Morrisville Unified Development Ordinance - August 2021.1

Article 5: Development Standards Section 5.5. Common Open Space and Public Recreation Area 5.5.1. Common Open Space

Table 5.5.1.C.2: Allowable Common Open Space Areas

Area Counted as Common Open Space

Description

Design and Maintenance Requirements

Natural Resource and Hazard Areas

Natural water features (including lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, rivers, wetlands, drainageways), riparian buffers, flood hazard areas, existing tree canopy and specimen trees, steep slopes, and important wildlife habitat areas, including such areas used for required public recreation area

• Preservation of any existing natural resource and hazard areas shall have highest priority for locating open space. • Maintenance is limited to the minimum removal and avoidance of hazards, nuisances, or unhealthy conditions.

Active Recreational Areas

• Land shall be compact and contiguous unless used to link or continue an existing or planned open space resource. • Areas shall have at least one direct access to a building or to a street, bikeway, or walkway accessible to the public or the development’s occupants and users.

Land occupied by areas and facilities used for active recreational purposes, such as pools, playgrounds, tennis courts, jogging trails, ball fields, and clubhouses, including required public recreation area

Stormwater Management Devices

Up to 75 percent of land area occupied by stormwater management devices (including retention and detention ponds and other bioretention devices), when such features are treated as an open space site amenity

• To qualify, stormwater management devices shall support passive recreation uses by providing access and pedestrian elements such as paths, benches, and educational signage.

Formal Plantings and Gardens

• Formal plantings and gardens shall have at least one direct access to a building, or to street, bikeway, or walkway accessible to the public or the development’s occupants and users. • Such features shall be oriented to surrounding development.

Formally planned and regularly maintained open areas that provide passive recreation opportunities, including arranged plantings, gardens, gazebos, and similar structures, as well as roof gardens

Morrisville, NC

February 1, 2021

Unified Development Ordinance

Page 5-15