Hideout planning commissioners recommend revised standards allowing limited street and sidewalk alternatives

The Hideout Planning Commission on June 26 voted to forward a positive recommendation to the Town Council for an ordinance amending the town's Standard Specifications and Drawings Manual to allow defined alternative standards for limited new streets and clarify several technical public-works specifications.

Commissioners discussed objective criteria that would allow narrower or modified street cross sections on short, low-use streets. The proposed alternatives apply when a development meets set conditions (for example, a dead-end with fewer than 13 residences and no potential pedestrian destination); if those conditions are met, some requirements such as sidewalks and on-street parking could be modified, provided compensating measures (public access easements for pedestrian passage, snow-storage easements recorded on plats and finished pedestrian surfaces) are included.

Gordon, the staff presenter, said the…