Matanuska-Susitna Borough, AK Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

190(B) opens the borough's multifamily landscaping standards by directing that the existing natural landscape, especially healthy plants, shrubs and trees indigenous to the area, be preserved to the extent reasonable and feasible, and that a site be designed to accommodate landscaping where no natural vegetation exists to retain. 030(B), must submit a landscape plan showing compliance. Subsection (B)(2) gives developers two paths to the plant materials standard: retain at least 10 percent of the lot's existing ground cover, natural plant species and healthy tree canopy, including understory and foliage, or install new landscaping covering 10 percent of the area within a 100-foot radius of each structure, using species that reach at least three feet in height and are tolerant of the local climate zone, established within two years of the application.

The chapter separately requires a perimeter landscape buffer along property lines other than a street edge, using vegetation at least three feet tall at installation and of a species that reaches six feet, planted at a ratio of one evergreen tree or shrub per 40 linear feet of edge.