Town and Country Vision Plan
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8.1.5 New Villages 

Since new villages are not restricted by existing local street patterns, and since these villages are intended to be the main focus of activity in the hinterland regions, an optimal pattern of interconnected streets should be developed. In its purest configuration, such a street network would take the form of a grid system with block sizes roughly 200 feet by 200 feet, to ensure good local access and circulation and a good, dense pedestrian system. However, such a pure grid is not always permissible or desirable due to topographical constraints or simply the preferences of residents, in which cases many variations of such a network (different block sizes, curvilinear streets) are acceptable so long as the basic principles of connectivity and local access are fully respected. In short, the village center street network should take the form most desirable for the specific locale.

Because the “new villages” are proposed to serve as principle centers of activity for vast hinterland areas, it is important that the network density is greater in the villages than in the surrounding countryside. Such increased roadway density achieves three things:

    • It effectively serves the higher travel demands implicit to areas of elevated activity.
    • It ensures that these higher overall travel volumes do not need to be accommodated through the widening of roadways, which is a sure way to attract the type of development that is not at all consistent with the town and country vision.
    • It attracts development to the centers by offering more access and visibility than available anywhere else in the surrounding area.
Because these village centers would ideally develop as pedestrian-oriented “park-once” districts—with the ultimate goal of minimizing local automobile travel—it is important that the cross-sectional design of their component streets contribute to such an objective. Two-lane, two-way streets with on-street parking are typically the most effective sections for village centers. On-street parallel or diagonal parking is a critical element of the cross-sectional design because: it reduces the amount of off-street parking needed throughout the central district (which typically detracts from the pedestrian environment); it permits easy and quick access to street-front businesses; and it serves as a protective buffer between pedestrians and moving traffic.  
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