Yakima County, WA Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

21, Sitescreening and Landscaping, requires new development that is not otherwise exempted to landscape the street-facing edge of the site as a condition of project approval. 030(2)(a)(i) sets Standard A, Open Area Landscaping with Trees, which mixes shrubs, groundcover, or xeriscape kept to three feet or less with trees planted throughout the strip and spaced no more than 30 feet apart on center. 030(2)(b)(i)(A) applies Standard A along the street frontage of parcels zoned RS, RT, SR, R-1, R-2, and R-3, requiring a planting area at least six feet wide inside the property line that abuts the public road; if the site has a fence, the planting has to sit on the street side of it.

Commercial and industrial frontages, in zones B-1, B-2, SCC, LCC, HTC, GC, M-1, and M-2, get the lighter Standard B buffer instead, a minimum three-foot-wide strip of evergreen screening at least three to four feet tall within three years, unless the building is built to the property line with no setback. The requirement does not reach single-family homes and duplexes on individual lots, home businesses, accessory dwellings, changes of use within an existing multiple-use complex, or minor Type 1 review. 30, and where the applicant instead plants inside the vision-clearance triangle and the adjoining right-of-way to the County Engineer's satisfaction, the Administrative Official grants a ten-percentage-point increase in the maximum impervious surface allowed on the lot.