Transportation Plan - 2009, amended

1.0 I ntroduction 1.1 Purpose

The updated Transportation Plan for the Town of Morrisville is the foundation of the Town’s transportation policies and projects, and provides additional guidance on best practices for the design of roadways, transit facilities, and bicycle-pedestrian facilities and programs. The Town has authority over streets that it owns (e.g., Town Hall Drive), but many streets are owned and maintained by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) (e.g., NC 54). However, the Town exercises additional authority during the development review process for new, private developments. The purpose of the Transportation Plan is to create a system of roads and pathways that not only accommodate travel through and within the town, and also respect and enhance adjacent land uses. The current Plan covers the period 2009 - 2035 and supersedes the 2002 Transportation Plan with new standards, recommendations, and a complete over- haul of approach and format. 1.2 Transportation Plan Format The Plan focuses on three principal elements, for those riding in cars, taking public transit, walking, or riding a bicycle: • The existing conditions that people experience as they travel in and around Morrisville (Section Three); • A set of recommendations that evolves from the current transportation system to a more efficient and safe network through a series of roadway widenings, new roadways, bicycle lanes, public transit service, pedestrian, and intersection improvements (Section Five); and • A set of design guidelines that complement existing engineering standards, and are to be adhered to whenever possible and appropriate (Section Six). 1.3 Relationship to Other Town Planning Documents As mentioned previously, this Transportation Plan is a significant update from the 2002 Transportation Plan. To prepare the current Plan, a number of other documents were re- searched or consulted, including the following: • Morrisville’s Design and Construction Ordinance (2008); • Morrisville Town Center Plan (2007); • Morrisville Parks, Greenways, and Open Space Master Plan (2006); and • Various standard engineering texts, such as the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control De- vices (MUTCD) and Highway Capacity Manual. The 2009 Land Use Plan is being adopted concurrently with the Transportation Plan. The two documents were developed using the same methodology and public involvement process, and share three identical sections (Section Two: Background; Section Four: Policy Direction; Section Seven: Action Items). The Town created the plans concurrently in rec- ognition of the interconnected nature of transportation and land use. By planning them jointly, the Town has an opportunity to more effectively guide its future. 1.4 Transportation Plan Review and Update Process The 2009 Transportation Plan process was conducted from 2007 through 2009 and is the product of work by citizens, the Plan Advisory Committee, the Planning and Zoning Board, the Town Council, Town staff and consultants. The Land Use and Transportation Plans are reviewed by both the Planning and Zoning Board and Town Council. The 2009 Transportation Plan was prepared with extensive citizen involvement. Consider- able effort was made to ensure that people interested in participating in the plan review and update process had the opportunity to do so. The public process involved at least 179 individuals with a broad geographic representation from different areas within the Town. The Plan review process was accompanied by an ambitious community-involvement strat- egy that provided ready access both to new information and to the process. The process included three public workshops, conducted in October 2007, January 2008, and March 2008, that were attended by over 80 attendees each. The public workshops emphasized both information dissemination from staff and consultants as well as the active participation of citizens. Each workshop featured a group exercise that allowed partici- pants to share their views of the future Morrisville in a structured, engaged manner. The workshops were heavily advertised via flyers, newsletter notices and the citizen email list- serv. The latter two workshops were also advertised by postcards sent to all of Morrisville’s 6,700 households and businesses (see example at right). In addition, a series of seven Plan Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings were conducted to solicit in-depth input from committee members, who represented a broad spectrum of the community leaders and stakeholders. Three focus group meetings were held to target key groups that might not attend the larger meetings, including youth, residents of the North Morrisville-Shiloh area, and transit users. A public survey was conducted from Janu- ary through March 2008, garnering 180 responses. A project website available throughout the planning process offered a way to find any meeting materials, the current schedule of meetings and events, and a way to provide input via an online discussion board. A project hotline was also available for citizens to leave comments or questions for project staff. The public process integrated with a robust technical process, with each providing feed- back to the other. While public safety, mobility, and accessibility sometimes trumped in- dividual concerns, most of the recommendations in this Plan can be traced to the broad concerns identified by the public. A more detailed description of public engagement in the planning process appears in Appendix C.

Figure 1.1 on the opposite page offers an overview of theTown of Morrisville, showing color aerial photographs from September 2007 and the planning jurisdiction as a yellow dashed line. The planning jurisdiction includes the town limits as well as the town’s Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) (yellow shading) and Short-Range Urban Services Area (SRUSA) (orange shading) and comprises the area subject to the policies included in this plan document. Although most of Morrisville’s planning jurisdiction falls inWake County, several parcels in Durham County have been annexed into the town.

Citizens get involved in transportation planning at the third public workshop, held on March 27, 2008.

Postcard sent to Morrisville households advertising the March 27, 2008 public workshop.

5

1 Introduction