Why shucks! It is taken right out of VDOT’s Secondary Street Acceptance Requirements dated March 2009. It was also taken out of context. Town Manager Terpenny noted last night that VDOT only required a 24 foot paved roadway when asked about possible problems with access to houses around Sage Lane for Fire, police, etc. (additionally the above link can be viewed as html.
From page 52 of this document:
Design Requirements – Context Sensitive Street Design (Page 39 and section 30-92-120 within the SSAR)
The agency’s previous Subdivision Street Requirements commonly included a standard street design width between 36 and 40 feet. These widths combined with local ordinance mandated off-street parking requirements often resulted in an effective local street lane width of 18 feet. Widths of this extent result in large impervious surface areas that exacerbate stormwater runoff and encourages higher vehicular speeds that are generally inappropriate in most areas.
Key elements in the implementation of the SSAR are the revised elements of the roadway’s geometric design. The revised geometric design standards generally allow for narrower streets (24 to 29 feet wide for local streets) than were allowed in the past. These narrower street widths will play a significant role in reducing vehicle speeds through developments. Additionally, these narrower roadways will reduce the amount of stormwater runoff due to their smaller impervious area. While the streets are narrower, they meet the nationally accepted AASHTO minimum design standards for the design of roadways.
Maybe I’m misreading something but it seems that these widths are consistent with the “combined with local ordinance mandated off-street parking requirement”. Howver, within the area of Sage Lane, it appears that some special measures (good ones on the part of the developer were taken to minimize impervious surfaces) such that most homes have room to park only one car and the street is full of additional parked cars from those homes on both sides.
Trying to have their cake and eat it too????? Even the 24 foot width quoted by the Town Manager is at the extreme end of the scale (24 to 29 feet). Is there a local ordinance mandating off-street parking, if so what does it say? How many parking spaces are required? Was there a variance on the existing development?
Something just doesn’t make sense to me….maybe you 2,000 plus readers can find what I’m missing. Maybe you can find it before Town Council does:)
