§ 27A-305. Retrofitting Existing Neighborhoods.

(a)

Configuring a Regulating Plan for existing situations to meet the standards of this Subtitle requires consideration of, and reasonable allowances for, existing buildings and infrastructure (and related legal/procedural arrangements), historic and archeological resources, property boundaries, and built-form. Reasonable allowances in the Regulating Plan shall be made for these conditions.

(b)

Permitted deviations in existing neighborhoods.

(1)

Maximum Average Block Perimeter.

May be up to ten percent (10%) larger per Urban Neighborhood.

(2)

Street Type Specifications.

(A)

The Street standards of this Subtitle shall be implemented at such time as Street reconstruction occurs. All Streets which are proposed for County maintenance under Subtitle 23 shall be designed to the County roadway standards. Improvements to roadways in the State highway system shall be designed to the applicable MDOT standards.

(B)

Existing major Streets shall be reconfigured to meet the standards of this Subtitle or the County or MDOT roadway standards, as applicable, to the extent possible to achieve the pedestrian-and transit-oriented development goals of the General Plan. This reconfiguration shall occur in coordination with responsible agencies.

(C)

In configuring the major Street types, the relationship between the competing needs of through traffic and the goals of an Urban Center or Corridor Node should be directly considered. However, UC Districts should be designed as destinations to minimize the need for major Street designs within the district itself.

(3)

Public Space Standards.

The size may vary by up to twenty percent (20%) per Urban Neighborhood.

(4)

Building Envelope Standards.

(A)

In order to enable special and community-specific urban design configurations, the height of a building may vary by up to two (2) stories for up to five (5) percent of the frontage within an Urban Center.

(B)

The location of such special sites shall be noted on the Regulating Plan.

(CB-1-2010)