Virginia Law

A. Public benefit. A street or network addition may only be accepted by the department for maintenance as part of the secondary system of state highways if it provides sufficient public benefit to justify perpetual public maintenance as defined by this chapter. A street shall be considered to provide sufficient public benefit if it meets or exceeds the public service, pedestrian accommodation, and connectivity requirements of this chapter.

B. Public service requirements. In the event the governing body requests the addition of a street or network addition before it meets these public service provisions, the district administrator will review each request on an individual case basis and determine if the acceptance of a street prior to normal service requirements is justified, provided the street or network addition meets all other applicable requirements, including the connectivity requirements, of this chapter. At the request of the local governing body, subject to approval by the district administrator, the public service requirements may be reduced for individual streets serving state or local economic development projects.

1. Individual streets. For the purpose of these requirements, public service may include streets meeting one or more of the following situations:

a. Serves three or more occupied units with a unit being a single-family residence, owner-occupied apartment, owner-occupied residence in a qualifying manufactured home park, a stand-alone business, or single business entity occupying an individual building, or other similar facility. Also, streets serving manufactured home parks may only be considered when the land occupied by the manufactured home is in fee simple ownership by the residents of such manufactured home.

b. Constitutes a connecting segment between other streets that qualify from the point of public service.

c. Such street is a stub out.

d. Serves as access to schools, churches, public sanitary landfills, transfer stations, public recreational facilities, or similar facilities open to public use.

e. Serves at least 100 vehicles per day generated by an office building, industrial site, or other similar nonresidential land use in advance of the occupancy of three or more such units of varied proprietorship. Any addition under this provision shall be limited to the segment of a street that serves this minimum projected traffic and has been developed in compliance with these requirements.

f. Constitutes a part of the network of streets envisioned in the transportation plan or element of a locality's comprehensive plan that, at the time of acceptance, serves an active traffic volume of at least 100 vehicles per day.

2. Multifamily, townhouse, and retail shopping complexes. A through street that serves a multifamily building may be considered for maintenance as part of the secondary system of state highways if it is deemed by the department to provide a public service and provided it is well defined and the district administrator's designee determines that it is not a travel way through a parking lot.

Entrance streets and the internal traffic circulation systems of retail shopping complexes qualify only if more than three property owners are served and the district administrator's designee determines that the street or system is not a travel way through a parking lot.

3. Network additions. A network addition shall be considered to provide service if each street within the addition meets at least one of the criteria in subdivision 1 of this subsection.

4. Special exceptions. There may be other sets of circumstances that could constitute public service. Consequently, any request for clarification regarding unclear situations should be made in writing to the district administrator's designee.

C. Connectivity requirements. All streets in a development as shown in a plan of development shall be considered for acceptance into the secondary system of state highways as one or multiple network additions. However, streets with a functional classification of collector and above may be eligible for acceptance as individual streets.

For the purposes of this subsection, connection shall mean a street connection to an adjacent property or a stub out that will allow for future street connection to an adjacent property.

The connectivity requirements of this chapter shall not apply to the following: a frontage road or reverse frontage road as defined in the Access Management Regulations ( 24VAC30-73), streets petitioned for acceptance into the secondary system of state highways through the Rural Addition Program pursuant to §§ 33.2-335 and 33.2-336 of the Code of Virginia, or streets petitioned for acceptance into the secondary system of state highways through the Commonwealth Transportation Board's Rural Addition Policy, provided such streets were constructed prior to January 1, 2012.

1. Stub out connection standard. If a stub out maintained by the department adjoins the property of a development with a network addition or individual street proposed for acceptance into the secondary system of state highways, such network addition or individual street must connect to such stub out to be eligible for acceptance into the secondary system of state highways. The district administrator may waive this requirement if the existing stub out is of such design as to make such a connection unsafe.

2. Multiple connections in multiple directions standard. The streets within a network addition may be accepted into the secondary system of state highways if the network addition provides at least two external connections, one of which must be to a publicly maintained highway and the other providing a connection to a different highway or a stub out to an adjoining property. Local street stub outs generally should not exceed 500 feet in length. If a stub out is constructed, the applicant shall post a sign in accordance with the department's standards that indicates that such stub out is a site for a future roadway connection. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as to prohibit a stub out from providing service to lots within a development. The district administrator's designee shall waive or modify the second required connection of this standard if one or more of the following situations renders the provision of such connection impracticable:

a. The adjoining property is completely built out, its state is such that redevelopment within 20 years is unlikely, and there is no stub out (either constructed or platted) to the property served by the network addition;

b. The adjoining property is zoned for a use whose traffic is incompatible with the development being served by the network addition, provided, however, that in no case shall retail, residential, or office uses be considered incompatible with other retail, residential, or office uses;

c. There is no reasonable connection possible to adjoining property or adjacent highways due to a factor outside the control of the developer of the network addition, including the presence of conservation easements not put in place by the developer of the network addition, underground utility trunk easement not put in place by the developer of the network addition, water features such as rivers or lakes, jurisdictional wetlands, grades in excess of 15% whose total elevation change is greater than five feet, limited access highways, railroads, or government property to which access is restricted; or

d. The network addition was constructed in accordance with an overall plan of development approved by the department and the locality as meeting all the requirements of this chapter, and the additional phase of the development allowing the network addition to meet connectivity is under construction.

