As a part of the open space corridor plan, the city of Raleigh plans to reserve undeveloped space for a buffer along each side major streams in the county including Walnut Creek. The buffer will be 50 feet on each side of the stream. It will be a natural area and will provide an animal habitat.

Open Space serves some very important purposes. First of all, it provides habitats for wide variety of plants and animals. It also minimizes flood damage.

The Wake County Parks and Recreation Department sponsors the Open Space project. They hope that Wake County will allow the space along the river to be protected. One problem is they are not allowed to remove something that is already constructed in the buffer area. Most of the area along Walnut Creek is already developed, including sections of the I-40 and I-440 corridor. This presents an enormous problem for the proposed plan. The plan for maintaining a buffer may have limited effect because of this development. The whole idea of a buffer is to try to keep land undeveloped and unchanged by people, and the effects of residential, commercial, and industrial development and the interstate highways could contaminate the potential home of a buffer for many forms of flora and fauna.