Sec. 656.1216. - Buffer standards relating to uncomplementary land uses and zoning.

(a) Where uncomplementary land uses or zoning districts are adjacent, without an intervening street, a buffer strip shall be required between the uses or zoning districts. Such buffer strip shall be at least ten feet, except as set forth in the Parking Lot Landscaping Matrix, Figure B, set forth in Section 656.607 (j), in width the entire length of all such common boundaries. The following shall constitute uncomplementary uses and zoning districts: (1) Multiple-family dwelling use or zoning districts (three or more attached units) when adjacent to single-family dwelling(s) or lands zoned for single-family dwellings. (2) Office use or zoning districts, when adjacent to single-family or multiple-family dwellings, mobile home parks or subdivisions or lands zoned for single-family or multiple-family dwellings, mobile home parks or subdivisions. (3) Mobile home park use or zoning districts, when adjacent to single-family dwellings, multiple-family dwellings and office uses, or lands zoned for single-family dwellings, multiple-family dwellings or offices. (4) Commercial and institutional uses or zoning districts, when adjacent to single-family dwellings, multiple-family dwellings or mobile home parks or mobile home subdivision uses or lands zoned for single-family dwellings, multiple-family dwellings or mobile home parks or mobile home subdivision. (5) Industrial uses or zoning districts, when adjacent to any nonindustrial uses or zoning districts other than agricultural land uses or zoning districts. (6) Utility sites such as transmission or relay towers, pumping stations, electrical sub-stations, telephone equipment huts or other similar uses when adjacent to single-family dwellings, multiple-family dwellings, mobile homes, offices, institutional uses or zoning districts or adjacent to public or approved private streets. (7) On property zoned for government use, the proposed government use most similar to the land uses or zoning districts specified above shall determine the buffer standards. (b) Buffer material requirements shall be as follows: (1) Tree count. The total tree count required within the buffer strip shall be determined by using a ratio of one tree for each 25 linear feet of required buffer strip, or majority portion thereof, with a minimum of 50 percent of the trees being shade trees. Trees shall be spaced so as to allow mature growth of the trees, but spaced no greater than 40 feet on center. (2) Ground cover. Grass or other ground cover shall be planted on all areas of the buffer strip required by this Section which are not occupied by other landscape material. (3) Visual screen. A visual screen running the entire length of common boundaries shall be installed within the buffer strip, except at permitted access ways. The visual screen may be a wood, wood composite, or masonry wall, PVC fence, landscaping, earth mounds or combination thereof so long as such strips shall provide at the time of installation a minimum of 85 percent opacity for that area between the finished grade level at the common boundary line and six feet above such level and horizontally along the length of all common boundaries. Plants or preserved vegetation shall be evergreen, a minimum of five feet tall at the time of installation, and spaced so that 85 percent opacity is achieved within two years. Earth mounds shall not exceed a slope of three to one. If a visual screen, which satisfies all applicable standards, exists on adjacent property abutting the property line or exists between the proposed development on the site and the common property line, then it may be used to satisfy the visual screen requirements. Except for industrial uses or ones, whenever a preserve area or water body at least 100 feet wide when measured perpendicular to the property line separates the uncomplementary uses, then the visual screen height requirement shall be reduced to three feet and the buffer strip width shall be reduced to five feet, when measured from the top of the lake bank or the jurisdictional wetland edge. If a plant is used for the visual screen, it shall be a minimum height of 24 inches at the time of installation. (4) Prevailing requirement. Whenever parcels of land fall subject to both the perimeter landscaping requirements and the uncomplementary land use buffer strip requirements of the article, the latter requirements shall prevail. (5) Hardship. If the Chief determines that the construction of a landscape buffer area required by this article would create a hardship for the existing structures or vehicular use areas, the Chief may approve a buffer area with a width no less than five feet, provided such buffer area meets the visual screening requirements of this article. (c) The buffer strip shall not be used for principle or accessory uses and structures, vehicular use areas, dumpster pads, signs, equipment, storage. Slopes within buffer strips shall not exceed four to one. (d) If a water body exists along the common property line between uncomplementary uses which is less than 100 feet wide when measured perpendicular to the property line then the buffer strip shall be established between the use and the water body. Preserve areas may be used as buffer strips, so long as the tree and visual screen requirements can be satisfied. (Ord. 91-59-148, § 1; Ord. 93-718-395, § 1; Ord. 2008-910-E, § 1; Ord. 2010-449-E, § 3)