The following design standards are to be followed unless the City Council shall permit a variance because of unusual circumstances due to the topography, placement of buildings or other factors making it reasonable to vary the standards set forth without nullifying the intent and purpose of the comprehensive plan or this section.
(A) The arrangement, character, extent, width, grade and location of all streets shall conform to the comprehensive plan and shall be considered in their relation to existing and planned streets, to topographical conditions, to public convenience and safety and in their appropriate relation to the proposed uses of the land to be served by the streets.
(B) Where such is not shown in the comprehensive plan, the arrangement of streets in the subdivision shall either:
(1) Provide for the continuation or appropriate projection of existing principal streets in surrounding areas; or
(2) Conform to a plan for the neighborhood approved or adopted by the City Council to meet a particular situation where topography or other conditions make continuance or conformance to existing streets impractical.
(C) Local streets shall be so laid out that their use by through traffic will be discouraged and so that they will not tend to function as collector streets.
(D) Where a subdivision abuts or contains an existing or proposed arterial street, the City Council may require marginal access streets, reverse frontage with screen planting contained in a nonaccess reservation along the rear property line, deep lots with rear service alleys or other treatment as may be necessary for adequate protection of residential property and to afford separation of through and local traffic.
(E) Where a subdivision borders on or contains a railroad right-of-way, or limited access highway right-of-way, the City Council may require a street approximately parallel to and on each side of the right-of-way, at a distance suitable for the appropriate use of the intervening land. The distances shall also be determined with due regard for the requirements of approach grades and future grade separations.
(F) Reserve strips controlling access to streets shall be prohibited except where their control is definitely placed under conditions approved by the City Council.
(G) Street intersections with center line offsets of less than 125 feet shall be avoided.
(H) A tangent at least 100 feet long shall be introduced between curves of reverse direction on arterial major and collector streets.
(I) When connecting street lines of the same street deflect from each other at any one point by more than ten degrees, they shall be connected by a curve with a radius adequate to ensure a sight distance of not less than 150 feet for minor and collector streets, and of the greater radii as the City Engineer shall determine for special cases.
(J) Streets shall be laid out so as to intersect, as nearly as possible, at right angles and no street shall intersect any other street at less than 60 degrees.
(K) Sight easements with tangent distances of 30 feet shall be provided at street intersections or the City Council may permit property lines at street intersections to be rounded with a radius deemed necessary.
(L) Street right-of-way widths shall be as shown in the comprehensive plan and where not shown therein shall not be less than as follows:
Street Type Minimum
Right-of-Way Width
Principal arterial 150 - 300 feet
Intermediate arterial 150 - 300 feet
Minor arterial 100 - 150 feet
Community collector 80 - 100 feet
Neighborhood collector 80 feet
Local access 60 feet
(M) Half streets shall be prohibited, except where essential to the reasonable development of the subdivision in conformance with the other requirements of these regulations; and where the City Council finds it will be practicable to require the dedication of the other half when the adjoining property is subdivided. Wherever a half street is adjacent to a tract to be subdivided, the other half of the street shall be platted within the tract.
(N) Cul-de-sac dead end streets, designated to be so permanently, shall not serve more than 15 single- family dwelling units or 25 multiple dwelling units and shall not be longer than 900 feet and shall be provided at the closed end with a turnaround having an outside roadway diameter of at least 100 feet and street property line diameter of at least 120 feet.
(O) Culs-de-sac shall only be developed where justified by irregular topography or where adjacent to limited access streets.
(P) Street grades, wherever feasible, shall not exceed the following, with due allowance for reasonable vertical curves:
Street Type Percent Grade
Arterial 5
Collector 7
Local 8
(Q) No street grade shall be less than 0.5%. At intersections, the street grade shall not exceed 2% for the first 100 feet approaching the intersection.
(R) All streets shall be constructed to the minimum load bearing capacities dictated by the proposed designated use as follows:
(1) Residential noncontinuous streets (culs- de-sac) or low volume continuous noncollector streets, seven-ton per axle load bearing capacity;
(2) Residential, medium-high volume collector streets, nine-ton per axle load bearing capacity; and
(3) All commercial and industrial streets, nine-ton per axle load bearing capacity.
(‘81 Code, § B1-34) (Ord. 293, passed 4-21-83)