Design Manual

A draft of the Design Manual was presented to the Planning Commission at their last meeting. This document is a companion to the newly revised Subdivision Code.

The intent of the Manual is to provide an overview of the new Code to stakeholders in a format that is easily understood. This will be especially useful for non-professional stakeholders, such as community members.

You can view a draft of the Document below. It is scheduled to go before City Council at the next available meeting.

If you have any questions please contact City of Oak Harbor, Senior Planner, Ethan Spoo.

Oak Harbor Subdivision Design Manual 2009

Project Update

The Status Report for the Subdivision Code Update Project has been completed.  This represents a major step in the development of new regulations for subdivisions in Oak Harbor.

The report outlines the Project to date including:

• policies; 
  
• meetings; 
  
• use of web 2.0 tools for stakeholder engagement; 
  
• statistics for blog use (for both www.cohsubdivisions.blogspot.com and www.cohdelayered.blogspot.com); 
  
• project direction;
  
• proposed Code amendments; and, 
  
• expected results.
  

The document is accessible here.

Code Analysis

The subdivision project has entered a new phase this month.  At this time we are assessing actual language of the existing Code (Oak Harbor Municipal Code Title 21, Subdivisions and Chapter 19.31, Planned Residential Developments) to determine what specific changes will be required.  

This step will take all the Project information, direction, and comments to-date and use it to identify the parts of the Code that need to be amended, deleted, or added to fulfill the Project intent.

This information will also be provided to CTED (WA State Department of Community Trade and Economic Development) to fulfill one of the requirements of the grant they have provided to the City of Oak Harbor for this project.

"Lifestyle Habits"

During the July 14th Governmental Services Standing Committee meeting, an interesting large scale issue was raised for discussion. The theme of the issue was our "community's lifestyle habits", and how we design our neighborhoods for them.

Some of the specific subdivision design elements that were included in this theme were:

1) amount of parking required (both on street and off) for neighborhoods;
2) pedestrian oriented design; and,
3) design standards for narrower neighborhood streets.

Planning Commission Meeting May 27

On May 27th staff, the Planning Commission and the public had another opportunity to review and discuss the issues identified during the Delayering analysis recently completed.

The discussion centered on park and walkway design, and connections between walkways, transit facilities and subdivisions.

The next meeting will be on June 24 and will focus on alternative short plat requirements to support infill development; as well as, the remaining five items from the issues list.

I will be posting a complete list of talking points from these Commission meetings shortly.

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.

Poll Results

The results of our last on-line poll are in! 18 people voted and answered the question “Should walk/bike trails be required in new subdivisions, and should they connect to neighboring subdivisions?” with the following responses:

1. Yes, require them - 72% - 13 votes
2. No, don't require them - 16% - 3 votes
3. Yes, connect them - 66% - 12 votes
4. No, don't connect them - 5% - 1 vote.

These results point to a preference for using trails as neighborhood connections.

Planning Commission Meeting April 22

The Planning Commission meeting on April 22 is designed to provide staff and the Commission with an opportunity to discuss, and provide direction on two aspects of this project, specifically:

A. an outline of the analysis I have completed on past subdivisions, and how their characteristics influence the livability of our neighborhoods; and,

B. an introduction of issues associated with short plat requirements and how they impact opportunities for infill development.

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 April 14th. “Should walk/bike trails be required in new subdivisions, and should they connect to neighboring subdivisions?”

Currently PRD subdivisions are required to have 10% of the gross area of the PRD as common open space, with at least ½ of that being for active or passive recreation. This has typically resulted in trails within the subdivisions. These trails generally have limited connections to neighboring subdivisions, as this is not a required condition within the Code.

Poll Results

The results of our second on-line poll are in! 17 people voted and answered the question "Which kinds of neighborhood streets do you prefer?" with the following responses:

1. Wide streets without trees - 5% - 1 vote
2. Wide streets with trees - 52% - 9 votes
3. Narrow streets without trees - 0% - 0 votes
4. Narrow streets with trees - 52% - 9 votes

Not surprisingly, the preference shown in this poll is for tree lined streets within neighborhoods.

Poll Results

The results of our first on-line poll are in! 24 people voted and said "Subdivision Rules Should Focus On":

1. Design and look - 62% - 15 votes
2. Walk/Bike connections & trials - 58% - 14 votes
3. Environmental impacts - 58% - 14 votes
4. Street widths - 25% - 6 votes
5. Other - 16% - 4 votes
6. Parking - 8% - 2 votes