Buffer Yard

Buffer yard design standards will vary from community to community. Buffer yards are specified within landscape codes to allow a better mix of land uses within commercial, industrial, residential and PUD sections of the city. Buffer yards also make traditional neighborhood developments and new urbanism communities fit in better with existing developments.

Most communities will have a table of buffer yard requirements within the Zoning Ordinance that show the need for buffers between various land uses. This table is generally a matrix with existing land use along one axis and the proposed land use along the other. Within the matrix the need for a buffer is shown. Often times the matrix will show a symbol to represent various types of buffer yards that may be called buffer A,B,C, and D. or buffer yard 1,2,3 and 4. Most communities will have one or more types of buffer yards that vary be depth and planting composition. In Baton Rouge for instance, buffer yards vary in width from fifteen (15) feet in width (Type A) for a low intensity development (residential) to seventy-five (75) feet in width (Type D) for high intensity development such as heavy industrial. Within each buffer type, (A, B, C, D)there are four different widths of buffer yards. Each buffer yard type contains a different pallet of screening materials and a plant unit multiplier (PUM) for calibrating the amount of screening material needed in a one hundred (100) foot length of buffer. In Baton Rouge screen elements include Class A tree, Class B trees, shrubs, ground covers, fences or walls. The multiplier is a factor that is applied against the screening palette to determine the exact number of Class A trees, Class B trees, shrubs and so forth required to be planted in the space. The factor ranges for .6 of the pallet to 1.4 times the palette for Buffer Yard Type A.

General Design Standards for Buffer Yards

The general rule for buffer yard design is the more narrow a buffer, the more opaque it becomes and the greater the concentration of screening elements. A second general rule for buffer yards is that the more intense the land use the greater number of plant units required per one hundred (100) feet. For instance, with Type A buffers, no Class A trees are required yet for Type D buffers five (5) Class A trees are required per one hundred (100) linear feet. Finally, the last general rule of buffer yard design is that the last land owner in provides the buffer yard screen.

Many codes require a prescribed number of trees and shrubs for each 100 linear feet of property perimeter. Some communities determine design standards for buffer yards based upon density of plant materials, composition of plants, size, form, and seasonal interest. Native or non-native plants are often a factor as well as adjoining land use zoning. There are usually provisions for variations in depth of the yard buffer depending on land use, density of planting and often fences and walls can be used to reduce the buffer yard width. Some communities base their buffer yard design standard in part upon the ability of the buffer yard planting area to be used for on site storm water detention and capture.

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Baton Rouge, LA 70803