San Leandro Municipal Code Art. 1 General

(Legislative History: Ordinance No. 2009-007, 5/18/09)

The City Council declares the purpose and intent of this Chapter as follows:

To promote economic and environmental health in the City, it is essential that the City itself, through the design, construction, and maintenance of its own landscapes and landscapes it funds, provide leadership to both the private and public sectors by incorporating Bay-friendly landscaping practices. The most immediate and meaningful way to do this is to require the integration of Bay-friendly landscaping strategies in City landscapes and landscapes that are part of public-private partnership projects.

The City makes the following findings:

(a) The City finds that the design, construction, and maintenance of landscapes within the City can have a significant impact on the City's environmental sustainability, resource usage and efficiency, waste management, and the health of the watershed and as well as the health of residents, workers, and visitors to the City.

(b) The City finds, based on studies by StopWaste.Org, that plant debris from landscape construction, renovation and maintenance comprises 7% of the materials disposed in Alameda County landfills.

(c) The City finds that Bay-friendly landscape design, construction, operation and maintenance can have a significant positive effect on energy, water and resource efficiency, waste and pollution generation, wildlife habitat, and health of workers and users of the landscape.

(d) The City finds that Bay-friendly landscape design, construction, operation and maintenance contributes to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, improves air quality and enhances urban sustainability.

(e) The City finds that Bay-friendly landscaping benefits are spread throughout the systems and features of the landscape, the larger San Francisco Bay Area ecosystem and the community. Bay-friendly landscaping is a whole systems approach to the design, construction and maintenance of the landscape in order to support the integrity of the San Francisco Bay watershed. Key components of Bay-friendly landscaping include reducing waste and using recycled content materials; nurturing healthy soils while reducing fertilizer use; conserving water, energy and topsoil; using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to minimize chemical use; reducing stormwater runoff; and creating wildlife habitat.

(f) The City finds that Bay-friendly landscape design and construction decisions made by the City in the construction and maintenance of landscapes can result in significant cost savings to the City over the life of the projects.

(g) The City finds that it is critical to both the economic and environmental health of the City that the City provides leadership to both the private and public sectors in the area of Bay-friendly landscaping.

(h) The most immediate and meaningful way to do so is to include Bay-friendly landscaping elements in City landscape projects and in landscape projects built as public-private partnerships, and to encourage private landscape projects to include Bay-friendly landscaping elements.

(i) Bay-friendly landscaping design, construction, operations and maintenance techniques have been increasingly utilized in residential and commercial landscape construction.

(j) In Alameda County, StopWaste.Org has taken the lead in defining and promoting environmentally friendly landscaping for the commercial, institutional and residential sectors by developing the Bay-friendly Landscape Guidelines for professional landscapers and the Bay-friendly Gardening Guide for residents.

(k) Requiring City projects and public-private partnership projects to incorporate Bay-friendly Landscape Guidelines is necessary and appropriate to achieving the benefits of sustainable landscaping in the City.

For the purposes of this Chapter, the following definitions shall apply:

"Bay-friendly landscape guidelines"

means the most recent version of guidelines developed by StopWaste.Org for use in the professional design, construction and maintenance of Landscapes. City staff shall maintain the most recent version of the Bay-friendly Guidelines at all times.

"Bay-friendly landscaping scorecard"

means the most recent version of the Bay-friendly landscaping points system developed by StopWaste.Org. City staff shall maintain the most recent version of the Bay-friendly landscaping scorecard at all times. The applicable version of the Bay Friendly Guidelines scorecard will be that in effect at the time of design documentation for any covered project.

"City landscape project"

means any new construction or renovation of a landscape owned or maintained by a City Department or Agency and excludes traditional public works projects.

"Covered project"

means all new landscaping projects or renovations of landscapes, including landscaped street medians and planting strips, that equal or exceed One hundred thousand dollars in construction costs of the landscaped area and constitute a minimum of 2,500 square feet of softscape and are either owned or maintained by a City Department or Agency or developed as a public-private partnership.

"Bay-friendly landscaping compliance official"

means the designated staff person(s) authorized and responsible for implementing this Chapter.

"Initiated"

means officially identified and substantially funded to offset the costs associated with the project.

"Landscape"

means the parcel area less the building pad and includes all planted areas and hard-scapes (i.e., driveway, parking, paths and other paved areas).

"Public-private partnership"

means any project built on City-owned land, or primarily funded by the City, built as a project of the Redevelopment Agency, or built under a Disposition and Development Agreement with the City.

"Renovation"

means any change, addition, or modification to an existing landscape.

"Softscape"

refers to the parts of the landscape that are comprised of live horticultural elements. Softscape means all of the planting and turf areas. The following is not included in the softscape area: foot-prints of buildings or structures, sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, decks, patios, gravel or stone walks, other pervious or nonpervious hardscapes and other nonirrigated areas designated for non-development (i.e., open spaces).

"Traditional public works project"

means heavy construction projects such as pump stations, sewer-related facilities, flood control improvements, roads, and bridges, as well as traffic lights, side-walks, bike paths, bus stops, and associated infrastructure on City owned and maintained property.