Morrisville Land Use Plan 2021

Utility Areas Utility areas that support electrical service, gas, trash disposal, heating & air conditioning, fire sprinklers, etc. are essential to the functionality and safety of modern devel- opment. However, they are often regarded as aesthetically unappealing due to their strictly functional, utilitarian design and often clash with building facades. The Town should continue to require the proper screening of utility areas and discourage their placement on the front of buildings whenever possible. Particularly, in the subareas discussed herein, the Town should require ground-level utility areas to be situated to the side of buildings, or the rear if multiple tenant spaces are present, and screened with masonry walls or opaque fencing to ensure they are well-hidden from public view.

Topography A site’s topography can substantially impact where and howmuch development activity can occur for any given project. Oftentimes, where topography has been altered, developments and their adjoining streets misalign, causing buildings to be either substantially higher or lower than the street grade. This phenomenon is especially common in suburban development, where alignment with the street grade is deemed less important as its impact on walkability is not considered. However, having buildings and streets on two vastly different grades can be detrimental to the pedestrian experience. The Town should strongly encourage develop- ment to better work with topography where high levels of walkability is a desired characteristic. Specifically, build - ings should respond to topography changes by working with the slope of the land and minimizing the extent of retaining walls to ensure a strong presence on the street.

Front View

Preferred Screened utility areas well-hidden from the public street view

Preferred Building works with adjacent higher street grade by splitting the ground floor

Rear View

Front View

Not Preferred Building ignores the higher street grade by walling it off and forcing pedestrians elsewhere

Not Preferred Exposed utility areas in plain view from the public street

Rear View

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