Brownsville adopts gateway corridor standards for Anderson Avenue to add landscaping and access management

The Board of Aldermen approved Ordinance 1037 to implement gateway-corridor design standards along Anderson Avenue, from Highway 56 to the bypass, including a 20-foot landscape zone with shrubs and access-management provisions intended to promote shared driveways where feasible.

Planning staff said the change implements recommendations from the Hayward Next future land-use plan and aims to “beautify Anderson Avenue as you come from the interstate into town,” while reducing long-term conflicts between trees and underground utilities. “We took the trees out, at the behest…because trees tend to get into sewer lines, water lines,” said Merrill, a city staff member who presented the ordinance, adding that shrubs will be required and must be planted at least five feet from the right-of-way and set back from utilities.

The ordinance also includes access-management language to encourage shared entrances instead of individual driveways when future development makes that feasible. The measure permits monument signs rather than large billboards and applies to the corridor stretch shown on the city map. The board discussed whether the standards would apply retroactively; staff said the ordinance cannot retroactively force changes to existing developments. After discussion, aldermen moved and approved the ordinance on the reading; no roll-call tally appears in the transcript.

City staff noted the standards would be implemented on new development and in undeveloped portions of the corridor; existing properties would not be forced to change under the ordinance as presented.