Tuscaloosa, AL Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Sec. 25-129 sets the applicability rules for Tuscaloosa's landscape and buffer standards (division 3, article VI). Subsection (a) generally requires all new development to comply with division 3, exempting only single-family detached and duplex lots. Subsection (b) carves out a separate track for the original city survey area and the downtown (D), downtown perimeter (DP), and downtown historic edge (DHE) districts: division 3's standards 'shall not apply,' and instead landscaping in the public right-of-way must follow Exhibit A, the Urban Forest Master Plan, and Exhibit B, the Typical Street Cross Section, both incorporated into the ordinance by reference and approved by the office of the city engineer rather than the director of planning.

That carve-out has a trigger back into full compliance: if a commercial development in one of those districts includes an open surface parking lot with more than ten spaces, division 3's standards apply after all. Subsection (c) applies the same logic to the mixed residential university, multifamily residential university, institutional university, and university commercial districts, again deferring to Exhibit B's cross-section unless the same ten-space parking threshold is triggered. Sec. 25-130 ties review of any of these standards to the underlying development application, whether a planned development, conditional use permit, special exception use permit, or land development permit.

The provisions were adopted by Ord. No. 9572, § 2, effective December 17, 2024, and Sec. 25-129 was amended by Ord. No. 9751, § 37, effective March 10, 2026.