Planning staff proposes standard 20-foot alley pavement in Redmond code update

City planning staff told the Redmond Urban Area Planning Commission they want to standardize residential alley pavement at 20 feet and remove a 16-foot alternative that currently appears in public works standards.

The presenter explained that the development code already specifies a 20-foot right-of-way for residential alleys, but the design standards in the public works specification allowed pavement widths of either 16 or 20 feet. "...we would recommend to change that, get rid of the 16 feet and make it 20," the presenter said, adding that the city engineer would retain the ability to grant exceptions in unique circumstances.

Commissioners sought clarification about whether the right-of-way would change (it would not) and whether the standard applied to private as well as public alleys (staff said standards apply to both, with maintenance of private alleys typically handled by HOAs). Staff framed the change as correcting an apparent oversight in the standards and said it would not remove the engineer’s discretion to permit a narrower pavement in exceptional cases.

The proposal drew brief discussion but no formal action on the pavement standard alone; the commission instead voted to continue the overall hearing to allow staff to engage stakeholders on several elements of the package. Staff said other alley-related standards for local and narrow streets (36-foot typical local street; narrow streets 24 feet) would remain unchanged.