Chapter 10.76 INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT DESIGN GUIDELINES
Section 10.76.030 Design Guidelines
The following guidelines apply to all development occurring within the M districts and
are
intended to facilitate high quality development that complements the character of Tulare.
A. Site Design
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A variety of building and parking lot setbacks should be provided to avoid long,
monotonous building facades and to create diversity.
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For industrial complexes that include multiple buildings (such as an industrial campus) the
placement of structures which creates opportunities for plazas, courts, or gardens is
encourage. This generates visual interest that is generally absent from square, featureless
buildings. Setback areas may be used to provide space for employee lunch/break areas.
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Where industrial uses are adjacent to non-industrial uses, buffering techniques such as
setbacks, screening and landscaping need to be provided to reduce/eliminate any negative
impacts of industrial operations.
B. PARKING AND CIRCULATION
Important design considerations for parking and circulation
include, the location of ingress
and egress points, on-site pedestrian and vehicle traffic and circulation patterns and service
functions. The purpose is to ensure efficient circulation, safety, and visual quality.
1. Site access and internal circulation should be designed in a manner which
emphasizes safety
and efficiency. Consideration should be given to the separation of employee/customer parking
and commercial vehicle operations (trucking, delivery, etc.).
2. Parking facilities should be designed so that vehicles can move from one area
to another on
the same site without entering the street. This will work to reduce on-street traffic.
3. Addressing pedestrian movement in parking lots can improve safety and make
parking lots
more visually appealing. Separate vehicle and pedestrian circulation systems should be
considered in the design of parking facilities. Pedestrian linkages between buildings in multi-structure
industrial developments should be strongly emphasized.To improve vehicle circulation,
parking aisles should be aligned with vehicle circulation routes.
4. To improve vehicle circulation, parking access to adjacent
sites and improve on-site
circulation.
5. Common driveways are encouraged to provide access to adjacent sites and improve
on-site
circulation.
6. Parking areas shall be generously landscaped to provide interior and perimeter
treatments.
7. Parking driveways (access points) should be located as far as possible from
street
intersections to avoid traffic problems. The number of access points should be limited to the
minimum amount necessary to provide adequate circulation.
8. Large parking lots should be divided into a series of connected smaller lots,
to the extent
possible. Landscaping and offsetting portions of the lot are effective in reducing the visual
impact of large parking areas.
9. Parking lots should be screened from adjoining streets by the use of low earth
berms, walls,
landscaping, or a combination of these methods.
10. Industrial sites should be designed to accommodate all parking needs generated
by the use.
The use of the public street for parking and staging of trucks is not permitted.
11. Parking lots shall be designed to accommodate solid waste pick-up service
without
excessive backing-up of service trucks.
C. LOADING FACILITIES
1. Loading facilities should be located out of sight of the public-of-way, to
the extent possible.
Loading docks are most appropriately located at the rear of buildings.
2. Highly visible loading facilities should be screened from view particularly
if it is not
possible to locate them at the rear of the building.
3. Loading facilities should be located so that vehicles are not required to
use public streets
backing into loading docks.
D. LANDSCAPING
1. Landscaping for industrial uses should be used to define specific areas such
as entrances to
buildings and parking lots; define the edges of various land uses, provide transition between
neighboring properties, and provide screening for loading and equipment areas.
2. Landscaping around the entire base of structures is recommended to soften
the edge between
the parking lot and the building.
3. Trees should be located throughout parking lots - not simply at the ends of
aisles. This will
achieve shading requirements and enhance the overall appearance of parking facilities.
4. Landscaping must be protected from vehicle encroachment by means of raised
planting
areas, walls, and curbs.
5. Vines and climbing plants integrated on buildings, trellises and perimeter
garden walls are
recommended, in order to soften the hard appearance of long building walls.
E. WALLS AND FENCES
1. Walls are often highly visible part of many projects and their appearance
can add or detract
from the overall visual quality of a site. To the extent possible, walls should be designed to
blend with the overall architectural character of the site, including material, color and texture.
Where possible, landscaping should be used to soften the appearance of walls.
2. Where visible form the public right-of-way, walls should not be blank, long
surfaces, but
rather should be articulated with intervening pillars, alternating heights, offsetting sections and
materials that provide variety, including material texturing (as with plaster treatments).
3. Screening fences for storage/equipment/ work areas should be compatible with
the overall
site design. Chain link fencing with slats is acceptable. Exterior storage should be limited
to
portions of the site least visible to public view.
F. BUILDING DESIGN
As a category of structural types, industrial buildings house
a variety of uses, and as such,
often present unattractive and monotonous facades. However, there are a variety of design
techniques that can be utilized to promote visual variety and facilitate a cohesive, attractive
design statement:
1. Avoid long, blank building facades, particularly on
walls visible form the public right-of-way. Facades with varied setbacks are encouraged. If
possible, wall planes should not run in
one continuous direction for more than 50 feet without an offset.
2. All elevations to a building should be architecturally treated
to avoid monotonous overall
design.
3. Window and doors are key elements of a structures’s form
and should relate to the scale of
the facade on which they appear. Windows and doors can help establish character by their
rhythm, spacing, and variety. Recessed openings further work to provide depth and contrast on
elevation planes.
4. Berming and associated landscaping can be used at the building
edge to reduce structure
mass and height along facades.
5. Metal buildings should be architecturally designed, providing
variety and visual interest to
the streetscape.
6. All roof-mounted equipment shall be screened from public view
by materials similar to those
used in the overall structure. Mechanical equipment should be located below the highest vertical
element of the building.
7. Design elements which are undesirable
and should be avoided include:
a. Highly reflective surfaces.
b. Large blank,
unarticulated wall surfaces.
c. Exposed, treated
block walls.
d. Poorly designed
mansard roofs on a portion of the roofline.
e. Materials
with high maintenance requirements, such as stained wood or shingles.
G. SIGNS
1. New development should be designed with a precise concept for signage, including
provisions for sign placement, sign scale (in relationship to the building) and sign readability.
2. The design of individual signs should be integrated with building architecture,
in terms of
materials, colors and texture.
3. Monument-style signs are the preferred sign type for new development, where
possible.
This type of sign reduces visual clutter and is more visible to the eye-level of motorists.
4. The use of individually-cut letter signs, either internally or externally
lit is strongly
encouraged.
H. LIGHTING
1. Exterior lighting is encouraged to provide illumination for the security and
safety of on-site
areas such as parking, loading, shipping and receiving, pathways and other work areas.
2. The design of light fixtures should be architecturally compatible
with on-site buildings.
3. All light fixtures must be shielded to confine the spread of light within
the boundaries of the
site, particularly where incompatible uses are located in close proximity.
I. DRIVEWAYS
1. Driveways shall conform to city industrial driveway approach
standards.
2. Driveways designed for heavy truck usage shall not exceed sixty feet in width
without
approval from the City Engineer.
3. Minimum separation between on-site driveways shall be 100 feet.
(Ord. 00-1854)