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Article 5: Development Standards
Section 5.8. Access and Circulation
5.8.6. Vehicular Access and Circulation
June 23, 2017
Morrisville, NC
Page 5-54
Unified Development Ordinance
b.
Required vehicular cross access between the adjoining lots shall be provided through the use
of a frontage or service street (if the lots front on a major thoroughfare right-of-way), a single
two-way driveway or drive aisle, or two one-way driveways or aisles that are sufficiently wide
to accommodate traffic by automobiles, service vehicles, loading vehicles, and emergency
vehicles.
c.
The Planning Director, in conjunction with the Town Engineer, may waive or modify the
requirement for vehicular cross access on determining that such cross access is impractical or
undesirable because it would require crossing a significant physical barrier or environmentally
sensitive area (e.g., railroad, watercourse, floodplain, wetlands, steep slopes), or would create
unsafe conditions.
d.
Easements allowing cross access to and from properties served by a vehicular cross-access,
along with agreements defining maintenance responsibilities of property owners, shall be
recorded with the Register of Deeds for the county in which the properties are located before
issuance of a Building Permit for the development.
E.
Vehicular Access Management
Purpose
The purpose of the access management standards in this subsection is to control vehicular access to
developments from adjacent streets in a way that preserves the safe and efficient flow of the
traffic on the streets while providing property owners a right to reasonable access to a general
system of streets and highways. Specifically, the standards are intended to limit the number of
traffic conflicts, separate basic conflict areas, separate turning volumes from through movements,
and maintain progressive speeds along thoroughfares.
Driveway Intersections
a.
Limitation on Direct Driveway Access Along Thoroughfares
Direct driveway access to a development’s principal origin or destination points (including
individual lots in a subdivision) may be provided directly from a major or minor thoroughfare
only if:
(1)
No alternative direct vehicular access from a lower-classified accessway (e.g., collector
street, local street, alley, or driveway) is available or feasible to provide;
(2)
Only one two-way driveway, or one pair of one-way driveways, is allowed onto lots with
250 or less feet of lot frontage on the major or minor thoroughfare, and no more than
one additional two-way driveway or pair of one-way driveways per additional 250 feet
of frontage; or
(3)
The development(s) served by the driveway is expected to generate an average daily
traffic (ADT) count of 1,000 trips or less, or the Planning Director determines that the origin
or destination points accessed by the driveway will generate sufficiently low traffic
volumes, and the adjacent major or minor thoroughfare has sufficiently low travel speeds
and traffic volumes, to allow safe driveway access while preserving the safety and
efficiency of travel on the thoroughfare.
b.
Limitation on Direct Driveway Access Along Other Roadways
The following standards shall apply to vehicular access along a roadway other than a freeway
or a major or minor thoroughfare.
(1)
For single-family detached, duplex, manufactured home dwellings, and pocket
neighborhood developments, no more than two direct driveway access points are allowed.
(2)
For bungalow courts, no more than one driveway access point is allowed.