Morrisville Land Use Plan 2021

Site Design & Parking Successful site design balances car and pedestrian accessibility and creates an envi- ronment that is welcoming to both drivers and pedestrians. A number of commercial developments in Morrisville locate their parking at the front of the property, creating large empty spaces between the public right- of-way and entrances. The Town should encourage, whenever possible, future development to minimize the amount of parking between a building and the street. Specifically, for the subareas discussed in Chapter 6 , buildings should be required to orient to the street, with parking behind or beside the main structure. The benefits of this may not be fully realized with one building alone. However, when several buildings along the same street follow this orientation, a better balance is struck between pedestrians and cars and thus a more walkable district is formed.

Furthermore, whenever practicable, building facades facing public rights-of-way should include windows and entrances that allow a clear view into the building as prescribed in the Town’s UDO. Combined with lush street- scape greenery, this would not only add more character to the street but foster a more welcoming and walkable environment. In addition to orientation considerations, future development should utilize shared and on-street parking wherever practicable to reduce the size of surface parking lots. The Town should also consider reducing minimum parking requirements when shared parking is implemented in order to avoid large, underutilized expanses of asphalt. Emerging technologies may also play a factor in vehicle storage requirements. Recent advances in driverless and on-demand vehicle technology have the potential to significantly change the way cars are stored, which may further warrant a reexamination of minimum parking requirements in the near future.

Preferred Pedestrian-friendly buildings engaging the street with parking to the side & rear

Preferred

Not Preferred

Not Preferred Auto-centric buildings surrounded by parking and disengaged from the street

43 Morrisville Land Use Plan | Chapter 5 – Land Use Considerations