(a) The street layout of the subdivision shall be in general conformity with a plan for the most advantageous development of adjoining areas and the entire neighborhood.
(1) Where appropriate to the design, proposed streets shall be continuous and in alignment with existing, planned or platted streets with which they are to connect.
(2) Proposed streets shall be extended to the boundary lines of the tract to be subdivided, unless prevented by topography or other physical conditions or unless, in the opinion of the Planning Commission, such extension is not necessary or desirable for the coordination of the layout of the subdivision with the existing layout or the most advantageous future development of adjacent tracts. Dead-end streets of reasonable length (normally not over 600 feet) will be approved where necessitated by topography or where, in the judgment of the Planning Commission, they are appropriate for the type of development contemplated. No strips of land along tract boundaries, tending to preclude street extensions, will be permitted.
(3) Proposed streets shall intersect one another as nearly at right angles as the topography and other limiting factors of good design permit.
(4) Wherever there exists adjacent to the tract to be subdivided a dedicated or platted and recorded half-width street or alley, the other half width of such street or alley shall be platted.
(5) Alleys shall be platted in all commercial and industrial areas if no other provisions are made for adequate access to parking and loading spaces. To provide safe access to residential lots located on highways, thoroughfares and parkways, alleys may be platted in the rear of such lots or service drives provided in front thereof, or such lots shall be platted as suggested in subsections (a)(6)B. and C. hereof. Alleys will not be approved in other locations in residence districts, unless required by unusual topography or other exceptional conditions.
(6) Land abutting highways or principal thoroughfares shall be platted with the view of making the lots, if for residential use, desirable for such use by cushioning the impact of heavy traffic on such trafficways; and with the view also of minimizing interference with traffic on such trafficways as well as the accident hazard. This may be accomplished in several ways:
A. By platting the lots abutting such trafficways at very generous depths, and by providing vehicular access to them by means of either alleys or service drives in the rear, or frontage access roads next to the highway, connected therewith at infrequent intervals.
B. Another more desirable and usually more economical method consists of not fronting the lots on the highway but on a minor street paralleling the highway at a distance of a generous lot depth. Private driveways in this case would, of course, connect with such minor street.
C. Under still another scheme, a collector street may be platted more or less parallel with the highway, 600 to 1,000 feet distant therefrom, from which loop streets or dead-end streets would extend toward the highway, the ends of which would provide access to the lots backing upon the highway.
The choice, in a specific case, among the foregoing or other methods for accomplishing the purpose in view, must necessarily be made in consideration of topography and other physical conditions, the character of existing and contemplated developments and other pertinent factors that apply in each case.
(7) Private streets will not be approved nor will public improvements be approved in any private street.
(8) Temporary dead-end streets will be permitted where necessitated by the design of the subdivision, provided that temporary turn-arounds be constructed where lots are fronting on such temporary dead-end streets. The needed area for such turn-arounds shall be the same as required for permanent turn-arounds, provided that the area in excess of the street right of way shall be vacated upon extension of the temporary street.
(b) Blocks shall have sufficient width to provide for two tiers of lots of appropriate depth.
(1) The lengths of blocks shall be such as, in the opinion of the Planning Commission, are appropriate for the locality and the type of development contemplated, but shall not exceed 1800 feet where the average size of lots does not exceed two acres in area, and shall not be less than 500 feet.
(2) In any block of over 900 feet in length the Planning Commission may require that a crosswalk or pedestrian way, not less than ten feet wide, be provided near the center and entirely across such block.
(3) The number of intersecting streets along highways, thoroughfares and parkways shall be held to a minimum. Wherever practicable, blocks along such trafficways shall be not less than 1200 feet in length.
(Ord. 64-47. Passed 4-27-64.)