ACommon Sense@ Approach to Standards is Needed

The creativity of those who attempt to incorporate innovative and practical roadway designs into new developments is stifled by the barrage of existing standards, which put the emphasis on ease of maintenance, and minimal maintenance costs for the municipality. No attention is paid to the aesthetic appearance of a new street scape, or to the scale of the roadway in relationship to the surrounding homes and community. The ongoing development of new municipal street standards continues to promote conformity, over-design, and dismal engineered street scapes.

The municipality is encouraging and promoting sustainable approaches towards solving many of it=s infrastructure problems. With that in mind, it seems timely that municipal subdivision design and servicing standards be reassessed as well. A more practical and common sense approach is needed, one that allows for the modification of existing standards, based on the scale and nature of projects being submitted for approval.

Atlantic Planners Institute

This page and all contents are produced by the Atlantic Planners Institute, an affiliate of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

This document was last modified on September 30, 1999.