Aberdeen Township City Zoning Code
§ 25-5.5
Buffers.
[Ord. No. 11-2002, § 3]
a.
Buffer areas are required along lot and street lines of all multi-family and nonresidential developments where the property lines or the centerline of the adjacent streets abut a single-family residential district. Buffer areas are for the primary purposes of visually separating one use from another in order to safeguard the character of adjacent districts, and buffer screening is used to visually shield or obscure the view of one use from another and reduce noise perception and glare from direct or reflected light beyond the lot.
1.
No structure, activity, drainage basin, storage of materials, parking of vehicles or any other improvements shall be permitted in a buffer area, except that underground utilities may be installed where the Board deems that a buffer screening is not necessary within the entire width of the buffer area.
2.
The location and design of buffer screening within the buffer shall consider the use being screened; the distance between the use being screened; the distance between the use and the property line; differences in elevations; the types of buffers, such as dense planting, existing woods, a wall or fence; buffer height and width; and other combinations of man-made and natural features.
3.
The buffer shall be designed, planted, graded, landscaped and developed with the general guideline that the closer a use or activity is to a property line or the more intense the use, the more effective and dense the buffer screening within the buffer must be in obscuring light and vision and reducing noise beyond the lot.
4.
Buffer areas shall be permanently maintained and kept clean of all debris, rubbish, weeds and tall grass. Plant material which does not live shall be replaced by the developer prior to any bond release or final acceptance by the Township.
5.
The buffer area shall not be broken except for vehicular or pedestrian access points to assure a clear sight triangle, unless specifically approved by the Board.
b.
All buffer areas shall be planted and maintained with either grass or ground cover, together with a dense buffer screening of shrubs or trees a minimum of twenty-five (25) feet in width, meeting the following requirements:
1.
The plant materials shall be of a species common to the area, of nursery stock and free of insects and disease.
2.
The plant materials used in the buffer screening shall consist of a mixture of forty (40%) percent evergreen/conifer trees; thirty (30%) percent deciduous and evergreen shrubs; twenty (20%) percent deciduous shade trees; and ten (10%) percent deciduous flowering ornamental trees.
3.
The plants shall be arranged in natural groupings at an adequate density to screen the adjoining uses.
4.
The preservation of existing, natural wooded tracts shall be an integral part of all plans and may be calculated as part of the required buffer area, provided that the area is of the required width and the existing vegetation is of a sufficient density to serve the purpose of a buffer and buffer screening. Supplemental landscaping may be provided to enhance partially wooded areas to be retained to meet the requirements of this subsection for the buffer screening.
5.
Except for existing preserved or transplanted vegetation, evergreen trees shall be at least six (6) feet in height at the time of planting, balled and burlapped, and deciduous shade trees shall be at least two and one-half (2 1/2) inches caliper, measured six (6) inches above the top of the root ball, at the time of planting, balled and burlapped.
6.
Flowering ornamental trees shall not be less than one and one-half (1 1/2) inch caliper, measured six (6) inches above the ground, nor less than six (6) feet high. They must be well-branched, the branches to start not less than three (3) feet from the crown of the root system. Trees shall be balled and burlapped.
7.
Evergreen and deciduous shrubs and hedges used in screen planting shall be at least two (2) feet in height when planted.
8.
The screen planting shall be placed so that at maturity the plant material will be no closer than three (3) feet from any street or property line.
9.
New buffer screening shall be contained in continuous mulched landscape beds. The landscape beds exceeding a length of one hundred (100) linear feet may be broken for the purpose of maintenance. The gap shall be located at deciduous shade tree groupings, shall be no greater than twenty (20) feet wide and shall be diagonally oriented to the length of the required buffer to reduce visibility to the adjoining use.
c.
Landscape mounds or earthen berms of adequate height for screening purposes shall be required in the buffer area when the proposed multi-family or nonresidential use exceeds two (2) stories and/or where existing woodlands are either not sufficient or desirable or are to be disturbed.
1.
Berms shall be curvilinear and free form in shape and shall be constructed with a maximum mowable, grassed slope of 3:1 or a nonmowable, mulched slope of 2:1. In no case shall a berm with a permitted 2:1 slope exceed four (4) feet in height.
2.
A four (4) foot wide flat area shall be provided at the top. The berm shall be constructed of suitable soil material to sustain vigorous plant growth. Prior to any planting, a four (4) inch thick layer of prepared topsoil containing a water absorbent polymer shall be evenly spread over the entire berm and fertilizer applied.
3.
The berms shall be stabilized by ground cover to prevent soil erosion and shall be planted with evergreen and deciduous trees in accordance with subsection 25-5.5b of this section, except that deciduous trees shall be limited to the bottom one-third (1/3) of the height of the berm to be constructed to ensure adequate soil moisture for plant survival.
d.
The installation of that portion of the approved buffer necessary to screen a particular portion of the tract from being viewed from a bordering street or from an adjacent developed property shall be completed to the greatest extent possible prior to the development of that particular portion of the tract.
e.
Buffer widths shall be measured horizontally and at right angles to either a straight lot or street line or the tangent lines of curved lot or street lines. The minimum width of the buffer area shall be considered a zoning requirement for the purposes of this Ordinance and shall be dimensioned as follows for the respective zoning district:
APT/TH | 50 feet |
RA-PRD | 50 feet |
HC | 50 feet |
RC | 100 feet |
RO | 50 feet |
MFG | 100 feet |
LI | 100 feet |
OR | 25 feet |
CR | 50 feet |
In addition to the above, any shopping center within any zoning district shall provide a one hundred (100) foot wide buffer along any common property line with a residential district. |
f.
The minimum buffer areas required herein shall not contain any area necessary to satisfy the minimum yard or building distance requirements of the respective zoning district. Buffer areas shall be provided in addition to all other bulk requirements.