NDOT staff and Arcadis consultants presented a draft Access Management Manual and proposed code changes aimed at consolidating access and driveway regulations currently split across Metro code chapters 13 and 17.

Melissa Hayes and Meredith King said the manual brings together best practices from peer cities and national sources (TRB, AASHTO, NCHRP) and aims to prioritize Vision Zero safety by avoiding high‑conflict driveway placement on higher‑classification roads, increasing driveway‑to‑driveway and driveway‑to‑intersection spacing, and using shared or cross‑access easements where possible. "It is the coordination of planning regulation and design of access between driveways and land developments," the team said in introducing the project.

The draft includes a downtown multimodal chapter, pedestrian and bicycle guidance at driveway crossings (green pavement, vegetative buffers), and specific approaches to garage and transit adjacency design. NDOT proposes striking the current access requirements in chapters 13 and 17 and replacing them with an authorizing statement that delegates the technical standards to the manual; an access waiver process and the existing appeal to the Traffic & Parking Commission would remain in place.

Why it matters: consolidation aims to resolve inconsistent code sections that developers and staff currently find confusing, and to make safety considerations (Vision Zero) central to access permitting and driveway design. NDOT said it has begun the legislative process and will release the final manual after required approvals.

Next steps: NDOT and the consultant team will continue outreach, refine code language for the legislative process and share the full draft on the project webpage. Commissioners were advised how the waiver and appeal processes would operate and that transit, streets and safety considerations guided the proposed spacing and design standards.