Title
15690 Commons Residential Building - Landscape Plan
History
PROJECT
15690 Commons Residential Building - Landscape Plan
This is a request for approval of a landscape plan for the residential portion of the 15690 Commons project, located near 157th Street and Harlem Avenue. The Village Board approved the site plan for 15690 Commons in 2004 subject to the condition that the petitioner submit a landscape plan for separate review and approval. Landscape plans have been previously approved for Coopers Hawk and Chase Bank, the other components of the overall planned development.
Per Code requirements, the petitioner submitted a landscape plan that has been reviewed by the Villages consulting landscape architectural firm. A copy of the review memo is attached for review. The review memo indicates outstanding issues with the south bufferyard and the parking lot landscaping.
The Village met the petitioner on site to resolve the two outstanding items. The review memo requests an additional two ornamental trees and nine shrubs to be planted in the south bufferyard. The south bufferyard is limited by the design of the detention pond. Additionally, the petitioner installed plant material much larger than Code requirements, resulting in dense screening between the street and the residential building.
The review memo also requests additional plant material to be located in the west bufferyard to mitigate the removal of four parking lot landscape islands. The west bufferyard is located in between two sets of garages that are separated by a fence, and therefore barely visible. Like most of the site, the plant material that has been installed in the west bufferyard is larger than Code requires. Instead of adding more material to the west bufferyard, the petitioner has agreed to add a minimum of ten ornamental grasses around a utility box on the west side of the building and a minimum of 14 shrubs along the north detention pond to screen the pond from the interior road.
Recommended Action/Motion
I move to approve the Landscape Plan titled, ‘157th and Harlem,’ prepared by Seasons, dated 10-04-2010, job number 2012010, subject to the following conditions:
1) That the petitioner plant a minimum of ten (10) ornamental shrubs to screen the existing utility box along the west side of the building.
and
2) That the petitioner plant a minimum of fourteen (14) shrubs along the south side of the north detention pond.