Don't "Gold Plate" the Alleys!

I was recently spending time in Cape Charles, VA, a quaint beach town on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.  Founded in 1884, this master-planned railroad and ferry company town has today a great combination of proud historic architecture and a wonderfully laid back vibe:

Cape Charles, VA

The lovely streetscapes of Cape Charles are made possible in part by a system of mid-block alleys which accommodate messy back of house services like trash collection, parking access and utility poles.

One of the great traditional details that can be seen in Cape Charles is the modest treatment of the alleys:

Cape Charles, VA

Detailed like ribbon driveways, they are usually just grass with a pair of gravel stripes for vehicle wheels.  This simple way of making alleys has several benefits:

• Less impervious surface means significantly less water runoff.
• The additional greenery is quite attractive and looks less car-dominant, particularly when looking straight down the alley.
• Lower cost of construction.

I happened upon one alley just as trash collection was occurring and yes, these modest alleys can in fact accommodate normal garbage trucks:

Cape Charles, VA

For comparison...

Take a look at one of today's best-designed new traditional neighborhoods, Celebration, FL which was designed in the 1990s.  The intensity of Celebration's urbanism is comparable to that of Cape Charles:

Celebration, FL

Yet Celebration's alleys are far more elaborate:

Celebration, FL

They are detailed much more like streets, with wide paving and full driveway aprons.  

The alleys of Celebration, like those of Cape Charles, do the very important task of handling messy back of house services so that the streetscapes can be more beautiful and pedestrian-friendly.  

But - these elaborate alleys have several negatives:

• The significantly greater paved area means much more water runoff during storms.
• Views down the alley are dominated by asphalt rather than greenery.
• The added expense of constructing such elaborate alleys makes them less likely to occur.  Expensive alleys can weigh very heavily on a developer's pro-forma and can even sometimes lead to a decision to abandon a pedestrian-friendly traditional neighborhood format altogether.

So remember - alleys needn't be elaborate to be highly effective!

BTW: If you're interested in learning more about the design details of great streets, I highly recommend the book Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns by Dover, Kohl & Partners' own Victor Dover and his co-author John Massengale: