Agenda - 10-01-2024; 5-a - Unified Development Ordinance Text Amendment – Landscaping Standards

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41 DRAFT EXCERPT 547 548 Beth Bronson: Yes. 549 550 Adam Beeman: Okay. We're all in favor. Great. 551 552 Charity Kirk: Can we talk about the foundation plantings then? Like foundation plantings, Page 6-46,one, 553 we're going to add an "A"stating landscaping should be planted a minimum 2 feet from the 554 foundation. 555 556 Perdita Holtz: Also, I wanted to say that it should say"shall be planted"because our attorney's office is very 557 diligent about not having discretionary language added to the UDO more than it already is. I know 558 there are plenty of examples in there, but they don't want to see more, so if it's not a standard, 559 don't put it in the LIDO. That's what they're telling us. 560 561 Lamar Proctor: Can I ask one question about that real quick? So,y'all have a lot more experience in dealing with 562 the best practices in what actually ends up on a site plan. So, in that regard for the 5 feet,what do 563 you see? Do you see most site plans it's clear that they are taking all that into account and they're 564 using best practices in putting these plantings in their locations? 565 566 Perdita Holtz: Yes. I mean, we don't have a whole lot of non-residential structures going in, in Orange County, 567 and normally when it's a commercial building going in, those people are working with a 568 professional landscape architect to do some of their plans and such. 569 570 Lamar Proctor: Thank you. 571 572 Beth Bronson: I will say that that was my only comment was that I don't see a lot of enforcement with the non- 573 residential. And what I see with the non-residential is, yeah,they may say that they're using a 574 local company or that they're using a professional landscaper, but the quality of their plants are 575 not in any way meeting the needs of these standards, and you see a lot of death of those buffer 576 plants within the first year, 2 years. I'm not saying that they're going to be replaced, or I'm not 577 saying that they're not going to be replaced, but I will say that watching non-residential,which is 578 normally larger parcels,try to adhere to these landscaping development standards, it really shows 579 what the bare minimum is, I think. Like it just doesn't, they don't look good. And it's not that they 580 don't look good. It's just like they don't look healthy. They don't look well attended. Like they 581 don't look like good specimens to begin with. And I like the idea of adding native and drought 582 resistant. I guess too,this section doesn't really address enforcement. That's the only other thing 583 that I noticed. 584 585 Cy Stober: This is the simplest part of our ordinance to enforce. We can enforce this. We enforce it almost 586 every week. And you can thank your colleague, Ms. Kirk,for all the work she did with our new 587 planting guide, which is enforced by the staff, and you must use if you're doing plantings in 588 Orange County. It is targeted to native, drought-resistant plants, or drought tolerant. And we 589 have shade tolerant. We have sun-loving plants in there. So, depending upon the geometry and 590 the building orientation, you can plant different plants on the property. Thank you very much. We 591 are putting it into action, and this is a very simple part of our ordinance. This may be the simplest 592 part of our ordinance to enforce. 593 594 Beth Bronson: It seems so. 595 596 Cy Stober: But it does take time for them to grow back. 597 598 Charity Kirk: Going back to this foundation planting addition, are we okay with it? Landscaping shall be planted 599 a minimum of 2 feet from the foundation. 600 601 Statler Gilfillen: I think it should be no closer than 2 feet to the foundation.