Building

City of Florence, Alabama
Building Department
Municipal Building Room 216
110 West College Street
Florence, AL 35630
Telephone: (256) 760-6325
Fax: (256) 740-4651

Email: Gary Williamson, Building Official

Codes | Fees | Inspections | Landscaping
Occupancy | Ordinance | Permits | Zoning

Landscaping

The Landscape Ordinance, as adopted by the City of Florence, is designed to improve the appearance of commercial structures and off-street parking areas, and to promote the City of Florence as an attractive trade and service center by requiring the implementation and preservation of trees and shrubs.  It also provides protection of certain adjoining properties from the noise, glare, overall visual impact and other distractions originating from off-street parking areas.

Generally speaking, the Landscape Ordinance requires 6 percent of a site to be landscaped.  Frontage landscaping must be provided with one tree and six shrubs for every 40 linear feet of lot frontage.  The number of parking spaces determines whether or not perimeter landscaping is required.  Depending upon how adjoining properties are zoned, frontage landscaping is usually all that is required for those sites within industrial zones.

Landscaped Buffer areas, consisting of a solid unbroken visual screen, eight feet high within two years of planting, must be implemented when developments adjoin certain zones, such as residential.  The actual depth of the buffer is determined by whether or not perimeter landscaping is required.

The landscaper or landscaping company actually performing the work must have a City of Florence Landscaping License, for which a Landscape Certification from the Alabama Department of Agriculture is required.  For more information please call the Plant Protection and Pesticide Division of the Alabama Department of Agriculture at 334-240-7243.

A landscape plan must be submitted to the Building Department for approval, and shall include the information listed below:

1. General information, including date, north arrow and scale of one (1) inch to no more than fifty feet (50); all property lines, locations of all existing and proposed easements and rights-of-way; existing and proposed topography, drawn at maximum contour interval of five (5) feet and indicating drainage channels; the names, addresses and telephone numbers of developers, architects, surveyors, engineers and owners of the property for which the plan is designed; and the name and business affiliation of the person preparing the landscape plans.
2. Construction information, including the locations of buildings and off-street parking areas; utility fixtures, including light poles, power and service poles, above ground pedestals (low-voltage) and pad-mounted (high-voltage) fixtures, underground electrical communications and television cables and conduits; hose bibs, sprinkler systems, meters, control boxes, etc.; and the amount (square feet) of off-street parking area and intended surface treatments and the total amount (square feet) of interior landscaping in peninsulas and islands.
3. Landscaping details, including the locations, caliper, species (common name) and intended treatment (move, remove or save) of existing trees eight (8) inches or larger in caliper; locations, dimensions and treatments of all perimeter and interior landscaping areas (islands and peninsulas).
4. A schedule of all new and existing plants proposed for landscaping, including size (caliper and height, container size, etc.) condition (bare-root, balled-and-burlapped, container-grown or pre-existing), common names and botanical names, (genus, species and variety) of tree, shrubs and ground cover, and the type and amount of turfgrasses.