Riparian Buffer Protection Standards

This consultation has concluded. Thank you to all who participated and shared their ideas and feedback.

Beginning September 1, Albemarle County’s updated Riparian Buffer Protection Standards will take effect.

The Board of Supervisors adopted the updated standards on June 17 as part of the County’s Stream Health Initiative. The standards strengthen protections for vegetation along streams and rivers and align County regulations with Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act.

What Do the New Standards Mean for Property Owners?

The standards require property owners to keep existing native forest vegetation within protected riparian buffers, even when the property is not being developed.

Property owners are not required to plant new trees simply because their property includes a riparian buffer. However, existing native forest vegetation within the buffer must remain.

Some activities are allowed within riparian buffers without County approval. These include:

• Removing dead or diseased trees, invasive plants, and noxious weeds.
• Building unpaved walking trails.
• Maintaining areas that are already mowed or paved, as long as they are not expanded.
• Continuing or starting agricultural and forestry activities when state-required Best Management Practices are followed.

Other activities may be allowed but could require County approval or planting new vegetation to offset environmental impacts.

What Activities Are Restricted?

Unless needed for an allowed activity, the standards generally do not allow:

• Building new structures.
• Clearing native forest vegetation, except for approved agricultural or forestry uses.
• Removing trees or shrubs to create views or sightlines.
• Filling or grading land.

Where Do the Standards Apply?

The size and location of riparian buffers vary depending on where a property is located.

• In the Rural Area, buffers generally extend 100 feet on both sides of streams, including streams that flow only during part of the year. Buffers also apply around in-stream ponds and within the Flood Hazard Overlay District.
• In Development Areas, 100-foot buffers apply along streams that flow year-round. Additional protections apply in the Crozet Development Area.
• Near public water-supply reservoirs, buffers extend 200 feet from the outer edge of the Flood Hazard Overlay District.
• When a stream has adjacent wetlands, the buffer begins at the edge of the wetland rather than the stream bank.

Contact County staff at 434-296-5832 to discuss any details or questions you may have.

Albemarle County developed Riparian Buffer Protection Standards to protect and improve vegetation along rivers and streams, strengthen buffer requirements that were narrowed in 2014, and ensure consistency with Virginia's Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. This project is an outcome of the Stream Health Initiative, a program designed to improve surface water quality, established by the Board of Supervisors in 2017.

If adopted, the protection standards would:

• set requirements for retaining and protecting riparian vegetation and limiting land disturbance in buffers throughout the county
• protect and enhance all of the defined buffers, whether they’re part of a development project or not

Please note that these protection standards do not apply to agriculture and forestry.

Why is it important?

Riparian buffer vegetation is significant to stream health since it protects streams from erosion and filters out nutrients and sediment that can flow into streams and degrade water quality. This benefits both our community’s public water supply and aquatic habitats. Community benefits would include better water quality, fewer expenses for clearing out reservoirs affected by sedimentation, and healthier wildlife populations.

The County's current stream buffer regulations are housed in the Water Protection Ordinance (WPO) and only apply to land-disturbance projects that require erosion and sediment control plans (e.g., commercial and residential development projects). This means that a lot of activity that impacts stream buffers isn't currently regulated -- and that adds up. In short, the WPO buffer requirements only regulate specific larger projects. In contrast, the Riparian Buffer Protection Standards would regulate and protect all stream buffers in the county (except those used for agriculture and forestry).

While the proposed stream buffer regulations would be located in the Zoning Ordinance, this proposed draft also contains changes to the Water Protection Ordinance (to remove the current buffer requirements), and to make language related to buffers more consistent in the Subdivision Ordinance (chapter 14 of the County Code) and the Health and Safety ordinance (chapter 7).