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adjacent development. According to their booklet, "MnDOT Needs You! As Partners in <br />Corridor Access Management" MnDOT believes that too many driveways, intersections, <br />and closely- spaced traffic signals along roadways cause problems such as increased <br />crashes, pedestrian safety and other negative side effects associated with stop and go <br />traffic. The severity of these factors increases with the amount of traffic. <br />MnDOT's research indicates that inadequate site development can greatly reduce the <br />overall effectiveness of an adequate transportation system. The booklet states that <br />effective access management will reduce congestion and crashes, preserve road <br />capacity, support desired development, make pedestrian and bicycle travel safer, <br />provide more space for landscaping; enhance community appearance, and support <br />local economic development. <br />MnDOT looks at access management in terms of state highway and local road access, <br />but also in terms of individual sites. They encourage local governments to consider <br />long range community visions as individual sites are developed. They provide basic site <br />planning principles to improve internal traffic circulation. Some of those site planning <br />principles are as follows: <br />1. Limit the number of curb cuts per parcel. Consolidate access points and provide <br />shared driveways to serve adjacent parcels. <br />2. Separate driveways to maintain minimum spacing requirements for that type of <br />roadway. <br />3. Align driveways on opposite sides of roadways. <br />4. Treat parcels under common ownership as a single parcel for unified access <br />design. <br />According to the applicant, a variance for a second curb cut is necessary because they <br />do not have reasonable or safe use of the property due to heavytrafficand high speeds <br />combined with heavy pedestrian traffic on County B2. Each of the elements that the <br />applicant has named as reasons fora variance, have also been named by MnDOT as <br />problems associated with having too many driveways on a single stretch of road. <br />MnDOT states that one of the best ways to alleviate these problems is by limiting the <br />number of curb cuts on a given street and separating driveways to maintain minimum <br />spacing requirements. Allowing "horseshoe" shaped driveways would deviate from <br />these recommendations. <br />The identified section of County Road B -2 is classified in the Comprehensive Plan as a <br />local street. While this street does not currently experience the traffic volumes that the <br />collectors and arterials do, future use of the street must be considered. The <br />Comprehensive Plan states that the local streets in Little Canada will need to be <br />designed to handle Little Canada's growth. Driveway access points should be planned <br />for accordingly. <br />Impervious Surface. Impervious Surface is any artificial or natural surface through <br />which water, air, or roots cannot penetrate, such as a driveway. The City does not <br />currently have impervious surface regulations for the R -1 District. However, allowing a <br />"horseshoe" driveway on a property would increase the amount of impervious surface <br />2 <br />