Littleton staff seek formal adoption of city engineering design standards

City staff on Tuesday presented a draft engineering design and construction standards manual—referred to in the meeting as “LEHI”—and asked Council and Planning Commission members to support publishing the draft for public comment ahead of formal adoption later this year. Jessica Stanley, the city’s development engineering manager, said the document collects federal, state and local industry specifications the city already applies and would make them an official reference for contractors and developers.

The manual will be strictly technical, Stanley said, covering materials, pavement sections, traffic-signal hardware, storm and sanitary piping, inspection and warranty requirements and contractor responsibilities. “This isn't something we're not already doing. We are. It's just to formalize them in our … city documentation,” Stanley said.

Staff emphasized LEHI’s role as the implementation companion to the Transportation Master Plan (TMP). The TMP sets roadway policy and corridor cross-sections; LEHI defines how to build them. Community Development Director Matt Knight and City Engineer Brent Satterlund told council members administrative updates to LEHI would allow staff to revise detailed specifications quickly when industry standards change, while larger, policy-scale changes would be brought to council.

Several council members and Planning Commission members pressed on safety and sequencing. Commissioner Aaron Roethlisberger and others said they had expected the TMP update — now planned later — to be the venue for policy changes such as lane widths and design features intended to slow traffic. Knight and Stanley replied that the cross-section templates from the existing TMP will be included in LEHI and that LEHI is being drafted with the TMP’s safety goals in mind. Stanley said LEHI contains the cross-sections and design criteria that implement TMP policy; the TMP itself remains the place to set broader policy on speeds, modal priorities and corridor-level decisions.

Staff proposed a roughly 45-day public-comment period once draft text is ready, with a target for Council adoption in the third quarter. They also proposed LEHI be maintained administratively with clear thresholds for when substantive changes would return to council. “If it’s really big, overarching things… those will be brought forth to council,” Satterlund said.

What’s next: staff will post draft redlines for public review, gather comments from contractors and professional groups, return to Planning Commission, then seek council adoption. The city also plans to host outreach targeted to contractors and consulting engineers so the new codified standards are widely understood before adoption.