An effort to set parameters for the amount of open space housing developers need to provide their residents made Crescent City councilors realize that the municipal code contains landscaping standards that likely aren’t applied consistently.

Some don’t make sense, Councilor Kelly Schellong Feola said Monday. One example she gave is a requirement that at least one tree from an approved list be planted in a residential front or side yard every 30 feet. The other is limiting the use of non-vegetative material in residential landscaping to 25 percent, Feola said.

“I know a lot of older people that can’t get out and mow their lawns,” she said. “They like to decorate their yards with river rock and such, and this is saying you can’t do that for more than 25 percent of your property.”

It’s these inconsistencies the Community Development Department and the Planning Commission have been working through, according to Ethan Lawton, a planner with SHN, a Eureka-based engineering and planning firm that is contracted with the city. When it comes to landscaping standards in residential zones, developments that are less than four units aren’t required to submit site plans to the city that verifies their landscaping plans, he said.

But, while there’s no special permit required for a single-family home, for example, under the municipal code, city staff should still review those landscaping standards, City Attorney Martha Rice said.

“No building permit should be issued unless [the development] meets these landscaping requirements,” she said.

Continue reading Muni Code Cleanup Uncovers Landscaping Standards Crescent City Councilors Didn’t Realize Existed →