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Roseburg would require parking for bicycles under changes to the city’s Land Use Development Ordinance that came before the city Planning Commission for review Monday night.
The changes also would allow for more apartment housing above commercial buildings, especially downtown.
And parking lots could come down in size, if developers so choose, with the required number of spaces per square foot cut in half.
“We were requiring more than was typical,” said city planner Dick Dolgonas.
“There is a lot of unused parking,” said Community Development Director Fred Alley. The new minimum standards may help reduce the amount of asphalt in the community.
The public hearing for the LUDO changes opened Monday night, but comment will continue at the next meeting, now scheduled for Dec. 3.
The city’s Transportation System Plan — passed controversially a year ago in a lame-duck session after three city councilors who supported it were voted out of office by wide margins — is driving the recommended LUDO changes.
“The transportation plan is the guiding document,” said Alley. “These will be significant updates.”
The transportation plan was passed without recommended changes from the public and the Planning Commission and is currently being held up in a lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters.
Chief among the criticisms of the transportation plan was its overemphasis on automobiles and lack of planning and concern for other transportation modes, such as transit, walking and bicycling.
But Stuart Liebowitz, an alternative transportation advocate, said Monday night that the bicycle parking was a good step forward. If employers and businesses can begin providing for bicycles, then city residents would be given an option other than driving cars, which may contribute to global warming, Liebowitz said.
The standards will require, on average, one bicycle spot per 10 to 20 car parking spots, based on type of development.
Encouragement for developers to design streets safer for pedestrians will have to wait, however.
Sidewalks will continue to be laid right next to roadways, with no separation between pedestrians and oncoming traffic.
City planner Dick Dolgonas said new streets may have separated sidewalks, but the city will not require it or suggest it. The transportation plan preferred the separation, but left it optional.
“I don’t know that it was a conscious decision not to put separated sidewalks in (the code),” Dolgonas said. “We just didn’t do it.”
One of the defeated councilors, Mike Baker, oversaw many of the recent revisions to LUDO as the designated planner for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
He advised that a number of changes be made to the revisions, including striking any reference to “narrow residential streets,” which had been suggested as a means of slowing down traffic in neighborhoods.
The transportation plan calls for wide residential streets, with a minimum width of 34 feet if parking is put on both sides. Narrow street standards outlined by the Department of Land Conservation and Development suggest local streets should be between 20 and 30 feet, with greater widths only for streets with heavy traffic.
• You can reach reporter Chris Gray at 957-4218 or by e-mail at cgray@newsreview.info.
The changes also would allow for more apartment housing above commercial buildings, especially downtown.
And parking lots could come down in size, if developers so choose, with the required number of spaces per square foot cut in half.
“We were requiring more than was typical,” said city planner Dick Dolgonas.
“There is a lot of unused parking,” said Community Development Director Fred Alley. The new minimum standards may help reduce the amount of asphalt in the community.
The public hearing for the LUDO changes opened Monday night, but comment will continue at the next meeting, now scheduled for Dec. 3.
The city’s Transportation System Plan — passed controversially a year ago in a lame-duck session after three city councilors who supported it were voted out of office by wide margins — is driving the recommended LUDO changes.
“The transportation plan is the guiding document,” said Alley. “These will be significant updates.”
The transportation plan was passed without recommended changes from the public and the Planning Commission and is currently being held up in a lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters.
Chief among the criticisms of the transportation plan was its overemphasis on automobiles and lack of planning and concern for other transportation modes, such as transit, walking and bicycling.
But Stuart Liebowitz, an alternative transportation advocate, said Monday night that the bicycle parking was a good step forward. If employers and businesses can begin providing for bicycles, then city residents would be given an option other than driving cars, which may contribute to global warming, Liebowitz said.
The standards will require, on average, one bicycle spot per 10 to 20 car parking spots, based on type of development.
Encouragement for developers to design streets safer for pedestrians will have to wait, however.
Sidewalks will continue to be laid right next to roadways, with no separation between pedestrians and oncoming traffic.
City planner Dick Dolgonas said new streets may have separated sidewalks, but the city will not require it or suggest it. The transportation plan preferred the separation, but left it optional.
“I don’t know that it was a conscious decision not to put separated sidewalks in (the code),” Dolgonas said. “We just didn’t do it.”
One of the defeated councilors, Mike Baker, oversaw many of the recent revisions to LUDO as the designated planner for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
He advised that a number of changes be made to the revisions, including striking any reference to “narrow residential streets,” which had been suggested as a means of slowing down traffic in neighborhoods.
The transportation plan calls for wide residential streets, with a minimum width of 34 feet if parking is put on both sides. Narrow street standards outlined by the Department of Land Conservation and Development suggest local streets should be between 20 and 30 feet, with greater widths only for streets with heavy traffic.
• You can reach reporter Chris Gray at 957-4218 or by e-mail at cgray@newsreview.info.
