Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Ordinance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission reviews major reorganization and amendments to El Paso's landscape ordinance; buyout option, tree spacing and buffers proposed
Summary
Planning staff outlined proposed amendments to Title 18.46 to reorganize landscape requirements, shift landscaping toward street frontages, allow 40-foot spacing for large canopy trees, codify a 10-foot commercial-residential buffer, reduce shrub counts per unit and expand a buyout option for small additions; staff expects to introduce the ordinance to council in mid-April.
Planning staff presented a comprehensive reorganization and set of amendments to El Paso's landscape ordinance (Title 18.46) aimed at simplifying the code and shifting landscape benefits toward street frontages.
Tony De La Cruz of Planning and Inspections said the proposal reorganizes landscape provisions to follow a path from street to site, clarifies required parkway/parkway-tree placement, requires a 10-foot landscape buffer where commercial abuts suburban residential, and modifies unit calculations to reduce required shrubs from 45 to 30 per unit while maintaining one tree per unit. The proposed change would also allow developers to space street trees at 40 feet on center if selected trees meet a 40-foot mature canopy standard listed on the El Paso plant list; otherwise, 30-foot spacing would remain.
Staff also proposed expanding the existing buyout fee (currently applied to small, unmanned facilities) to allow already-developed sites to pay a flat buyout for one-unit additions (roughly a 6,000'7,000 sq ft expansion) so the money can be used by the city to enhance existing landscaping on public assets such as parks, medians or fire stations.
Commissioners questioned whether buyout fees could be dedicated to council districts; staff said the city maintains a general buyout account and that coordination with the Office of Management and Budget could enable district-directed allocations. Commissioners also raised plant-selection concerns: one commissioner urged restricting certain nonnative species (Palo Verde) in favor of Chihuahuan Desert-appropriate trees; staff said the El Paso plant list governs eligible species and could be revised in the future.
Staff said irrigation and visibility-triangle requirements would remain, that the ordinance targets commercial development (not residential), and that the commission's presentation aims to place the ordinance on the council docket for introduction in mid-April with a likely public hearing at the end of April or possibly in May.
