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 t
never ceases to amaze me how city engineers can require developers
to build new residential streets to "highway design"
standards, then later be perplexed why drivers speed on these
roads. Cities that use the old "one size fits all"
approach to road standards don't understand that the standards
that we have been using since the 1960s were designed by traffic
engineers whose sole responsibility was to provide for the movement
of traffic in greater volumes or at greater speeds.
 As stated
in Performance Streets (Bucks County, 1980), residential
streets are eventually used for a variety of purposes for which
they were not designed, such as a direct auto access for the
occupant to his home; a visual setting for residents; an entryway
for each house; a pedestrian circulation system; a community
meeting area and also a play area (whether one likes it or not)
for the children.
Almost without
exception, neighborhoods that have narrow, meandering streets
are more desirable to live in than neighborhoods that have excessively
wide and straight streets. Areas like Beacon Hill in Boston,
Mill Valley in San Francisco and Georgetown in Washington, D.C.
have extremely narrow streets and are some of this country's
most prestigious places to live. In San Diego, areas with predominantly
narrow streets like "Olde Del Mar", Solana Beach, Rancho
Santa Fe and La Jolla are some of our most desirable and expensive
communities to live in.
Think about
it. Have you ever been to a memorable town in Europe or maybe
New England that had a lasting impression on you? Chances are
that the community that you remember so fondly had the type of
narrow, meandering cobbled streets that County of San Diego Planning
Commissioner David Krietzer refers to as "storybook."
Land planner Edward McMahon points out that preservation-minded
cities like Charleston, South Carolina and Annapolis, Maryland
are among North America's leading tourism designations because
they are preserving their "neo-traditional" buildings
and narrow streets. The Amish area of Pennsylvania, on the other
hand, has seen tourism suffer due to sprawling developments with
wide streets surrounding the older villages.
Yet, many
cities in Southern California still stick tenaciously to requirements
of 36-foot wide roadways with adjacent curb, gutter and sidewalk
on new developments. As Randall Arendt of the Urban Land Institute
points out, this road standard appears to have been designed
for the 100-year party.
The City of
Carlsbad has even taken these road standard requirements up a
notch. For the past few years, they have been implementing San
Diego County's most aggressive policy of widening roads in existing
residential areas. Their regulation says that applicants applying
for a remodel permit where the amount of the construction exceeds
$50,000 must dedicate land and pay for half of a 36-foot road
with curb, gutters and sidewalks. This additional cost can easily
increase the cost of the remodel by $20,000 or more.
What do these
numbers mean? Well, they mean that in the not-too-distant future,
all of Carlsbad's residential roads will be roughly twice as
wide as Highland Drive, Skyline Road and Sunnyhill Drive which,
coincidentally, are three of Carlsbad's most exclusive streets
to live on.
This ordinance
is a huge mistake on many levels, but the biggest tragedy is
the irreparable damage it will do to Carlsbad's community character.
Although certain small areas like the "downtown village"
are exempt from this ordinance and there is an unwritten waiver
on Highland, the area that is now known as Olde Carlsbad will
have to be renamed The Community Formerly Known as Olde Carlsbad
when the roads are completed.
Neal Pierce
of the National Journal points out that there is an "Asphalt
Rebellion" bubbling up across the country. Vermont has a
new statute that all but repeals these standards. Phoenix is
relaxing minimum road width from 34 feet to 28 feet and even
AASHTO is talking modifications. Mark Steele of the City of San
Diego Planning Commission points out that Portland (the darling
of the Smart Growth proponents) has gone to 28-foot streets.
To fulfill
a need to provide a practical set of standards for residential
streets, in 1986 The American Society of Civil Engineers, in
cooperation with the National Association of Homebuilders and
the Urban Land Institute, published Residential Streets.
This publication had the following observations about the residential
street design:
- Street planning should relate to overall
community planning.
- Residential streets serving 25 lots or less
could safely be 24 feet wide.
- Design criteria that requires roads to be
flatter and straighter prevents roads from following the natural
terrain and causes the destruction of natural features.
- Streets which are wider than necessary are
more expensive to maintain.
- Excessively wide streets induce cars to speed.
- Excessively wide streets deplete rainfall
from groundwater basins.
- Excessively wide streets increase urban runoff
(this, by the way, contributes to the erosion of coastal bluffs
in the San Diego area).
- Streets with excessive on-street parking
induce homeowners to park cars on the street rather than in garages.
- Excessive on-street parking contiguous to
curb and sidewalks are dangerous for children who dart out from
behind parked cars.
- Excessive road requirements increase the
cost of homes.
According
to Michael Southworth, PhD, and Eran Ben-Joseph, PhD in their
book Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities, a rethinking
of suburban street standards is needed today to create a more
cohesive, livable and energy-efficient communities and metropolitan
areas. This is already taking place in many parts of the San
Diego area. The City of San Diego has been meeting to consider
revisions to its design manual that will reduce street and parkway
widths. Solana Beach and Del Mar have flexible standards in established
residential neighborhoods. The County of San Diego is now allowing
24 foot private streets for urban areas with parking bays or
other off-street parking provisions.
Let's hope
that Carlsbad and the other old-book cities join the "Asphalt
Rebellion" before they destroy the character of our communities.
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