Your memo outlines several specific street design recommendations; LSP staff responses to <br /> those recommendations follow. <br /> Minimize Impervious Areas: While final Local Street Plan recommendations on alternative street <br /> types have not yet been completed, the,direction of our recommendations are clear. Currently, <br /> the narrowest public street that can be built is a 28' street with parking on both sides. The Local _ <br /> Street Plan will propose a range of alternative street types that significantly reduce street width <br /> and impervious surface area. Reductions in alley paving widths on the order of 20 _ 40% are <br /> proposed; several new volume local street types are proposed that could result in paving width <br /> reductions between 7 and 30 %; a new residential collector standard is proposed that could reduce <br /> paving widths a minimum of 10 %. It is anticipated that the bulk of new local residential streets <br /> will be of the new "access lane" type, which will allow paving width reductions of between 7 and <br /> 30% below current standards. <br /> Travel Lanes Widths: Proposed travel lane widths have been reduced to 9' on most new street <br /> types; 10' lanes are proposed on higher volume residential collector and residential boulevard <br /> streets. <br /> On Street Parking: Options are provided for local streets with no parking and with parking on <br /> one -side only, in addition to the standard local street which provides for parking on both sides of <br /> the street. LSP staff investigated the effect of these proposals by inventorying on -street parking <br /> on 45 residential streets over a two week period. We found that on -street parking supply vastly <br /> exceeds normal demand, and routinely exceeds peak demand on most local streets. We feel that <br /> on -street parking supply reductions are possible in many areas. Streets with parking provided on <br /> both sides of the street will still be needed in areas with higher residential densities. We also <br /> found some indications that certain streets in higher income areas had higher parking demands, <br /> regardless of the density of development served by the street. The reason for this is unknown but <br /> one can speculate that higher income levels result in higher levels of vehicle ownership; some of <br /> these vehicles may be parked on the street. Certain low income housing developments also had <br /> higher on- street parking demands; in those areas we checked, we attributed that to a higher <br /> incidence bf single - vehicle carports and garages in those homes, which resulted in more vehicles <br /> being parked on the streets. Proposed LSP standards for traffic calming will encourage (and <br /> allow for) construction of parking bays on local streets. <br /> Sidewalks: Setback sidewalks are proposed for all local streets to provide planting areas for <br /> street trees, provide pedestrians with greater separation from vehicle traffic, and allow better <br /> design resolution with ADA regulations. <br /> ■ <br /> The proposed minimum sidewalk width is'still 5', although allowances are made in the proposed <br /> standards for sidewalks on one side of the street on streets with parking on one side. Allowance <br /> is made, in the draft plan, for variance from standards where topographic constraints limit design <br /> options. <br />