No driveway or road entering upon a Borough street or way will be approved unless all of the following conditions are met:
A. General. The driveway must have safe sight distance, not impair normal street movement, not result in excessive traffic flow or congestion on Borough streets and not create a hazard.
B. Location. The following standards shall apply:
(1) Driveway should access onto streets of type and character to handle the type and amount of vehicular traffic using the driveway. Driveways from nonresidential uses normally used by more than 60 vehicles per day shall not be permitted access onto local residential streets. The Borough Council may approve an exception to this standard based on special site conditions and traffic studies showing no negative impact on the existing residential street. For purposes of this section, a residential street is one on which 50% or more of the abutting properties are single or multifamily residences.
(2) Driveway shall not be located at highway interchanges or ramp areas so as to interfere with proper functioning. Any driveway or street carrying more than 60 vehicles per day shall not be located within 100 yards of any interchange or ramp access area of a state highway or county road.
(3) If the driveway is near a signalized intersection, the permittee shall be required to pay costs of any modifications to the signals which are necessary to control traffic movements from the driveway.
(4) If the property is a corner lot, the Borough may restrict access to only one street.
(5) The Borough may require permittee to locate the driveway directly across from street or driveway in order to avoid any safety hazard.
C. Number. Normally Borough Council will approve only one access for a property.
D. Approach. The location and angle of access of driveway in relation to street intersection shall be such that a vehicle entering or leaving driveway can do so in orderly and safe manner and with minimum interference to street traffic.
E. Design Guidelines. The applicable requirements for "minimum" and "low volume" driveways found in PennDOT Regulations, 67 Pa. Code § 1.8, shall apply unless otherwise specified by the provisions of this Part. These requirements may be modified by the Borough to accommodate specific site or street conditions in order to protect the safety and traffic capacity of Borough streets.
F. New or Modified Streets. New or modified streets and intersections, including, but not limited to, those requiring a traffic study pursuant to § 21-706, shall be designed for adequate traffic capacity defined as follows, unless otherwise approved by the Borough Engineer. All reference to levels of service (LOS) shall be as defined in the Highway Capacity Manual, Special Report 209, published by the Transportation Research Board.
(1) Traffic capacity LOS shall be based upon a future design year which coincides with completion of the development and PennDOT requirements.
(2) New unsignalized intersection or driveways which intersect streets shall be designed for LOS C or better for each traffic movement.
(3) New or modified (additional approach created) signalized intersections shall be designed for LOS C or better for each traffic movement.
(4) Existing intersections impacted by development traffic shall maintain a minimum LOS C for each traffic movement.
(5) Sight distance at driveways and new intersections shall meet standards specified by PennDOT regulations.
(Ord. 966, 10/13/2022)