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Ridgecrest adopts updated commercial landscape standards to encourage water-efficient design
Summary
The city council unanimously adopted amendments to the Ridgecrest Municipal Code establishing updated commercial landscape design standards, clarifying maintenance requirements and allowing staff discretion for exceptions.
The Ridgecrest City Council on Sept. 3 adopted an ordinance updating the municipal code’s commercial landscape maintenance and design standards, aiming to modernize requirements and promote water-efficient landscaping for commercial properties.
Council members and staff described the ordinance as an update rather than a new maintenance mandate: it clarifies what must be landscaped for new projects, updates acceptable hardscape materials, and creates an exceptions process so staff can address situations where standards would be impractical. “We’re trying to modernize that with water efficient landscaping,” the city’s planning presenter said during the second-reading discussion.
The ordinance keeps existing maintenance obligations in place for commercial landscape areas but adds clearer, contemporary guidance for tree, shrub and ground-cover standards and for allowable hardscape materials such as decomposed granite or metal art. The text also authorizes the community development manager or public works to reduce or modify requirements in cases involving utilities, safety concerns or where landscaping would be impractical.
Business and community commenters asked how exceptions would be applied. Rebecca McCourt of the Ridgecrest Chamber of Commerce asked for criteria or a process so businesses could have confidence the exception authority would be applied consistently; Heather, a planning staff member, responded that feasibility determinations would be based on utility conflicts, traffic or safety issues and that appeals remain available to planning commission and the council.
A caller asked whether metal sculptures and planted yucca with stakes would be permitted; staff confirmed such nonliving elements are allowed as part of hardscape materials. The council carried the ordinance on a 5-0 vote.
What changes next: staff will implement the ordinance standards and apply the exception process when appropriate. The city noted future ordinance updates are possible if the standards prove impractical or if the council directs further clarification.
