Streetscape Characteristics - "Cute Streets"

The phrase "cute streets" was first brought up during an early Planning Commission meeting, referring to pleasant residential streetscapes. These streetscapes were described as being superior and creating more livable neighborhoods. This shorthand phrase refers to streets in residential neighborhoods that have a number of common favorable characteristics, in terms of there built form and design, for example:

• trees along the street;
• sidewalks;
• buildings that "address" the street with their windows and entrances;
• narrower drive and parking lanes;
• building facades that are not dominated by garages;
• landscaping along the street; and,
• access to parks, trails and/or open space from the street.

The same sentiment has been echoed to me a number of times during this project, by both the general public (at coffeehouse, and Rotary meetings); as well as, meetings with those involved in the business of developing residential neighborhoods (Realtors, and developers).

The Code changes resulting from the 10 areas of direction will combine to help the community achieve more livable "cute streets" with future subdivisions.

To gauge community interest, and desire for certain design characteristics, staff developed a visual preference survey for the 2006 comprehensive update to the Design Guidelines and Regulations. That process resulted in more effective and streamlined site planning, and is making new developments streetscape oriented and pedestrian friendly.

For this project, we are developing another VPS, and would like your assistance. Please email images to rvoigt@oakharbor.org showing subdivision characteristics that you like or dislike, with a short comment about each picture. Note that the images can be of any location; since we can adapt successful design solutions for our community, and learn lessons from examples of unfavorable designs.

I will be posting notices about where and when the surveys will be conducted in the coming weeks.

Evolution of City and Plat History

The city has developed through the incremental change represented by over 176 individual plats (subdivisions) beginning in 1889 with the original Town of Oak Harbor plat. It is interesting to note that the first plat of the community included park space, Smith Park.

I have just completed an extensive analysis of the historical plats for Oak Harbor where I examined 50 plats looking at a variety of characteristics to better understand the way subdivisions have influenced the look and function of our city, including:

• number of intersections;
• connections to neighboring areas;
• lot size;
• dead end streets;
• block and street patterns; and,
• open space or parks.

The relationship of these characteristics affect our way of life and livability in a host of ways:

• how easily we can move around our neighborhoods;
• our access to open space or parks;
• traffic management; and,
• urban sprawl.

By examining these we will be better able to determine how to best achieve the neighborhoods we desire for our city. This will be the subject of the discussion I will be having with the Planning Commission at their meeting on April 22.

I will also be posting these findings and other analysis of current conditions to the blog shortly.

New Poll Question

A new poll question has been posted and will run until March 31st.

"Sense of place" is essentially the feeling one gets about the environment around them. The question for this poll relates to some of the design characteristics of neighborhood streets that influence their "sense of place", specifically street width and street trees.

Recent PRD subdivisions have generally included narrower streets with street trees integrated into thier design. One such example is Crosby Commons (SE of the Heller Crosby intersection).