(a) Additional Regulations. In addition to the requirements established by this Ordinance, all development within the City limits shall be designed so as to comply with the intent and provisions of the Zoning Ordinance, building and housing codes, Master Plan, regulations of the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Health, and any other applicable law or regulation adopted by a unit of federal, state or local government; and all development within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City shall comply with this ordinance and all other applicable laws and regulations adopted by a unit of federal, state or local government.
(b) Standards in General. The minimum design standards as contained herein shall provide the basic criteria for evaluating proposed development. The City may, however, establish reasonable design requirements in excess of these established minimum standards, or grant variances from those established minimum standards, where by reason of exceptional topographic, cultural, historic, archaeological, hydrologic, or other physical conditions. If the property to be developed or of an adjacent tract, the strict adherence to these standards will result in an inappropriate subdivision design or cause unnecessary hardship.
(c) Coordinated Design. The quality of life and the community in the Trinidad urban area is dependent on the quality of design of the individual developments in which people live and work. Good community design requires the coordination of the efforts of each developer of land within the urban area. It is intended that the urban area shall be designed as a group of integrated residential neighborhoods and appropriate commercial, industrial and public facilities. Therefore, the design of each development shall be prepared in accordance with the applicable principles established by the Master Plan for land use, circulation, community facilities and public utility services and in accordance with the following general principles:
(1) The neighborhood, as a planning unit, is intended as an area principally for residential use, and of a size that can be served by one elementary school. Space for recreational, educational and shopping facilities to serve the residents of the neighborhood should be provided and designed as an integral part of each neighborhood. The size of lots and blocks should be designed to provide for adequate water and wastewater service, traffic circulation, light, air, open space, landscaping and off-street parking. The arrangement of lots and blocks and the street system should be designed to make the most advantageous use of topography and natural physical features. Tree masses and large individual trees should be preserved to the greatest extent possible. The system of sidewalks and roadways and the lot layout should be designed to take advantage of the visual qualities of the area.
(2) The components of the street system should in different degrees serve the separate purposes of access to property and safe, efficient movement of traffic. Land use types should be served by roadways whose capacity increases in proportion to the traffic generation of the land use. Design and location of points of access to property should be appropriate to the volume and speed characteristics of traffic utilizing the intersection.
(3) An open space system throughout the urban area should provide a range of active and passive recreation opportunities. Park, open space and recreation facilities should be located with sensitivity to user population, natural features, traffic generation, and nearby land use.
(4) Land use arrangement and design should minimize the difference in intensity between adjacent uses in order to provide for the provision of water, wastewater and roadways sufficient to serve the proposed densities and provide for compatible neighboring developments. Step-down patterns of use surrounding major activity centers, combined with buffering techniques, should ensure that residential densities are compatible with each other, and that residential development is not adversely impacted by higher intensity uses.
(5) Public utilities and infrastructure should be provided within all subdivisions in order to ensure the health, safety and well-being of the public. Utility capacity should be sufficient to meet accepted standards of service to reasonably anticipated development. Where excess capacity in utility lines or facilities within a subdivision will further the efficient and desirable extension of utilities to adjacent property, equitable provision of such capacity is essential to the orderly growth of the urban area.
(6) Construction of water, wastewater, drainage, gas, electric, telephone and cable television utilities that require utility cuts of a public street shall e repaired pursuant to applicable City ordinances.
(Ord. 2022-002, passed 4-19-2022)