Hi, and welcome to ATP
Hope we can help you out with this, but first we need a little bit more info. Pictures of the area would be a big help.
What side of the house is this area on eg. if it is the West side of the house it will get hot, blazing sun all afternoon, South side will be sunny all day, north side will be mostly shaded and East gets morning sun. This will affect what kind of plants you can put there and be successful.
Also, do you have the ability to water a long row of new plants every day when they are first planted? As they get established and put on new growth, you will be able to taper off watering, but even if a plant says it is 'drought tolerant' you still must water it until it makes a good big, healthy root system.
If you are sure you're going to tear up the plantings in a year anyway, you could start seeds of something really fast growing like maybe sunflowers. That would be very inexpensive, pretty, drought tolerant, and the only thing you'd have to do for them is maybe string a support between stakes to keep them from leaning out over the sidewalk, or area where the people walk by. Sunflowers would obviously need sun!
A planting 40ft. long of perennial plants or shrubs is going to cost you quite a bit, and probably will not grow fast enough to make the screen you are looking for. Maybe a combination of tall annuals that will grow fast, and some larger perennials or shrubs to fill in as the annuals finish.
