For the second time in three months, Richmond has cited landowners for illegally clearing property along the James River.

City officials sent a letter to Kennedy S. and Linda F. Daniels saying they had illegally removed vegetation beside a house they own at 7852 Rockfalls Drive in South Side.

The city is requiring the couple to restore the land with native shrubs and plants.

State law forbids the removal of plants, without local permission, within 100 feet of waters generally along or east of Interstate 95. The buffers protect the waters from pollution.

Neighboring localities are dealing with a handful of cases involving clearing within the buffer, typically behind homes on streams and lakes.

In the Richmond case, the clearing occurred along Riverside Drive, one of the region's most popular and scenic byways.

"It's a beautiful stretch of river enjoyed by hundreds of people" daily, said Ellen Wolf, a South Richmond library worker who reported the clearing. Motorists, bikers, walkers and joggers frequent Riverside.

The Danielses bought the property, which includes a Cape Cod-style home, for $1.07 million in September, according to city records. Records indicate the couple currently lives in Mechanicsville. The Richmond house is undergoing improvements.

Kennedy Daniels, an orthopedic surgeon, did not return three calls this week seeking his comments.

The city's letter, dated March 19, cited the Danielses for failing to preserve native vegetation and failing to get city approval for the clearing, among other infractions.

The cleared area encompasses about 1,000 square feet -- a section roughly 12 feet by 30 yards -- at Riverside and Rockfalls, just downriver from the Huguenot Bridge.

While large trees were left standing, a number of smaller stumps dot the property, and the ground cover was removed -- down to bare earth in places. The land apparently was cleared in midor early March.

The 100-foot buffer is required under a state law -- the 1988 Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act -- that localities enforce.

Experts say soil that washes into the James from construction sites and eroded banks is one of the biggest problems facing the river.

"That sediment is just going to wash right off" the Daniels' property, said Daniel Moore, a principal environmental planner with the state's Division of Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance. That office aids localities that administer the bay-act requirements.

In a similar case, the city in December cited the Science Museum of Virginia Foundation for the clearing of land the foundation owns along the river's north bank near Windsor Farms. The city required a replanting there, too; officials say that has been completed.

In light of those high-profile cases, Richmond building commissioner Art Dahlberg said, "We are considering some form of public education" for riverside landowners.

Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or rspringston@timesdispatch.com.