Leyland Cypress grows fast and huge, but tends to be very vulnerable to wind and short lived. Probably the worst choice. Pretty tree, though.

Norway Spruce is probably the prettiest. Decent as a privacy screen. In my experience it doesn't lose too many needles. Not native to US. Widest of the choices.

White Pine is Native to the US (so more Earth friendly). Not quite as pretty when it is younger. When it is older it tends to lose it's lower branches and thus it's "hedge" quality, but gets quite pretty. Probably loses the most needles and cones of any of these trees. Very wind resistant, very tough.

Arborvitae makes a great privacy screen, is native, and loses few needles, but is boring. It can be planted close together to form a kind of solid hedge. Narrowest and smallest of the choices. I like Eastern Red Ceder as an alternative...similar tree but with berries the birds like. Still not a very pretty tree, though.

I'd probably go with a mix of White Pine and Norway Spruce. I tend to recommend against getting all the same type of tree, if you are in it for the long haul. If a blight or disease comes along that kills that kind of tree, you lose *ALL* your trees. (My parents lost all their black pines to a beetle and their yard looks bare.)

EDIT: Of these choices Arborvitae is the tree with the most tolerance for pruning it to a certain size and shape. In my experience it tends to be a small tree.

White Pine is classed as very shade tolerant for a tall tree. However, it's branches are a bit sparse when it is young, and as I said it loses it's lower branches when it gets older.

I somewhat disagree with the assumption that the builder gave you bad choices...they are decent choices, to my mind. My parents live in an area with a lot of wind, and their White Pines have weathered the storms fairly well.

I also disagree with the assumptions that you can't "use" land if there are huge trees on it. If you have a large tree without branches near the bottom (like older White Pines or most large deciduous trees) you have a lovely shaded spot underneath it. I find I use the parts of the yard under the trees MUCH more in the summer then the bare lawn. I love going to the family summer place, which is shaded by trees. A large grass lawn is really only useful if you have kids who like to play baseball or football with the neighbor kids. Really, how many adults use more then ten square yards of lawn?

This post was edited by edlincoln on Thu, Aug 22, 13 at 14:16

Tell the builder 'thanks, but no thanks', and try and get a planting allowance instead of the trees. What you probably want are deciduous shrubs because they will stay the size you want, and come in deer-proof varieties.

arborvitae means nothing ... there are hundreds of them ...

and of all the rest.. they are all telephone pole trees...

nothing really stops growing at some magical heights .... its all about annual growth rate.. and how fast they get to a height.. and then shoot right past it..

they are all conifers.. and all size estimates are at 10 years.. and you may as well presume.. they will be twice as big in 20 years ...

ken

Most builders are poor garden designers.
Case in point, he gives you four choices. You can do better with a little research. Give us more details and maybe a picture or two and I'm sure somebody on this forum can come up with some plants and ideas that will work better than the four poor choices your builder is 'giving' you.
Get that allowance mad_Gallica mentioned and then make your choice and plant at the proper time instead of what's convenient to the builder and his inexperienced carpenter planting crew. Negotiating a good allowance will probably be difficult. It's been my experience that builders don't put much stock in the landscape, therefore it suffers right from the start.
Keep us up to date. I'm curious as to how this will pan out.
Mike

What does not terribly wide mean? Is there an actual restriction? Why only 20' tall?

I like the advice of the allowance. Then you can plant something more suitalbe and within the size requirments.

Wow....those are all terrible choices for what you are looking for except possibly the Norway Spruce.

The Leyland and white pines are weak trees and could shed branches in storms.

Don't even get me started on Arborvitae....

If he doesn't give you an allowance, choose the Norway Spruce but eventually it will get 60' tall albeit when you're in your golden years..

I will try to get some photos tonight. Basically, we have an acre lot, square, and on the left side there is a walking path. In our negotiations, we asked for a tree line, provided by the builder, because of the path. We have already since settled and moved in, so I doubt there is any re-negotiating an allowance. Our builder was a huge pain in the butt the entire process.

@whaas when I say not terribly wide, I basically mean I don't want these trees to take up my entire back yard. We bought the acre lot so we would have land, not just huge trees. The height for me is just enough to block out the people on the path. I don't want huge trees on only one side of the house. It will look strange, especially considering there are no trees in my whole neighborhood.

I am not in love with any of the options either, but I do need something to block this path. I need to go with one of these options, and then make the best of the area on my property side with additional landscaping.

Can any of these trees be trimmed and shaped to stay within a more reasonable size?

I have some 50 year old Norway spruces in my garden; though they were not planted for the purpose they are still a very effective screen. I'd agree with Sequoiadendron that it's the best choice of the 4 options.
Another difference w/white pine is I feel like the branches of white pine might be somewhat less shade tolerant, so when they shade one another out branches tend to die and eventually one is left with a grove rather than screen effect. Or perhaps they just don't branch as thickly regardless.