Morrisville Land Use Plan 2009

5.3 Future Land Use Categories, cont’d 7. OFFICE A. Function i. Provide a broad spectrum of local and regional employment that offers high quality employment opportunities and supports a balanced tax base. ii. Provide suitably located sites for single-use with the ancillary services necessary to sup- port the predominant office use, in locations with good regional transportation acces- sibility. B. Preferred Uses i. Land uses in the designation should consist of large-scale regional office developments that feature high visual quality and high trip-generating uses, including office parks, re- search and development parks, corporate headquarters, and emerging technologies facilities that support local and regional employment opportunities balanced with the Town’s small town historic character. ii. Open space and recreational uses, such as walkways, greenways, and public plazas and promenades, should be incorporated within this designation as an important ame- nity to the Town and employees that work there. C. General Policies + Development Character i. Projects should be designed architecturally and functionally as a well-integrated unit. Vehicular, transit, pedestrian and bicycle circulation should tie the district together in- ternally and provide linkages with surrounding office, service and residential areas. ii. Concentrations of office uses have high visibility along major corridors, their structures accented with heavily landscaped greens and tree-lined boulevards, and reflect the Town’s growing prominence as a local crossroads for business. iii. Office buildings should be located close to the roadways with parking behind, or un- derneath and/or located in the interior of the development, so that building fronts and entrances face the street. iv. The use of structured parking, shared parking or parking contained within buildings is encouraged as a way of minimizing impervious surfaces and large expanses of surface parking on sites. v. In general, buildings should be of moderate scale, from three to seven stories. However, land use or intensity/density transitions should be provided between this designation and surrounding areas. vi. Development along new or existing public streets should foster a walkable and enjoy- able pedestrian environment. New development should avoid large expanses of blank walls, should provide frequent street level entries, and should provide sidewalk ameni- ties such as street furniture and lighting that encourage year round pedestrian use. vii. Development shouldminimize impacts to sensitive natural resources, such as floodplains and ponds, and should consider green building design techniques as an approach to minimizing impacts. viii.Design elements should be integrated with transit shelters, wide sidewalks, pedestrian scaled lighting, street trees, benches, and entrances to buildings at the edges of street rights-of-way. Bicycle facilities and usable public spaces should be provided. ix. Alleys, thoroughfares, and service ways should be utilized to ensure trash pickup and deliveries for commercial establishments do not take place along public right of ways.

Office buildings can reduce the loss of green space and increase energy efficiency by incorporating green building design techniques. In this example, the roof of the building is covered with native grasses and wildflowers, which provides habitat for plants and animals, slows water run- off into local storm drains, and provides extra insulation to help heat and cool the building.

This Morrisville example shows an attractive but singular building isolated from the roadway and nearby buildings, and surrounded by parking. Such a design conflicts with the desire to create a walkable center that is connected to surrounding neighborhoods with building frontages facing the street.

encouraged discouraged

Planted medians help to create a sense of place, enhance roadway aesthetics, and improve air quality. Median landscaping includes low landscape shrubs, grasses, flowers, or well- manicured street trees that are limbed high enough to preserve visibility between cars, bi- cycles and pedestrians. The Town should work with NCDOT to request waivers to allow me- dian landscaping where appropriate.

Structured parking should be hidden behind or under buildings, rather than fronting on the streetscape.

Reducing impervious surfaces on site, such as parking lots, rooftops, sidewalks, and roads, helps to minimize water velocity and storm- water run-off associated with rain events. Incorporating planting strips in parking lot design, narrowing road widths, replacing driveways/parking lots with porous paving, adding green roofs and other green building techniques, will aid the reduction of pollutants and sediment deposits in waterways.

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5 Recommendations