Re: request for council action/subdivision

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#2466 Renckens & Winston May 21, 1999 Page 3 The City's goal (and obligation)is to establish a local road system that provides access to property, is adequate to allow for the expected and required levels of general and emergency services, and is efficient to maintain. Orono accomplishes this in its Rural area primarily via private roads, and provides corridors for future connections between private roads in order to establish a system that can be easily maintained and that will provide alternate means of access in times of emergency. The City also sets minimum design standards for private roads and long driveways in order to ensure that the required access by service, maintenance and emergency vehicles is feasible. The property owners'goal is a safe,private environment for families. To accomplish this,the typical property owner would prefer dead-end roads rather than connecting roads, and in many cases would prefer long driveways rather than home placement near the road. Topography, wetlands,parcel shapes and sizes, availability of septic sites, minimum lot standards established by code, impact on(or of) surrounding development, and many other factors must all be taken into account when designing a rural subdivision to create homesites. Balancing all these factors against the potentially conflicting goals of the City and the property owner is sometimes difficult. Zoning/Subdivision Code Excerpts Staff believes the zoning/subdivision code supports the position that a 50'private road outlot should be platted along the north boundary: 1. Council has the authority to require completion of improvements, including the creation of public and private roads and the granting of road and utility easements for Class II and III subdivisions per Section 11.10, Subd. 21. 2. In Section 11.3 1, Subd. 1 "Lot Arrangement"the code states "The lot arrangement shall be such that there will be no foreseeable difficulties, for reasons of topography or other conditions, in securing building permits to build on all lots in compliance with the Zoning Chapter of the City Code and in providing driveway access to buildings on such lots from an approved street." The Fire Marshal has provided State Fire Code standards for fire department access roads that exceed 150' in length. A driveway from Watertown R o a d serving Renckens' proposed house location would be approximately 800' in length, it would require a 40'radius loop driveway turnaround, a 20' wide x 14' high clear area for its entire length, and be built to 9-ton standards for fire truck access. Are these unreasonable standards?Ask the family on West Farm Road whose million dollar home was a total loss because the FD couldn't access it through their 350' driveway. The newly proposed access to Crystal Creek Road is a positive revision to this application. A future subdivision creating a lot that would use the 30' corridor to Watertown Road would likely have a 400-500' driveway.