Ordinance Amendment 

    OA23: 2002-2003

DELETING COUNTY LIMIT ON LENGTH OF CUL-DE-SAC ROADS

Ordinance Amendment 23 would amend the County subdivision ordinance to delete the current 1000 foot maximum length for cul-de-sacs.  The purpose of the amendment is to allow each town to set its own limit.  Currently, towns can adopt local subdivision ordinances which create more stringent limitations on cul-de-sacs.  For example, a town could limit the length of cul-de-sacs to 300 feet.  However, a town ordinance which created at 1500 foot length would be preempted by the county ordinance, which would be more restrictive on that point. 

The sponsors indicate that they believe individual towns should have the flexibility to decide how long cul-de-sacs should be.  They point out that the cul-de-sacs involved will be created as town roads, and therefore, the towns should be allowed to decide what length of road the town is willing to maintain.  They also point out that in some cases, longer cul-de-sacs may allow for dividing land so that the splits can be used in non-tillable land which happens to be well off the existing road network.

Arguments in opposition to the proposal would be that long cul-de-sacs are traditionally viewed as a challenge to the larger vehicles which may use the roads, such as school buses, snow plows, and emergency vehicles.  For that reason, a large turnaround at the end is important.  Towns sometimes regard cul-de-sacs as inefficient because snow plows have to turn around rather than continuing on through a continuous street.

The Towns Association supports OA-23.  We believe that, on balance, the flexibility given to towns by the ordinance would be beneficial.  We believe each town is in the position to decide whether or not it wishes to take on the maintenance responsibility that would be posed by longer cul-de-sacs.

This is not a Chapter 10 amendment, so the towns cannot veto it.  However, we would encourage you to contact your County Board member to inform them of your position.