Street Design Manual

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2 Introduction

City streets are a primary source of current and future stormwater runoff. For more sustainable stormwater management the City of Raleigh also supports the use of context-sensitive GSI  within certain street typologies. The City of Raleigh’s Comprehensive Plan includes a number of policies  encouraging use of green stormwater infrastructure, including but not limited to Policy EP 2.1 Green Infrastructure, EP 3.1 Water Quality BMPs; EP 3.8 Low Impact Development; PU Sustainable Stormwater Management; and PU 5.4 Discharge Control Methods. The City of Raleigh has determined that numerous street typologies in the UDO offer opportunities for using GSI while providing multiple community benefits. Guidance is provided herein on appropriate standard design details and planting features that can allow effective use of GSI in these right-of-way areas while meeting other Complete Street goals and design needs. Implementation of GSI elements can be approached by evaluating opportunities and constraints within each zone of the right-of-way and considering potential benefits, risks, and technical design factors. While the sections contained herein were developed with City’s and NCDOT’s Complete Streets Policy and the City’s GSI policy ; some sections may vary somewhat from the NCDOT standards in order to be consistent with a certain land use or development type context. Streets shall be designed to be consistent with the City’s Complete Streets Implementation Policy and GSI-related policies and supportive of their contexts. The goals shall be to serve all modes of mobility which occur within those contexts in a safe and efficient manner and manage stormwater in ways that are sustainable and multi-functional. The Streetscape is located on both sides of the Travelway. The Streetscape is the primary pedestrian realm, accommodating people walking, stopping, and sitting, and also functions as the transitional area between moving traffic and land uses. The streetscape is also the place where transitions between the pedestrian mode and other modes of transportation occur, and thus its design characteristics including landscaping, aesthetics, multimodal accessibility to support desired development patterns. Sidewalks, the planting area, and the maintenance strip behind the sidewalk are conducive to the use of GSI within the streetscape in certain street typologies. Applicable GSI practices include permeable pavement, curbside bioretention/planters, tree wells/planter boxes, rain barrels, and flow-through stormwater planters.

3 Article 1.3 Process of Street Design

4 Article 2.1 Streetscape