Tempe Landscaping Requirements

Landscape design standards are intended to: assist in controlling erosion, reduce dust and glare, and provide shade among other purposes. Code requires that all-onsite water retention areas be landscaped and use low-water/drought tolerant plants from a list of approved plants. Code sets requirements for shade structures and/or tree canopy according to different locations. Street trees are required along all street frontages, public and private. A minimum of one (1) tree shall be provided for every thirty (30) feet of lineal street frontage. Tree location and spacing shall be established through development plan review. When the primary entrance of a building is more than one hundred fifty (150) feet from the nearest point of a public sidewalk, and the entrance is accessed by a pathway traversing a parking lot, then an overhead shade structure or tree canopy is required along the pathway. The city may also require shade structures or shade trees for pedestrian comfort.

Code allows for either tree canopy coverage as a percentage of the parking area or as ratio of parking spaces to trees. For instance, at a minimum, one (1) tree per twelve (12) parking spaces shall be planted to create a partial tree canopy over and around the parking area. Parking areas shall contain landscape islands with trees at the ends of rows of parking, and to subdivide the parking area into rows of not more than fifteen (15) contiguous parking spaces. The landscape plan also provides for an overall tree or shade canopy above surface parking areas that is not less than twenty percent (20%) of the parking area, based on the expected size of trees within five (5) years of planting.