3. Additional connections standard. Network additions providing direct access to (i) more than 200 dwelling units or (ii) lots whose trip generation is expected to be over 2,000 VPD may be accepted into the secondary system of state highways if the network addition provides an additional external connection beyond that required under subdivision 2 of this subsection for each additional 200 dwelling units or 2,000 VPD or portion of each over and above the initial 200 dwelling units or 2,000 VPD. For the purposes of this requirement, each external connection of collector facilities that is an element of the county's transportation plan and to which there is no direct lot access provided counts as two external connections.

a. The district administrator's designee shall waive or modify this additional connections standard if one or more of the following situations renders the provision of such connection impracticable:

(1) The adjoining property is completely built out, its state is such that redevelopment within 20 years is unlikely, and there is no stub out (either constructed or platted) to the property served by the network addition;

(2) The adjoining property is zoned for a use whose traffic is incompatible with the development being served by the network addition, provided, however, that in no case shall retail, residential, or office uses be considered incompatible with other retail, residential, or office uses;

(3) The development has a median density of more than eight lots per acre or a FAR of 0.4 or higher, and the number of connections provided would be contrary to the public interest;

(4) There is no reasonable connection possible to adjoining property or adjacent highways due to a factor outside the control of the developer of the network addition, including the presence of conservation easements not put in place by the developer of the network addition, underground utility trunk easement not put in place by the developer of the network addition, water features such as rivers or lakes, jurisdictional wetlands, grades in excess of 15% whose total elevation change is greater than five feet, limited access highways, railroads, or government property to which access is restricted; or

(5) The network addition was constructed in accordance with an overall plan of development approved by the department and the locality as meeting all the requirements of this chapter, and the additional phase of the development allowing the network addition to meet connectivity is under construction.
b. The district administrator's designee may also waive or modify this additional connections standard if, in the written opinion of the applicant and locality's chief executive or designee, the provision of such connection is impracticable or unwarranted for any of the following reasons: (i) there are topographic constraints; (ii) the provision is incompatible with an existing adjoining development; (iii) the adjoining property is completely built out as envisioned in the locality's comprehensive plan with no expectation of redevelopment in the next 20 years and there is no stub out (either constructed or platted) to the property served by the network addition; (iv) the connection would impact the developer's ability to comply with any local ordinances related to the preservation of open space or trees during the land development process, after a good faith effort to comply with connectivity requirements and local ordinances; (v) the connection would require work outside the right-of-way (existing or proposed) or easements on an adjoining property outside of the control of the developer; or (vi) other factors as determined by the applicant and locality's chief executive or designee. The district administrator's designee shall respond to requests for such connectivity exceptions within 30 calendar days of receipt of a completed VDOT request form.

4. Individual street standard. Streets that are not part of a network addition shall be accepted into the secondary system of state highways upon petition by the local governing body as long as they meet the requirements of the applicable design standard and one terminus of the street is an intersection with a roadway that is part of the existing publicly maintained highway network and the other terminus is either an intersection with a roadway that is part of the existing publicly maintained highway network or a stub out to an adjoining property. Streets considered for individual acceptance should be (i) streets that provide a connection between two existing publicly maintained streets or (ii) streets with a functional classification as collector or higher.

5. Connectivity exceptions. Where the standards for waiver or modification described in this section have been met, the connectivity requirements for a network addition shall be waived or modified by the district administrator's designee. The developer shall submit any request for connectivity waiver or modification to the district administrator's designee with a copy to the local official. The district administrator's designee shall respond to requests for connectivity exceptions within 30 calendar days of receipt of a request. For projects where a scoping meeting pursuant to the Traffic Impact Analysis Regulations (24VAC30-155) will be held, requests for exceptions and supporting data should be presented and discussed.

6. In instances where there is potential for conflict between this chapter and the Access Management Regulations: Minor Arterials, Collectors, and Local Streets (24VAC30-73), the following shall apply:

a. For streets with a functional classification of collector where additional connections necessary to meet the connectivity requirements of this chapter cannot be accommodated within the applicable spacing standards and cannot otherwise be met through connections to lower order roadways or stub outs, such spacing standards shall be modified by the district administrator's designee to allow for such connection. Such connection shall be required to meet intersection sight distance standards specified in the Road Design Manual, 2011 (VDOT).

b. For streets with a functional classification of minor arterial where additional connections necessary to meet the connectivity requirements of this chapter cannot be accommodated within the applicable spacing standards and cannot otherwise be met through connections to lower order roadways or stub outs, the district administrator's designee shall, in consultation with the developer and the local official, either modify the applicable spacing standards to allow for such connection, or modify the connectivity requirements of this chapter to account for the inability to make such connection. Such connection shall be required to meet intersection sight distance as specified in the Road Design Manual, 2011 (VDOT).

c. For streets with a functional classification of principal arterial where additional connections necessary to meet the external connectivity requirements of this chapter cannot be accommodated within the applicable spacing standards and cannot otherwise be met through connections to lower order roadways or stub outs, the connectivity requirements shall be modified by the district administrator's designee to account for the inability to make such connection.

7. Failure to connect. If a local government approves a subdivision plat for a new development that does not connect to a stub out in an adjacent development and such development's network addition or individual street would meet the applicable requirements of this chapter if it connected to a stub out in the adjacent development, the network addition or individual street may or may not be accepted into the secondary system of state highways for maintenance pursuant to the authority granted to the district administrators in accordance with 24VAC30-92-100.