The width is about 25 feet and the height looks around 12 feet to me.

I will look at the eleagnus! I was hoping for something between 10-15 feet tall so that sounds good.

Something that big may prove to be a bit much for the setting. Also you may find you don't need it to grow as tall as the shelter to provide adequate relief.

Ok, maybe I need to think smaller...

I usually don't have this much trouble...I've landscaped my whole yard without much angst. This just looks so bad to me. I'm having a hard time imagining it looking good! The distance from my house to the property line is 25 feet. So you're right, there's not a ton of space for large shrubs.

If it were mine I would plant an assortment of evergreen trees and shrubs all the way around the edge of the space anyway, so that the center became like an opening in a forest or thicket. And what the neighbors had going on became purely secondary. Even if parts of their stuff still showed here and there.

I was thinking maybe a mixed informal evergreen hedge would be smart too. Part of this gets a lot of water, but part of it is exposed to much more heat, wind, and less water..so it might be nice to pick and choose different things for each spot.

I have never done this before. Can I just start with one end and kind of slowly work my way over, picking individual things for each spot?

Maybe start with tallest first and then work out from there. Or draw yourself a planting plan before planting.

At some point something here may be of interest.

http://texassuperstar.com/plants/index.html

Photinia, Chery Laurel, Evergreen sumac, Mountain Laurel ( slow growing), arborvitae

Junipers

I still drool at the word Photinia, despite the risk of blackspot. They're just so easy and a nice color. Will take a look at these suggestions. Thanks, wantonamara.

There is always building an arbor and planting some tall climbing roses like Lady Banks, cecile bruiner, or some vine like confederate Jassimine if it is hardy up there.

You read my mind, wantonamara. I actually want to build a large trellis and grow vines on it for right in front of the RV...and hopefully screen my view of it from the kitchen sink.

After discussing this with some more people, in person, right now the plan is to do crossvine on tall trellis right in front of the RV, and then plant a few eleagnus to the right of it for further screening down the fence line. That's the plan right now, so I'll update once we get some things planted. Thanks so much for the help!!!