Community Design Element CD-4: Corridors & Scenic Resources

Only areas below are considered part of the General Plan.

Corridors & Scenic Resources

Corridors play an important role in Menifee. Not only are they essential for circulation, they also provide valuable opportunities to reinforce the city's community identity through streetscape design and preservation of scenic resources. Design treatments within corridors contain cohesive, yet clearly differentiated design features that reflect the type and extent of uses along it. To help foster a strong identity along major corridors, the city has designated a number of north-south and east-west roadways as Enhanced Landscape Corridors. Roadways in this designation are recognized as major transportation routes and will receive special design consideration to ensure they complement the existing community.

The protection of the city's visual resources along its scenic corridors-including I-215-is particularly important because these corridors help visually frame some of the community's most distinctive features. The city's Scenic Corridors are the same as roadways designated Eligible County Scenic Highways in the Circulation Element. The locations of Enhanced Landscape Corridors, including view corridors, are illustrated on Exhibit CD-2.

Goal

• CD-4: Recognize, preserve, and enhance the aesthetic value of the city's enhanced landscape corridors and scenic corridors.

Enhanced Landscape Corridors

• CD-4.1: Create unifying streetscape elements for enhanced landscape streets, including coordinated streetlights, landscaping, public signage, street furniture, and hardscaping.
• CD-4.2: Design new and, when necessary, retrofit existing streets to improve walkability, bicycling, and transit integration; strengthen connectivity; and enhance community identity through improvements to the public right-of-way such as sidewalks, street trees, parkways, curbs, street lighting, and street furniture.
• CD-4.3: Apply special paving at major intersections and crosswalks along enhanced corridors to create a visual focal point and slow traffic speeds.

Scenic Resources

• CD-4.4: Frame views along streets through the use of wide parkways and median landscaping.
• CD-4.5: Orient new streets to maximize the view of open space, parks, mountains, and built landmarks where possible.
• CD-4.6: Prohibit outdoor advertising devices (billboards, but not on-site signs identifying a business on the same property as the sign) within 660 feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way line of all scenic corridors as depicted on Circulation Element Exhibit C-8 and the entire length of I-215; city Community Information Signs or other city-sponsored signs are not subject to this requirement.
• CD-4.7: Design new landscaping, structures, equipment, signs, or grading within the scenic corridors for compatibility with the surrounding scenic setting or environment.
• CD-4.8: Preserve and enhance view corridors by undergrounding and/or screening new or relocated electric or communication distribution lines, which would be visible from the city's scenic highway corridors.
• CD-4.9: Require specialized design review for development along scenic corridors, including but not limited to, building height restrictions, setback requirements, and site-orientation guidelines.
• CD-4.10: Seek to preserve and maintain, through acquisition or regulation, areas or sites that are found to have exceptional scenic value.
• CD-4.11: Work with Caltrans to implement a freeway and interchange landscaping and planting program to improve the appearance of the community from I-215.

General Plan Exhibits

• Exhibit CD-2: Enhanced Landscape Streets and Scenic Corridors
• Exhibit C-8: Scenic Highways