Buffer areas shall require site plan approval, and are required along all lot and street lines separating residential uses from arterial and collector streets, separating a nonresidential use from either a residential use or residential zoning district line and along all street lines where loading and storage areas can be seen from the street. Buffer areas are for the primary purposes of screening views and reducing noise perception beyond the lot. Buffer widths shall be measured horizontally. No structure, activity, storage of materials or parking of vehicles shall be permitted in a buffer area. The location and design of buffers shall consider 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. 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 the buffer area must be in obscuring light and vision and reducing noise beyond the lot.

Appropriate buffer widths are set forth within the regulations for each zone. However, if no width is clearly stated, the Planning Board may determine a width appropriate to the proposed use and its location. All buffer areas shall be planted and maintained with either grass or ground cover, together with a screen of shrubs or scattered planting of trees, shrubs or other plant material meeting the following requirements: