Muller Parkway Road Standards

Muller Parkway is designated in the Douglas County transportation plan as a future Minor Arterial road. Minor Arterial roads may be built to either an urban or rural standard. The urban standard is used primarily inside, and the rural standard primarily outside, designated Urban Service Areas. Determining which standard to use also depends on a combination of other factors, including current and future land use adjacent to the road, traffic projections, and long-term infrastructure planning policy.

Roads built to an urban standard typically include features like sidewalks or multi-modal paths, curbs, and gutters, which tie into existing infrastructure. Roads built to a rural standard do not include these features, as there is no such infrastructure to tie into. Rural roads can often be upgraded to an urban standard once surrounding infrastructure is in place.

The portions of Muller Parkway currently under construction are being built in phases, with the first phases consisting primarily of two lanes. As those phases pass through agricultural land and are outside an Urban Service Area, they have been designed to a rural standard, though certain urban enhancements have already been installed at the Buckeye and Toler roundabouts and adjacent to the future Ashland Park development. These phases have been specifically designed so that they may be upgraded to the full urban standard when the road is ultimately expanded to four lanes, adjacent parcels are developed, and additional infrastructure is in place.

Constructing the road in this way is consistent with the County’s 2019 Amended Development Agreement with Park Ranch Holdings and with the way other sections of Muller Parkway have been constructed. It also has many benefits. Among other things, it allows improvements to be installed only once necessary supporting infrastructure has been constructed. It also avoids waste by ensuring that certain improvements like curbs will not need to be removed to accommodate future travel lanes.