Item B: Street Design Standards for Crest Drive

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Context Sensitive Solutions Process History After several months of work, the members of the Crest Drive Community Team (CDCT) approved its group operating agreements for the CSS process for the Crest Drive neighborhood. There are 21 members of the CDCT including two City staff, Lisa Gardner, Planning Director and Mark Schoening, City Engineer. The CDCT developed group agreements addressing decision-making, meetings, communication and support. Each member of the CDCT signed the group agreements. The CDCT also developed a mission statement that reads: To recommend a street design for the identified sections of Crest Drive, Storey Boulevard, and Friendly Street using the context sensitive solutions process while taking into consideration the entire neighborhood context. To support the design efforts of the CDCT, the City conducted a topographic survey of all of the streets under consideration, including all of the trees within the public right-of-way. The City’s survey crew surveyed 15,846 data points including the existing edge of pavement, property corners, public and private utilities, structures, and trees. All of this survey information was used to generate a set of maps to aid in the street design process. The maps also included information on the existing pavement width which is shown on Attachment B. The design process involved City staff working with five separate street teams on five separate street segments – Upper Crest, Middle Crest, Lower Crest, Storey and Friendly. Each street team presented its conceptual design to the entire CDCT. As part of the design process each street team evaluated its design using the Themes and Values (Attachment C) developed and approved by the CDCT. Over the course of two CDCT meetings on June 28 and July 12, the CDCT reached consensus on the conceptual design for all five street segments. However, the CDCT did not reach agreement on the overall design concept because of an outstanding issue regarding the minimum street width. Through a consensus based decision process, the CDCT has determined that there are compelling reasons to support a minimum street width of 18 feet (two nine-foot travel lanes). Reasons supporting the recommendation include the CDCT’s themes and values regarding preserved neighborhood livability, reduction of traffic speeds, efficient use of urban land in a rural setting, increased safety for all modes of use and focus on a footprint that fits the neighborhood’s character. As such, an 18-foot street width is perceived to be more consistent with the CDCT’s adopted themes and values than a 20-foot street width. Based on these collaboratively developed values, it is the consensus recommendation of the CDCT to pursue a legislative change to the minimum street width (18 feet rather than the prescribed minimum of 20 feet) prior to making a decision on the overall design concept. RELATED CITY POLICIES Transplan Goal #2: Transportation System Characteristics Enhance the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area’s quality of life and economic opportunity by providing a transportation system that is: a.Balanced b.Accessible c.Efficient L:\CMO\2007 Council Agendas\M071008\S071008B.doc