Hideout planners consider alternate, narrower road standard for low-use streets

The Hideout Planning Commission discussed on June 10 a proposed amendment to the town engineering standards that would create an alternate road section for local streets with limited pedestrian destinations or low residential counts.

The draft standard, presented by Gordon (engineering consultant), would allow developers to reduce or remove on-street parking and eliminate sidewalks on one side of a street if objective criteria are met — for example where the street does not front residences, the developer controls both sides of the street or the street is a dead end with a limited number of residences. Gordon described the objective test as: "the town might benefit from other standards on local streets depending on certain criteria." He added that the criteria “could be implemented independently.”

Commissioners and staff said the change is intended to respond to topography and buildability in locations where full-width streets would require substantial cut-and-fill. Gordon presented a notional cross section showing 27 feet of paved roadway (back-of-curb to back-of-curb), a 37-foot right-of-way, 5-foot pedestrian or snow-storage space on one side and 10-foot public-utility easements (PUEs) on each side.

Why it matters: the proposed alternate would be a permanent modification to…