Connected and Open Community – Above Green

(1-2 points)

Intent

To promote projects that have high levels of internal connectivity and are well connected to the community at large. To encourage development within existing communities, thereby conserving land and promoting multimodal transportation. To improve public health by encouraging daily physical activity and reducing the negative effects of motor vehicle emissions.

Requirements

Locate or design the project such that its internal connectivity falls within one of the ranges listed in Table 1. If the project has no internal circulation network, the connectivity within a ¼-mile (400-meter) distance of the project boundary must be used.

Table 1. Points for connectivity

Intersections per square mile	Intersections per square kilometer	Points
300–400	116–154	1
> 400	> 154	2

All parts of the circulation network that are counted toward the connectivity requirement must be available for general public use at all times and not gated. No more than 10% of the project area may be gated. Education campuses, health care campuses, and military bases where gates are used for security purposes are exempt from the 10% limit, and intersections within those projects may be counted toward the connectivity requirement.

AND

Design or locate the project such that a through-connection (of the circulation network) intersects or terminates at the project boundary at least every 400 feet (122 meters) or at existing abutting intervals and intersections of the circulation network, whichever is the shorter distance. Include a pedestrian or bicycle through-connection in at least 90% of any new culs-de-sac. These requirements do not apply to portions of the boundary where connections cannot be made because of physical obstacles, such as prior platting of property, construction of existing buildings or other barriers, slopes steeper than 15%, wetlands and water bodies, railroad and utility rights-of-way, existing limited-access motor vehicle rights-of-way, and parks and dedicated open space.