11-26-1990 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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I. TRANSPORTATION A. Introduction The Metropolitan Council has revised the Transportation Development Guide/Policy Plan . Orono needs to determine whether a local comprehensive plan amendment is necessary to demonstrate consistency with the revised transportation policy plan. Orono should consult the full ^ext of the Transportation Development Guide/Policy Plan in preparing any amendments to its local plan. B. Signlflc .nt Policy Changes Significant transportation issues will affect this region over the next 20 years. These issues include: growing commuter traffic on the region's highways; - the need for expensive replacement and improvement of much of the region's highway and transit infrastructure; and - the inadequacy of transportation funding to accomplish these improvements. Because it is impossible for the region to build its way out of congestion, the revised Transportation Development Guide/Policy Plan is based on a "constrained-demand" approach. One of the plan's main premises is that careful maaigement of the regional transportation system can help maintain the good access to regional opportunities that exists today, despite the IsuTge growth in travel demand expected in the future. Orono needs to determine if comprehensive plan amendments are needed to address highway, transit and land-use issues. Actions that Orono may need to implement are indented and set off with a o . 1. Highways The 2010 metropolitan highway system is shown in Figure 1, and a description of system roadways within the city of Orono is included in Section IC. Orono should expect increased traffic levels through 2010 both on the metropolitan highway system and on local arterials and collectors. The new Transportation Development Gulde/Pollcy Plan recommends a mixture of capacity improvements and traffic management strategies to address those future traffic problems. State and local units of government are expected to provide a minor arterial system that is adequate to accommodate shorter trips (less than five miles), eliminating these trips from the metropolitan highway system (see policy plan Appendix F). o The city's comprehensive plan should contain a street and highway component that includes a minor arterial and collector system adequate to handle local traffic. This system should take short trips off the metropolitan highway system and provide continuous travel through adjacent communities.