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APPENDIX B – WAKE COUNTY PROGRAMS TO MITIGATE SECONDARY AND CUMULATIVE IMPACTS
B-13
this SCIMMP. These rules require that existing riparian buffer areas be protected and
maintained on both sides of intermittent and perennial surface waters.
Article 11 of the UDO requires that all riparian surface waters in the County’s
jurisdiction have a 50-foot-wide buffer if the feature is present on either the most recent
version of the USDA Soils Map or 7.5-minute quadrangle topographic map prepared by
the USGS. Wider riparian buffers are required in water supply watersheds (WSWs) and
Resource Conservation Overlay Districts, as described below.
The Swift Creek Watershed falls within portions of the planning area for Wake County,
the towns of Apex, Cary, Gardner and Holly Springs, and the City of Raleigh. Swift
Creek is identified as a water supply watershed (WSW). According to Article 11 of the
UDO, the following buffer requirements apply in WSWs:
100 feet from the flood pool elevation of a water supply impoundment that are 25 or
more acres (measured perpendicular to the shoreline)
50 feet from the normal pool elevation of a non-water supply impoundment with a
drainage area of 25 acres or more
100 feet along perennial streams on the most recent edition of USGS topographic
maps; inner 50 feet (Zone 1) is undisturbed vegetated; outer 50 feet (Zone 2) is stable
vegetated
50 feet along non-perennial watercourse, channel, ditch, or similar physiographic
feature with a drainage area of 25 acres or more
30 feet from the normal pool elevation of the water supply impoundment with a
drainage area of at least 5 acres but less than 25 acres
30 feet along each side of a watercourse, channel, ditch, or similar physiographic
feature with a drainage area of at least 5 acres but less than 25 acres
Minimum building setback from all buffers of 20 feet, except the 100-foot perennial
stream buffer, which has no required setback
Inner 50 feet (Zone 1) of the 100-foot-wide required buffer along perennial streams
either platted as part of a development lot and included within a conservation
easement, or set aside as a reserved conservation parcel
Bass Lake is located within the Town of Holly Springs Planning Area and within the
County’s Resource Conservation Overlay districts. According to Article 11 of the UDO,
the following buffers apply in a Resource Conservation Overlay district:
100 feet required around special water impoundment (special watershed: a
watershed area in Wake County zoning jurisdiction that contains [a] special water
impoundment[s] that provide[s] significant wildlife habitat, characteristics unique to
Wake County, public recreation, or potential for future recreation)
50 feet along each side of a stream or impoundment draining 25 or more acres of
land