas and other paved ground surface areas, the two areas may be separated to determine the interior landscaping requirement by multiplying the total number of parking spaces by 380 and subtracting the resulting figure from the total square footage of the paved ground surface area. (d) Intersection Visibility: When an accessway intersects a public right-of-way, landscaping shall be used to define the intersection, provided, however, that all landscaping within the triangular areas described below shall provide unobstructed cross-visibility at a level between two (2) and six (6) feet. Trees having limbs and foliage trimmed in such a manner that no limbs or foliage extend into cross- visibility shall be allowed, provided they are so located so as not to create a traffic hazard. Landscaping, except grass and ground cover, shall not be located closer than three (3) feet from the edge of any accessway pavement. The triangular areas are: 1. The areas of property on both sides of an accessway formed by the intersection of each side of the accessway and the public right-of-way pavement line with two (2) sides of each triangle being ten (10) feet in length from the point of intersection and the third side being a line connecting the ends of the two other sides. 2. The area of property located at a corner formed by the intersection of two or more public streets with two (2) sides of the triangular area being measured thirty (30) feet in length along the abutting edges of pavement, from their point of intersection, and the third being a line connecting the ends of the other two lines. 5 . e . e . Section 5. Existing Developed Areas. All property with existing paved ground surface areas on the effective date of this ordinance shall not be required to conform to the provisions of this ordinance unless reconstruction or expansion of improvements on property requiring a building permit is undertaken. No structure shall be required to be altered or moved, except during reconstruction, to meet the provisions of this ordinance. No parking area shall be required to lose more than one (1) out of every twenty (20) required parking spaces. It shall not be necessary for any parking area to be reduced below the minimum standards of any other City of Ocoee ordinance or resolution in order to meet the provisions of this section. Section 6. Permit Requirements. No Building, Grading, or Tree Removal Permit shall be issued until approval of a required Landscape Plan for vehicular use areas. Prior to submission of the building plans, the requirements of this Section must be met. In cases where a vehicular use area is located on a lot other than that of the principal building, building plans may be submitted for review. (a) The applicant or his authorized agent shall submit to the Building Department three (3) copies of each Survey and Landscape Plan at a scale no greater than one inch equals fifty feet (1" = 50'). The proposed landscaping may be superimposed on a proposed site plan or on a separate sheet, provided all drawings are the same scale. Each Survey and Landscape Plan shall include the following: 1. Name, signature, address, and telephone number of property owner, surveyor, and/or designer. 2. North arrow and scale. 3. All dimensions. 4. All required information and data listed below for each drawing. (b) The required Survey shall include the following information: 1. Legal description of the property. 2. All trees and survey data as required by the City of Ocoee Arbor Ordinance H 858 3. Existing structures, bUildings, parking spaces, access ways, and public streets. 4. Above ground and below ground utility lines and easements. 5. Existing natural features and topography at one (1) foot contour intervals. In areas where slopes are twenty (20) percent or greater, a five (5) foot contour interval may be substituted. ~ . e . e . (c) The proposed Landscape Plan shall include the following information: 1. All trees, natural features, man-made appurtenances and structures to be retained upon the site and all topographic changes. 2. All proposed landscaping improvements and planting or landscaping areas identified. the grade, spacing, size, and name of proposed landscape materials shall be listed on the plan. 3. Comments regarding site preparation, tree preservation, methods of installation; and methods of maintenance shall be listed on the plan. Section 7. Enforcement. The landscaping required by this ordinance shall be installed prior to the issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy by the Building Official of the City of Ocoee, Florida, when such certificate is required for any reason. Section 7A. It shall be the duty of the property owner on whose land the paved area is installed, after the date of enactment of this ordinance, to provide proper maintenance of the landscape planting so it, at all times, conforms to standards established within the ordinance. This includes, but is not limited to, the replacement of plants damaged by insects, diseases, vehicular traffic, acts of God and vandalism. Necessary replacements shall be made within a time period not to exceed ninety (90) days after notification by the City of a violation of this section of the ordinance. Section 8. Variances. The Board of City Commissioners may grant a variance from the provisions of this ordinance, when such variance would not be contrary to the public interest. Such variance may also be granted where it furthers the intent and purposes of this ordinance. Section 9. Severability. It is declared to be the intent of the Board of City Commission of the City of Ocoee, Florida, that if any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or portion of this ordinance is for any reason held invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed a separate, distinct and independent provision, and such holding shall not affect the validity and remaining portions hereof. Section 10. Liberal Construction. The provisions of this ordinance shall be liberally construed in order to effectively carry out the purposes of this ordinance in the interest of the public health, welfare and safety of the citizens and residents of the City of Ocoee and the State of Florida. Section 11. Penalties. A violation of this ordinance is . e . e . a misdemeanor and shall be prosecuted and punished in accordance with general law. The Board of City Commissioners of the City of Ocoee, Florida may bring suit in the Circuit Court of Orange County to restrain, enjoin or otherwise prevent violation of this ordinance. Section 12. Effective Date: This Ordinance shall take effect upon;..adoption by the City Board of Commissioners. ENACTED THIS 17th day of December , 1985. City of Ocoee, Florida :1j~ e dbv MAYOR ATTEST: ~~ CITY CLERK R