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Article 5: Development Standards
Section 5.8. Access and Circulation
5.8.6. Vehicular Access and Circulation
June 2013
Morrisville, NC
Page 5-52
Unified Development Ordinance - Public Hearing Draft
Figure
5.8.6.D.5:Cross-access between parking areas of adjoining developments.
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
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1.
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.
2.
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;
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335
This carries forward the driveway access limits in Sec. 5.3.4 of the current Design and Construction Ordinance, with
modifications as noted in the following footnotes.