Unified Land Development Code - Town of Gilbert

11.27 GILBERT UNIFIED LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE
E. The following shall guide the use of bufIeryard area in the calculation of residential
density and commercial area.
1. Improved landscaped bufferyards which are at least twenty-five (25) feet wide and
which serve the additional purpose of providing useable open space in the form of
parks or bicycle/pedestrian paths per the goals of the General Plan shall be counted
as open space in the calculation of residential density.
2. Landscaped bufIeryards which serve only as landscape screens on commercial lots
shall not be counted in the calculation of residential density.
3. Landscaped bufferyards which are a part of a residential lot shall be counted as
residential area in the calculation of density. However, it shall not be considered as
open space.
(Ord, No. 1051, § I, 7-29-97)
11.28 Implementation of required landscape bufferyard requirements.
A. When a use is proposed to develop adjacent to a vacant parcel which does not have an
approved site plan; is not a part of a residential subdivision; nor is zoned Agricultural
(AG), this proposed use shall, at the time it develops, provide half the required
landscape bufferyard based on the land use which is designated or anticipated in the
General Plan.
B. When a use is proposed to be developed adjacent to an existing or approved use, the
proposed use shall, at the time it develops, provide any additional plant material and
land necessary to create the complete landscape bufferyard required between those two
(2) uses.
C. When provision of the full bufIeryard will be required of one property because the
existing adjacent use was approved, platted, and/or constructed prior to the adoption of
this ordinance and provision of a portion of the required bufferyard is not reasonable
possible on the adjacent property; the Town Council may allow the use of alternate
methods of screening and landscape buffering, which meet or exceed the intent of the bufferyard
required by this ordinance, through use of the procedures outlined in E.
below.
D. Where the landscaped bufferyard or building setback originally required between a land
use and vacant land is greater than the bufferyard required between the first use and a
use proposed on the vacant parcel, the following options apply:
1. Half the required landscape bufferyard as indicated in the matrix of Landscaped
Bufferyard Requirements shall be provided by the proposed use and existing use
may expand into the excess bufferyard area previously created, provided that the
resulting total bufferyard between the two (2) uses meets the landscaped
bufferyard requirements.
2. The owners of the proposed use may enter into agreements with the owners of the
existing use to allow the existing bufferyard to be contributed toward meeting the
Ch. II, Pg. 166