Shade and daylight loss to dwellings – The complaint zone

Abstract

How close can a house be to a tree before it stimulates complaints from that household? Is there a distance beyond which households do not complain? The proximity and orientation of tree locations relative to complainant's dwellings are examined to provide information on the likely zone where a Local Authority can anticipate complaints of shade or light loss.

Unsurprisingly, more complaints were found to be stimulated by trees in the sector to the south of the homes. The western and eastern sectors contained fewer complaints and complaints from the northern sector were found to be fewest. Unexpectedly, however, I found that there were quite significant numbers of complaints about shade if trees are less than 30 m away and that these complaints are concerned with trees in all four sectors adjacent to the house (north, south, east and west).

Awareness of the distance, orientation and frequency of complaints recorded can inform landscape design by illustrating the levels of tolerance from residential development proposed in “close” proximity to trees. Tree planting design can thereby minimise dissatisfaction with trees “too near” to homes.

Keywords:

• trees
• shade
• homes
• planning
• architecture
• planting; layout

Notes

^1. A simplified shadow path of a tree through the main part of the day.