Protecting Riparian Buffers in Athens 

Athens-Clarke County Commissioners are currently debating rules for protecting water quality
from some of the impacts of development.

Buffers: Why They Are Important

Riparian buffers, also known as stream buffers, streamside management zones, and protected river corridors, are areas of land along streams and rivers that are left in a natural state to help maintain clean water and healthy aquatic communities. Riparian buffers are important to protect because they perform many useful functions. Buffers:
  • Filter sediment and pollutants from runoff;
  • Reduce the impacts of floods;
  • Stabilize stream banks;
  • Provide habitat for wildlife;
  • Shade the water to maintain a healthy temperature for aquatic life;
  • Provide leaves and other material that serve as energy sources for the stream;
  • Provide logs and other woody debris that serve as aquatic habitat;
  • Improve the appearance of the stream and increase property values
Riparian buffers are an essential tool for growing communities that want to protect water quality.
 
 

Narrow Buffers May Not Be Good Enough

As a general rule, wider riparian buffers provide better water quality protection and more wildlife habitat than narrow buffers. Narrow buffers may be enough to stabilize banks but will not provide many other benefits. Ideally, buffers should vary based on site-specific characteristics, such as slope, width of the floodplain, and the presence of wetlands. If a variable-width buffer is not used, then the width should be at least 75 feet to provide sufficient water quality protection.
 
 

Small Streams Need Buffers, Too

Even the narrow creek that runs through a neighborhood back yard may support a diverse assemblage of aquatic life. Protection of these smaller creeks and streams is particularly important because:
  • they are very abundant;
  • they feed into larger steams and rivers, and
  • they are sensitive to sedimentation.
It’s not enough just to protect our large rivers; riparian buffers are critical even on small streams that dry up in the summer (called intermittents).
 
 

Buffers and the Land Use Plan

The Guiding Principles of the Athens-Clarke Land Use Plan call for protection of our water by preserving a strip of land as wide as 200 ft along streams. Many commissioners are now trying to cut this down to 50 ft or 25 ft on all streams, except where wider buffers are required by state law. This may not be enough to protect aquatic resources, and it is contrary to what the people of Athens have called for in public meetings and surveys. The Athens Grow Green Coalition is advocating buffer protection that includes:
  • a minimum buffer width of 75 feet on all perennial streams, and 50 ft on all intermittent streams
  • requirement for a field survey to determine the presence of streams, rather than relying on the Environmental  Areas Map, which omits most small streams 

What about property rights?

The Athens buffer ordinance will only apply to new development. Existing structures and ongoing activities are exempted. The effect of a buffer ordinance is not to prevent development, but to ensure that it occurs in the less environmentally sensitive areas of properties. The ordinance also respects private property rights by allowing variances for cases where properties are small or when it is not possible to develop the property without infringing upon the buffer.
 
 

What You Can Do

The Athens-Clarke County Commission is expected to vote on riparian buffer protection as part of the Environmental Areas chapter of the Zoning and Development Standards in October, 2000. These issues are likely to be discussed at the agenda-setting meeting on September 19. If you want to express your opinion on this issue, call your commissioners and attend upcoming Mayor and Commission Meetings. The remainder of the Zoning and Development Code may be voted on in subsequent months.
 
 

Other Tools for Quality Growth

Riparian buffers are one of several components of good Zoning and Development Standards. To be most effective, they should be complemented by a good stormwater control ordinance, strong enforcement of erosion and sedimentation laws, zoning that prevents sprawl, tree protection rules, and other tools. Together, these components will allow communities to grow while protecting water and air quality.
 
 

For more information

  • Two publications on riparian buffers are available from the University of Georgia Institute of Ecology. A Review of the Scientific Literature on Riparian Buffer Width, Extent and Vegetation provides scientific background on the issue. A Guidebook for Developing Local Riparian Buffer Ordinances gives the information and support necessary for drafting a buffer ordinance and includes a model ordinance. Both are available online at http://www.ecology.uga.edu/outreach/home.htm or by calling 706-583-0463.
  • The proposed Athens-Clarke Zoning and Development Standards are available online at http://www.negia.net/~accplan/

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Athens Grow Green Coalition September, 2000