The Rochester Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously backed a proposed policy change which would measure how well streets in new developments connect to the rest of the city.
“We don’t have a rule that has teeth in it,” Community Development planner Emma Miller-Shindelar told the commission in presenting the proposed policy change.
The new policy would score connections based on intersections and endpoints and streets that connect them. Based on size, housing developments would be expected to meet a specific score, which would require less reliance on dead-end streets.
However, Miller-Shindelar said a failing score doesn’t mean a development has no chance of approval.
“Not meeting the minimum ratio does not automatically disqualify an application from receiving a recommendation of approval,” she said. “If a site has constraints that prevent it from meeting its connectivity minimum, those would be taken into account.”
City staff worked with WSB and Associates to study past developments and discovered most projects that would have failed to meet the new requirements could achieve a passing score with a single design change, Miller-Shindelar said.
Existing developments will not be required to meet the new standards.
The proposed policy change comes after years of discussion regarding cul-de-sacs by the commission and city council, with some members requesting options for reducing numbers based on the cost of maintaining them.
City planners have said approximately 10 percent of the $1.1 million spent on clearing snow last year was attributed to work in the city’s 575 cul-de-sacs, which account for 7.6 percent to 13.5 percent of the city’s streets, depending on how the figure is calculated.
Other concerns have included added costs related to public and private services on dead-end streets, where it can be difficult to maneuver large vehicles.
In February, the city council was divided in its support with moving forward to consider a change.
“I don’t know what you’d achieve, other than creating another layer for someone to look at,” council member Shaun Palmer said at the time.
Since then, Miller-Shindelar said planners have worked with city staff, including emergency services, and developers to modify the proposal into what was reviewed Wednesday.
No one called in to participate in the commission’s public hearing on the issue.
The city council is expected to hold a public hearing on the issue on Aug. 3 before making a decision on the proposed policy change.
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