Agenda - 05-15-1990 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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COPY NCOOT II. COUNTS TROROUGHFARE PLANNING PRINCIPLES Purpose of Planning There are many benefits to be gained from thoroughfare planning, but the main objective is to assure that the road system will be progressively developed in a manner that will adequately serve future travel desires. Thus, the cardinal concept of thoroughfare planning is to make provisions for street and highway improvements so that when needs arise, feasible opportunities to make improvements exist. Streets, roads, and highways, carry out two primary functions. They provide traffic service and land service. When combined, these two uses are basically incompatible. This conflict is not serious if both traffic and land service demands are low. When traffic volumes are high, however, access conflicts created by uncontrolled and intensively used abutting property result in intolerable traffic flow friction and congestion. The major benefits derived from thoroughfare planning are: (1) Each road or highway can be designed to perform a specific function and to provide a specific level of service. This permits savings in rights -of -way, construction, and maintenance costs; protects residential neighborhoods, and encourages stability in travel and land use patterns. (2) Local officials are informed of future improvements. Developers can design subdivisions to function in a non - conflicting manner. School and park officials can better locate their facilities. Damage to property values and community appearance that is sometimes associated with road improvements can be minimized. County Thoroughfare Planning Concept The underlying concept of the thoroughfare plan is that it provides a functional system of streets, roads and highways which permit travel from origins to destinations with directness, ease and safety. Different elements in the system are designed and called on to perform specific functions and levels of service, thus minimizing-the traffic and land service conflict. Within the county plan, elements are considered to be either urban or rural. In the urban planning area, the local municipality generally has planning jurisdiction. Outside the urban planning area, the county has planning jurisdiction . In those urban areas where no urban thoroughfare plan has been developed, elements are generally considered to be rural and under the planning jurisdiction of the county. When a thoroughfare plan is developed for an urban area that has not previously had a plan, then the area defined by that plan would be considered urban and come under the planning jurisdiction of the municipality. Within the urban and rural systems, thoroughfare plan 5