All commercial, industrial, office, townhouse and apartment
uses and other nonresidential uses adjoining or abutting a residential
zone or institutional or public use shall provide a buffer zone on
the side or sides facing said use or zone in accordance with this
section.
Within any zone where a nonresidential development abuts a residential
zone or where off-street parking and loading for six or more vehicles
abuts a street, the following buffer area and landscaping requirements
shall apply.
A. A strip of land 20% of the average width or depth of the property,
but not less than 10 feet, when a nonresidential use abuts a residential
zone on the side or rear, shall be designated as a buffer area and
so indicated on the site plan. Buffer areas will be contiguous with
residential property lines and shall be of uniform width. In no case
should the width of the buffer exceed 50 feet. If the buffer is less
than 20 feet wide, the applicant may be required to erect and landscape
a six-foot-high stockade fence within the buffer area parallel to
the lot line of the abutting residential lot and set back a distance
appropriate for the landscaping treatment in the buffer area. Buffer
areas between parking and loading areas and streets shall be at least
10 feet wide.
B. Buffer areas shall be maintained and kept clean of all debris, rubbish,
weeds and tall grass. Any screen planting shall be maintained permanently
and any plant material which does not live shall be replaced within
one year or one growing season.
C. No structure, activity, storage of materials or parking of vehicles
shall be permitted in the buffer area, except access drives from public
streets, one unlighted directional sign per each direction of traffic
per access drive and permitted signs as specified in the district
regulations.