Project Abstract

By developing a network of Green Streets, the City of Jacksonville will improve its stormwater management and simultaneously enhance and expand public open space, along with reinforcing desired land use and transportation patterns.

- Exerpt from 2009 Jacksonville Street Collector Plan -

Executive Summary

The 2009 Jacksonville Collector Street Plan was developed as an update to the 2000 Collector Street Plan and to provide the City of Jacksonville with a master street plan to guide future development. The Plan contains various transportation elements to help guide the city in the development approval process as well as the construction of new streets and upgrading of old streets. These elements include:

• A collector street map showing existing and future streets;
• New design standards for future collector streets;
• New approaches to traffic calming; and
• A green streets initiative that complements these elements and allows for better management of stormwater.

Jacksonville has undergone an unprecedented era of growth since 2000, in part due to ongoing and anticipated expansion of forces at Camp Lejeune and associated installations. This growth is expected to continue at a record pace as Camp Lejeune is anticipated to grow by as many as 15,000 new Marines with up to 60,000 dependents and those affiliated with ancillary services and businesses. If achieved, these growth projections will nearly double the population of the Jacksonville region. The new residents, as well as the existing citizens, will continue to rely on the City of Jacksonville, its transportation system and other city services to support the region’s growth.

The City has adopted or is in the process of developing numerous plans that have altered some of the base assumptions of the 2000 Collector Street Plan. These efforts include: an update to the Unified Development Ordinance and the Jacksonville Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (JUMPO) Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan; the 2007 Growth Management Plan; the 2007 Downtown Master Plan; and the Comprehensive Transportation Plan. Additionally, major transportation facilities such as the Jacksonville Bypass (US Highway 17 and NC Highway 24) and the capacity improvements to Western Boulevard north of US Highway 17 have been constructed. With these improvements in place, the City is busy planning and defining an alignment for the Northwest Corridor. These transportation investments, along with Marine Boulevard, the proposed expansion of Piney Green Road, Gum Branch Road and US Highway 258, will provide for the major traffic movements within and around Jacksonville. It is important to plan for a system of collector streets that will support these major corridors and provide the citizens of Jacksonville with transportation options to avoid congestion on major through routes.

Implementing a system of collector streets that addresses not only the needs of vehicular traffic, but also accommodates the needs of citizens, developers, pedestrians, bus riders, and bicyclists is a challenge that many municipalities are facing. The goal of master street planning and design standards is to develop a “best fit” corridor – one that balances these sometimes competing interests while serving as many positive functions as possible. Mechanisms have been identified through development of the Collector Street Plan that will allow the City of Jacksonville to provide these “best fit” solutions. Other challenges have been identified through the development of this plan and are summarized below and addressed in other sections.

Mapping New Collectors

Through a collaborative effort of Jacksonville City staff, Onslow County planning representatives, the North Carolina DOT, the public and emergency services, the Collector Street Plan contains a new map of existing and future collector streets within the Jacksonville MPO boundaries. The intent of this map is to guide future development on the approximate placement and spacing of collectors streets. The map was developed in concert with the City’s update of the Unified Development Ordinance that will contain policies aimed at increasing local street connectivity through new subdivisions. It is this dense network of local streets that will feed the collector system and allow residents to efficiently access major corridors such as Western Boulevard, Marine Boulevard, and Piney Green Road.

New Design Standards

As the City of Jacksonville pursues different types of urban development, it is imperative that streets design standards also allow for various design elements that best fit those land uses. No longer is it practical to establish one set of design standards for residential streets when the density and design of the adjacent land uses can differ greatly. For this reason, the Collector Street Plan includes new cross-sections that allow the City and developers the flexibility to construct streets that complement local land uses and vice versa. A residential street can be designed in different ways. In some areas of the City the market might dictate that a neo-traditional or “New Urbanist” style of housing or commercial development is most appropriate or preferred. Streets that allow for additional space for bicyclists, pedestrians and on-street parking while discouraging high vehicular speeds are most appropriate for this type of land use (Exhibit E-1).

Another area of the City may be more appropriate for a highervolume boulevard to move traffic more efficiently between two arterials. For this, a section has been developed that includes multiple lanes of traffic but also allows adequate space for pedestrian and bicyclists to safely travel along the street. Additionally, there are various models of commercial development and for that there is more than one possibility of designing a collector street to serve this use. A town center collector (Exhibit E-2) may include buildings that resemble a downtown or mixed-use center and therefore should have wider pedestrian facilities and accommodate more parking within the public right-of-way than on private property. Corridors such as Western Boulevard may be more suited for other types of commercial development where an internal street system with on-street parking is not as desirable.

