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The
Town’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan requires an ultimate
53’ back-to-back cross section for this segment of
West Chatham
Street
.
The 53’ dimension consists of one lane in each direction
with parallel parking on each side.
Sufficient pavement currently exists, therefore, additional
roadway widening is not required.
West Chatham
Street
is located
within 60’ of the right-of-way.
However, since the ultimate right-of-way width is 65’ wide,
the plan includes an additional 2.5’ of right-of-way along the
property frontage (one-half of the remaining 5’ of right-of-way).
Items
deviating from Town Standards requiring Town Council approval:
·
Sidewalk
adjacent to back-of-curb
-
Town
Standards specify that sidewalk shall typically be a minimum
distance of five (5) feet off the back of curb.
Due to existing site improvements, to the limited site area,
and to the
Comprehensive
Transportation Plan proposal for future on-street parallel parking
for
Chatham
Street,
staff supports the proposal of sidewalk construction adjacent to the
back-of-curb.
·
Reduced
on-site travel aisle width
-
Town
Standards require a minimum twenty-three (23) foot travel aisle for
two-way traffic on-site. The
western parking travel aisle meets the minimum 23-foot width
required at the beginning of the aisle.
The existing retaining wall and the building are not parallel
to the western property line and the two converge moving from the
front to the rear of the property, thereby narrowing the drive to
approximately 18’ in width at two proposed landscape planters.
The proposed planters are the required minimum size and are
configured to be 18’ in width to match the depth of adjoining
parking spaces. The
23-foot dimension cannot be met, therefore, without either reducing
the planter sizes, reducing the minimum parking stall depth, or
rebuilding both the existing retaining wall and the building to
construct them parallel to the western property line.
According
to the owner, the site currently functions adequately and has in the
past. Since there is no
change in use of this property, the owner anticipates that the
current configuration will continue to function adequately.
Although
staff would prefer that our minimum standard be met, because this is
an existing
developed
site, because the use is remaining the same, and because the owner
has stated that the existing site configuration has and will
continue to function adequately, staff supports the request to allow
the western parking lot travel isle width to remain at a
reduced-variable width.
·
Offset
driveway/on-site travel aisle -
According
to the owner, the existing western drive entrance has to date
functioned adequately without incident.
The current location allows plantings between the
handicap-accessible path from the parking space to the sidewalk
along
Chatham Street
.
If the drive entrance were relocated westward to align with
the travel aisle in the western parking lot, the southwestern
streetscape area would be dramatically reduced or eliminated.
The owner feels that the current situation provides a better
disconnect between pedestrians and parked cars.
Although
staff feels that aligning the drive and the on-site travel aisle
would provide safer vehicular movement, because this is an existing
developed site, because the use is remaining the same, and because
the owner has stated that the existing configuration has and would
function adequately for the use, staff supports the request to leave
the configuration as-is with an offset driveway/travel aisle
alignment.
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