What you need to know
Under the new regulations, the county is mandating a minimum road width within new residential developments to improve the overall quality of developments. However, Jason Oliphant, fire chief with Montgomery County Emergency Services District No. 1, said during the Feb. 11 meeting that the previously proposed 22-26 feet minimum would create a "significant risk for delayed emergency response times," and he advocated for the minimum to be set at 28 feet for subdivisions.
According to the new regulations, the minimum road widths in subdivisions will be:
Suburban and urban road widths (curbed roadways)
- Subdivisions with less than 32 home sites: 25 feet
- Subdivisions with more than 32 home sites: 27 feet
- Less than 1,500 vehicles average daily traffic: 22 feet
- Less than 3,000 vehicles average daily traffic: 24 feet
County Judge Mark Keough said he wanted to have the minimum road width increased to 28 feet across developments to fully address concerns from the Montgomery County Fire Chief's Association.
"I think [the new regulations are] a compromise. It doesn't get it there for me as I talk to the [Emergency Service Districts] ... I think that if they believe safety is first, I think we have to go with them on this," Keough said.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Ritch Wheeler also shared concerns that increasing required road widths could lead to some developers instead building a larger than usual number of cul-de-sacs in a residential area to prevent building a number of wider roadways, but Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley said the issue was not one the county has had to address in recent memory.
"Montgomery County, even especially Precinct 2, is finally getting some master-planned communities," Riley said. "I just don't see a bunch of master-planned communities going in there, trying to put in a bunch of cul-de-sac roads to save a foot ... but there's hundreds of people who are trying to buy 120 acres and trying to put 200-300 homes in, and I wish there was something we could do about that."
Looking forward
The changes to the regulations were approved in a 3-2 vote with Keough and Walker dissenting because they wanted the minimum road width to be permanently increased to 28 feet.
"I'm proud of the committee and all the work that we put into it for the last over the last 18 months," Precinct 4 Commissioner Matt Gray said after he moved the agenda item to the front of the court session. "This is a step in the right direction. I think the widths that we have based this on is tried and tested and proved through [the Texas Department of Transportation]."
