Riparian buffers are a significant contributor to good water quality.  They help filter the stormwater that flows from roads, roofs, and lawns before it reaches the streams.  The buffer removes many pollutants such as oil from roads, sediment, and nutrients from over-fertilized lawns.  Riparian vegetation also slows floodwaters, thereby helping to maintain stable stream banks and protect downstream property.  By slowing down floodwaters and stormwater runoff, the riparian vegetation also allows water to soak into the ground and recharge groundwater. Slowing floodwaters allows the riparian zone to function as a site of sediment deposition, trapping sediments that build stream banks and would otherwise degrade our streams and rivers.  We urge homeowners to be good stewards of the environment by keeping these buffers undisturbed to protect our most precious resource; our water.

The Town of Apex has riparian buffer requirements in place to protect the quality of our streams.  The Town requires a 100-foot buffer on any stream that flows year-round (perennial stream) and a 50-foot buffer on any intermittent stream.  The buffer lengths are measured from the top of the stream bank.

The Town also requires diffuse flow of runoff prior to the buffer by dispersing concentrated flow and reestablishing vegetation.  Recent amendments to the Town Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) revised the buffer zones and allowable uses within each zone.  More information about the buffer zones and allowable uses can be found in Section 6.1.11 of the UDO.

Persons who wish to undertake uses designated as “allowable” or “allowable with mitigation” in the Table of Uses 6.1.11(G)(1), shall submit a request for a “No Practical Alternatives” determination by the Town.

If mitigation is required, a “Buffer Impact Justification and Mitigation” form must also be completed and submitted to the Town.