17.10.040 General standards.
A. Landscape Material.
1. Plant Material.
a. A minimum of twenty-five percent of the landscaped area coverage must be living plant materials, measured by the spread of plants at maturity. Tree canopies can be included as up to fifteen of the required twenty-five percent.
b. Right-of Way and Private Street Trees.
i. A minimum of one tree for every forty linear feet of street frontage is required in the right-of-way or adjacent to the private street except as outlined in this section.
ii. Required trees shall be a minimum of one-and-one-half inch diameter measured six inches above the soil surface or bare root. Bare root trees may be 2-1, 2-2, P-1 and P-2 stock types.
iii. Trees planted in park strips shall be from among those identified as appropriate for the location on the approved plant list.
iv. All trees planted in the right-of-way with medium or higher water requirements must be irrigated. Trees in the right-of-way with low water requirements can be hand watered until maturity.
v. Standard planting areas for trees shall be no less than eight feet in width.
vi. There shall be no gap between trees greater than one hundred and twenty feet, trunk-to-trunk.
vii. Trees may not be planted in a way that interferes with public safety, including the visibility of pedestrians, oncoming traffic, traffic control devices, or regulatory signs.
(A) Planting within ten feet of another tree, building, fence, streetlight, water infrastructure, wastewater infrastructure, storm water infrastructure, wet utility easement, alley, driveway, or fire hydrant is not permitted.
(B) Planting within twenty feet of stop signs is not permitted.
(C) Planting within twenty-five feet of streetlights is not permitted.
(D) Planting in the corner triangle formed by the first thirty feet along the right-of-way in each direction from the corner is not permitted.
viii. A tree planted, either new or existing, within the front yard of a private property may be counted toward the minimum tree requirement according to the following:
(A) For streets with attached sidewalks, a tree planted within sixteen feet from the back of the street curb.
(B) For streets with detached sidewalks, a tree planted within twelve feet from the back of the sidewalk.
ix. In cases where neither the right-of-way nor private property can meet the standards of this section, the permittee shall sign an agreement to plant or compensate the city for the planting of each affected required tree.
x. Private street trees shall be included in improvements agreements and maintenance agreements.
2. Artificial Plants.
a. Artificial plants do not count toward the required landscape area and do not figure into the water budget calculation.
3. Approved Plant List.
a. At least ninety percent of all forbs, shrubs, and trees and one hundred percent of groundcovers and ornamental grasses used to landscape each site regulated by this section shall be selected from the City of Moab approved plant list, as calculated by applicant’s choice of quantity or percent spread at maturity. Plant material that is not on the approved plant list must meet the other requirements within this section.
b. Spring bulbs that do not require additional irrigation are exempt from the approved plant list requirement.
c. Plants may be added to the approved plant list by meeting the criteria and following the process in Appendix C.
d. Pursuant to the Utah Noxious Weed Act, Section 7, no plants shall be planted from the Grand County Noxious Weeds List (available here: https://www.grandcountyutah.net/168/Noxious-Weeds)
4. Cool Season Turf Limits.
a. Cool season turf areas shall be composed of grasses found on the City of Moab approved plant list.
b. Cool season turf shall not be used in more than ten percent of total landscaped area or two hundred square feet of turf, whichever is greater. In any landscaping plan including a water budget, turf may exceed cool season turf limits if additional turf fits within the budget. Turf still must meet the other requirements in this section.
c. Areas with slopes greater than twenty-five percent shall be landscaped with deep-rooted water-conserving plants for erosion control and soil stabilization. No turf grasses or overhead irrigation is allowed on slopes greater than twenty-five percent.
d. Park strips and other landscaped areas less than eight feet wide shall be landscaped with water-conserving plants that do not include cool season turf.
5. Mulch.
a. Shall be applied at a minimum depth of two inches to three inches and as appropriate to each species. Nonporous material shall not be placed under the mulch.
b. Shall be applied to the soil surface, not against the plant stem, or high against the base of trunks to minimize disease.
c. Because mulching can limit the successful propagation of some native plants, native plants, when appropriate, are exempt from these mulching requirements.
d. To provide habitat for beneficial insects and other wildlife, up to five percent of the landscape area may be left without mulch.
6. Water Features.
a. Recirculating water systems shall be used for water features.
b. Water features with a cumulative water free fall greater than four feet shall install a wind shut-off sensor.
c. Pool and spa covers are highly recommended.
d. For purposes of the water budget calculation, the surface area of a water feature shall be included as a high water use hydrozone with a seventy-five percent irrigation efficiency.
7. Hydrozoning.
a. The City of Moab approved plant list is categorized by nonirrigated/very low, low, medium, and high-water use plants. Each hydrozone shall have plant materials with similar water use (for example, low with low; very low with very low).
b. Plants of a very low hydrozone are not to be planted in a moderate to high hydrozone.
c. Temporarily irrigated areas of the landscape during the establishment period shall be included in the low water use hydrozone for the water budget calculation.
B. Irrigation System Criteria.
1. This subsection applies to landscaped areas that are required to have permanent irrigation. For landscape areas that do not require permanent irrigation, these are recommendations for irrigation systems. For commercial and large-scale developments:
a. Smart irrigation controllers (i.e., weather-based controllers and soil moisture-based controllers) and spray sprinkler bodies labeled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense Program or with published reports posted on the Smart Water Application Technologies website are required.
b. Dedicated landscape water meters/sub-meters shall be installed for all nonresidential irrigated landscapes of five thousand square feet or more.
c. The irrigation system shall be designed to prevent runoff, low head drainage, overspray, or other similar conditions where irrigation water flows onto nontargeted areas, such as adjacent property, nonirrigated areas, hardscapes, roadways, or structures.
d. Minimum pop-up height for sprinklers in turfgrass areas shall be six inches.
e. Check valves or anti-drain valves are required on all sprinkler heads.
f. The irrigation system shall be designed to ensure that the operating pressure at each emission device is within the manufacturer’s recommended pressure range for optimal performance.
g. Sprinklers within a zone shall have matched precipitation rates, unless otherwise directed by the manufacturer’s recommendations. Sprinkler spacing shall be designed to achieve the highest possible distribution uniformity using the manufacturer’s recommendations. Spacing must achieve head-to-head coverage.
h. A pressure regulating valve shall be installed and maintained by the consumer if the static service pressure exceeds eighty pounds per square inch (psi). The pressure-regulating valve shall be located between the meter and the first point of water use, or first point of division in the pipe, and shall be set at the manufacturer’s recommended pressure for the sprinklers.
i. Overhead irrigation shall not be permitted within twenty-four inches of any nonpervious surface. Allowable irrigation within the setback from nonpervious surfaces may include drip, drip line, or other low flow nonspray technology. The setback area may be planted or unplanted. The surfacing of the setback may be mulch, gravel, or other porous material.
j. Where feasible, trees shall be placed on separate valves from shrubs, groundcovers, and turfgrass to facilitate the appropriate irrigation of trees. The mature size and extent of the root zone shall be considered when designing irrigation for the tree.
k. Narrow or irregularly shaped areas less than eight feet in dimension in any direction shall not utilize overhead sprinkler irrigation.
l. Manual shut-off valves (such as a gate valve, ball valve, or butterfly valve) shall be installed as close as possible to the point of connection of the water supply.
m. Backflow prevention devices shall be required to protect the potable water supply from contamination by the irrigation system and comply with local plumbing codes.
C. Landscape Water Budget.
1. All irrigated landscaped areas must be included in the water budget calculation. See Appendix A for details regarding the maximum applied water budget calculation.
2. The total irrigation water needed for all hydrozones cannot exceed a maximum applied water budget of fifteen gallons/season/sq. ft. (twenty-four in./season) of irrigated landscape area unless special features are included or the landscaped areas only use plants designated as low listed on the approved plant list.
3. Special features include:
a. Ecological restoration projects;
b. Bioretention areas;
c. Nonirrigated pervious areas;
d. Storm water conveyance infrastructure (vegetated swales);
e. Graywater applied to the landscape according to relevant regulations (% based on % living plant material primarily watered with graywater);
f. Native plants selected from approved plant list;
g. Secondary water irrigation.
4. If any combination of the special feature areas totals to at least five percent of the total irrigated hydrozone area, then the maximum applied water budget increases by one gallon/season/sq. ft.
5. If any combination of the special feature areas totals to at least ten percent of the total irrigated hydrozone area, then the maximum applied water budget increases by two gallon/season/sq. ft.
6. Active rainwater catchment systems, including rain barrels or cisterns, are also incentivized in the calculation through a reduced overall irrigation water need. (Ord. 23-15 § 3, 2023; Ord. 23-08 § 3, 2023)