Chatham County advances new rules requiring larger buffers between warehouses and neighborhoods

Chatham County commissioners voted on June 12 to advance a zoning text amendment that raises the required buffer between industrial or warehouse developments and adjacent residential property.

Planning staff, represented by Marcus Latson, presented the amendment and said the county’s existing maximum buffer (40 feet) is inadequate for million‑square‑foot warehouses. The proposal the board advanced calls for a 100‑foot planted or preserved buffer between industrial property lines and residential property lines or rights‑of‑way; it also included an 8‑foot berm topped by an 8‑foot fence. Staff recommended limited reductions for smaller sites (sites 10 acres or less or warehouses under 50,000 square feet) to avoid placing disproportionate burdens on small contractors.

"If you're talking about a million square foot warehouse next to a neighborhood, 40 feet is inadequate," Latson told the board.

Commissioners and residents pressed staff on implementation: who enforces planting and berms, whether buffers must be preserved or newly planted, what species should be required, and how requirements apply to existing permitted developments. Several commissioners expressed concern that delegating large reduction authority to staff would erode commissioner oversight.

Commissioner Dean Kicklider and others urged the board to remove the automatic reduction that would permit a 50% buffer decrease on small sites; commissioners ultimately voted to approve the amendment while deleting that reduction clause and instructed staff to return quickly with refined language that specifies vegetation, enforcement checkpoints and the timing for required plantings.

Residents and advocates who spoke during public comment urged the strongest possible standards, flagged speculative warehouse construction and data centers as emerging threats, and asked for explicit rules for trucking plazas and other intensive uses.

The board approved the ordinance change subject to the requested edits; staff said the item will be brought back for formal readings with the additional planting, enforcement and process language.