To ensure safe, direct and convenient pedestrian circulation, all developments, except single-family detached housing (i.e., on individual lots), shall provide a continuous pedestrian and/or multi-use pathway system. (Pathways only provide for pedestrian circulation. Multi-use pathways accommodate pedestrians and bicycles.). Sidewalks may be required on one or both sides of public streets when the Planning Commission finds that they are necessary or desirable for public safety. The system of pathways shall be designed based on the standards in divisions (A) and (B) below.
(A) Continuous pathways. The pathway system shall extend throughout the development site, and connect to all future phases of development, adjacent trails, public parks and open space areas whenever possible. The developer may also be required to connect or stub the pathway(s) to adjacent streets and private property, in accordance with the provisions of § 95.31.
(B) Safe, direct and convenient pathways.
(1) Pathways within developments shall provide safe, reasonably direct and convenient connections between primary building entrances and all adjacent streets, based on the following definitions.
REASONABLY DIRECT. A route that does not deviate unnecessarily from a straight line or a route that does not involve a significant amount of out-of-direction travel for likely users.
SAFE AND CONVENIENT.
1. Bicycle and pedestrian routes that are reasonably free from hazards and provide a reasonably direct route of travel between destinations.
2. If appropriate to the extension of a system of bicycle routes, existing or planned, the Planning Commission may require the installation of separate bicycle lanes within streets and separate bicycle paths.
(2) (a) For commercial, industrial, mixed use, public, and institutional buildings, the "primary entrance" is the main public entrance to the building.
(b) In the case where no public entrance exists, street connections shall be provided to the main employee entrance.
(3) (a) For residential buildings the "primary entrance" is the front door (i.e., facing the street).
(b) For multi-family buildings in which each unit does not have its own exterior entrance, the "primary entrance" may be a lobby, courtyard or breeze-way which serves as a common entrance for more than one dwelling.
(C) Connections within development. For all developments subject to site design review, pathways shall connect all building entrances to one another. In addition, pathways shall connect all parking areas, storage areas, recreational facilities and common areas (as applicable), and adjacent developments to the site, as applicable.
(D) Street connectivity. Pathways (for pedestrians and bicycles) shall be provided at or near mid-block where the block length exceeds the length required by § 95.31(J). Pathways shall also be provided where cul-de-sacs or dead-end streets are planned, to connect the ends of the streets together, to other streets, and/or to other developments, as applicable. Pathways used to comply with these standards shall conform to all of the following criteria.
(1) Multi-use pathways are no less than ten feet wide and located within a 20-foot wide right-of-way or easement that allows access for emergency vehicles.
(2) If the streets within the subdivision or neighborhood are lighted, the pathways shall also be lighted.
(3) Stairs or switchback paths using a narrower right-of-way/easement may be required in lieu of a multi-use pathway where grades are steep.
(4) The city may require landscaping within the pathway easement/right-of-way for screening and the privacy of adjoining properties.
(5) The city may determine, based upon facts in the record, that a pathway is impracticable due to: physical or topographic conditions (e.g., freeways, extremely steep slopes, sensitive lands and similar physical constraints); buildings or other existing development on adjacent properties that physically prevent a connection now or in the future, considering the potential for redevelopment; and sites where the provisions of recorded leases, easements, covenants, restrictions or other agreements recorded as of the effective date of this chapter prohibit the pathway connection.
(Ord. 223, passed 11-18-2004) Penalty, see § 10.99