Buffers and Landscaping: What Separates New Developments from Homes?
What Durham requires between new development and existing homes — from boundary buffers to screening and street trees.
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What to Look For in a Plan Set
1. Project boundary buffer locations (and whether anything crosses them).
2. Walls/berms proposed in or near buffers (and whether they’re being used to substitute for buffer width).
3. Street trees (spacing and where they go).
4. Garbage bin/loading/mechanical screening details.
5. Parking-lot edge landscaping where lots face streets or neighbors.
1. Project boundary buffer locations (and whether anything crosses them).
2. Walls/berms proposed in or near buffers (and whether they’re being used to substitute for buffer width).
3. Street trees (spacing and where they go).
4. Garbage bin/loading/mechanical screening details.
5. Parking-lot edge landscaping where lots face streets or neighbors.
When a new project goes in next to an existing neighborhood, the biggest day-to-day question often isn’t “Is it allowed?”
It’s: What’s going to be between us and it?
Durham’s Unified Development Ordinance answers that in Article 9: Landscaping and Buffering - with rules for:
- project boundary buffers (the “between properties” strip),
- street trees (the public-facing edge),
- screening (dumpsters, loading areas, mechanical equipment),
- and vehicular use area landscaping (parking lot edges and interiors).
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![[WordroW] Vegetated Buffer - Feb. 27, 2026](/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/wordrow27.png)