|
Updated 06/10/18
|
|
How I Got Here ....
|
Several years had gone by since my last ARC landscape updates,
and I needed approval for nandina shrubs opposite a bedroom window in my side yard to grow to 6-8 foot maturity as a natural privacy screen. (Our shrubs are DG- limited to 5' tall in all yard areas) .... I also wanted to confirm current ARC policy for revamping some aging front yard plants on my internal lot. The current project was pretty minor ..... so, I might have been allowed to bypass some of the new paperwork and Checklist #19 requirements. But, I'd heard several residents complain about over-planting scenarios when switching from grass areas to bark -- I was curious to see how all today's ARC-DG strategies might apply to my own yard, if I were to redo my 'grandfathered' landscaping. Mine was the first house built on the end of this block in 2000, and I'd been through several ARC cycles in early years; everything planted by our developer ultimately died, followed by most replacements under the purchase warranty. Hindsight says that my landscape fiasco was not too surprising ..... considering that: -- I'd watched bulldozers scrape masses of rich, dark loam from this lot before I could take official title, loaded onto trucks likely headed for more profitable realms .... -- Replanting, typically unearthed sundry construction leftovers .... a maple tree's roots contended with seven yards of plastic sheeting before toppling four years later ... birch tree lost battle with buried, leaking cement bag .... stashes of scrapped electrical wiring, plaster board, empty bottles, latex gloves, and, 'what the heck IS that?' hidden under bark filler. -- Voles routinely descended on everything I planted for years, before finding shrubs that they don't seem to fancy around here ... (lantana, nandina, juniper cover, bottlebrush). Trust me, there is no vole bait or repellent strategy untried on this lot. When my trips to ARC for documenting plant replacements approached revolving door status, I was told to skip the paperwork as long as everything planted was on DG "accepted" list, and maintained at less than the DG max height allowed (now set at 5'). My recent ARC review confirmed this now to be the case for all residents -- as long as improvements .... "do not materially alter the appearance of the lot, involve a change in topography or grade, and which are not of sufficient scale to constitute a natural structure.,.." (See DG 2.9 for all landscape changes needing ARC approval.) Common changes always needing ARC approval: The drought era has motivated many homeowners to convert their grass lawns to bark for intended water conservation, which of course "materially alters the appearance of the lot" .... My understanding, is that the following projects also require ARC approval using Checklist #19 with an up-scaled landscape design drawing showing all plant setbacks and locations: -- ANY plants or trees not on DG Appendix A Accepted Plant and Tree List -- adding decorative rock, hardscape, or boulders to ANY yard area -- replacing primary front yard tree for any reason (must now be 12' minimum) -- adding trees anywhere on our lot -- maintaining shrubs higher than five feet anywhere on lot (my current project) I'd validated all the above projects during early 2000's with no problem .... and, my ARC approval cycle went off without a hitch this time as well. But, my latest ARC exercise was disturbing: What used to be a fairly trivial ARC process for many landscape projects, has apparently morphed into 21 pages of paperwork for "Checklist #19 -- Landscape Plants and Trees" .... ..... Requiring, a detailed list of plants and trees for each yard area; worksheets and tables for calculating 'minimum required plant quantities' which incidentally ignore expected plant size, plus, converting my 2000 purchase landscape diagram scaled at 1" = 10' to a new diagram, minimally scaled at 1/8" = 1.0', for depicting the setback and location of every plant and and tree on my 7200 SF lot. I was most disconcerted, to find that the DG 6.2 option for filling up to 50% of all PA SF with bark -- and support prudent irrigation -- is not included in ARC 'minimum required plant quantities' calculations. Checklist #19 -- Landscape Plants & Trees (includes worksheets) https://sclhresidents.com/documents/10184/251862/Checklist+19+Landscape+Plants+Trees/1972f43b-39e2-44b2-940b-6ef4698d2cb8?version=1.2 My ARC Landscape Application Contents |
