Municipal Corner → Planning Guides

Design Elements: Introduction

While planning principles and design concepts provide a framework for the integration of land use and transportation planning, the application of principles and concepts is accomplished through specific, quantifiable design elements. The purpose of this chapter is to identify, describe and quantify the more significant design elements which need to be considered in the planning and design stages.

The design elements are arranged into the following categories:

The Chester County Planning Commission recommends that users of this handbook review in further detail the source documents associated with the recommended standards where applicable for better integration with the site specific conditions particular to the development being proposed. The design criteria and guidelines presented in this chapter generally represent minimum values that imply the lowest possible limit in design. However, it is the responsibility of each user to exercise and utilize values exceeding the minimum values wherever practical and within reasonable economic limitations and sound engineering judgment. Variations from what is presented in this chapter may be required for special or unusual conditions. In some cases, the additional resources listed outside of the recommendation may be more applicable pending on those unique site specific conditions.