Traffic Calming

The increased growth in all types of commercial and residential development will continue to stress existing local streets and may lead to greater volumes on traffic on newer collector roadways. Jacksonville has historically preferred a method of traffic calming that installs speed humps long after a street has been constructed when citizens begin complaining of higher volumes, higher speeds, or both.

Through discussions with emergency service providers, engineers, and planners, it was a consensus that traffic calming techniques that provide for slower traffic from the time the street is constructed are most desirable. The methods that can be incorporated into new streets to calm traffic are features such as chokers, curb extensions, narrower travel lanes, more curves and more visible pedestrian and bicycle facilities. Jacksonville’s emergency service providers have confirmed that there is a widespread preference for these measures instead of the typical speed hump. Speed humps and other traffic calming devices can greatly reduce response times for emergency vehicles and sometimes lead to more complaints from citizens or inattentive drivers.

The new design standards contained in the cross-section of the Collector Street Plan are developed with the goal of keeping traffic calm from the start. For older streets there are a variety of options available other than speeds humps for the City of Jacksonville to consider, but there still may be instances where speed humps are the most appropriate or only viable option due to other constraints and fiscal realities.

A Green Streets Approach

Jacksonville is relatively flat: sometimes you have to wait for the wind to stop blowing to tell which direction a creek or river is flowing. The same applies for stormwater that falls on impervious surfaces such as the area’s roadways. Flat land does not encourage quick and effective drainage in an urban setting. In the past Jacksonville has implemented several measures to manage stormwater other than a typical curb-and-gutter system that feeds a drainage pond. The City of Jacksonville through the efforts of its Metropolitan Planning Organization has initiated the development of sustainable street environments that can manage stormwater at a site level while reducing Total Suspended Solids (TSS) of its surface runoff of its collector streets. The City has begun initiating steps to improve water quality by encouraging the treatment and conveyance of stormwater in innovative ways. One such initiative is the development of a green streets program within the Jacksonville Collector Street Plan. This effort has the potential to be a springboard to institute a broader green street effort throughout the City and Onslow County. These green streets create attractive streetscapes that enhance livability through improved pedestrian and bicycle connectivity. Green streets also have the potential to serve as community connectors linking neighborhoods with civic open spaces, schools, offices, neighborhood retail, and government services.

The green street design elements contained in this plan are meant to be flexible in their application, as they can be implemented on a block-by-block basis, throughout a subdivision, or along a residential or commercial corridor. The treatments may also differ in different sectors of the City based on the built environment and soil composition.

The key component of the green street design philosophy is to treat stormwater at the source through an integrated system of stormwater gardens contained within bulbouts or “chokers” (Exhibit E-4) implemented within the street system. These may occur at intersection or at mid-block locations. The intent is to alleviate the need for larger stormwater retention facilities. The green street elements also meet the needs of the collector system for street design and traffic calming as they provide greater buffering of pedestrians from the street and the “choker” effect slows traffic.

-- Exerpt from Jacksonville Collector and Green Streets Plan Submission Form --

CSS Qualities: Process

CSS had tended to have a narrow interpretation in the region, oftentimes resulting in local agencies and developers defining it as the incorporation of pedestrian and bicycle facilities into a roadway design. The integrated Collector and Green Streets Plan helped educate stakeholders on the broad aspects of CSS, from public involvement, incorporating local sensitivities, local environmental opportunities/constraints, market forces, quality street design components and adjacent land use as well as its design. The core of the plan was flexibility, both for city development services staff and developers, in that there were several cross sections developed beyond the typical paradigm that identifies a design for a residential, commercial and industrial street. These included a design concept for neo-traditional residential collector, suburban residential collector, town center commercial collector, industrial collector, mobility collector, etc. Each cross section was then accompanied by an overlay of green street design practices that could be further incorporated into these standards, thus allowing implementation on a block, street, or subdivision level based on local preferences, geographic constraints and stormwater treatment needs.

CSS Qualities: Outcomes

Legitimized the recommendations of the previously adopted pedestrian and bicycle plans; clearly defined street standards for a variety of land uses and land use design components; provided flexibility for the local development community; developed a toolbox for implementation for elected officials and planning staff; promoted environmental stewardship in a sensitive coastal area; innovative approach to community growth challenges.

   Collector & Green Streets Plan (.pdf PowerPoint Slides)

   2009 Jacksonville Collector Street Plan

   Jacksonville Collector and Green Streets Plan Submission Form