Madison Driveway Approach Permits: What Homeowners Should Know

Where the private driveway ends

Most Madison driveways cross three pieces of ground: the owner's lot, the public sidewalk, and the terrace, which the City defines as the space between the sidewalk and the curb. The apron sits in the terrace, and the curb it cuts through belongs to the street. Both are public right-of-way, which is why replacing an apron, or cutting a new or wider opening in the curb, starts with a City permit even when the rest of the job is entirely on private land.

The rules come from several places. Section 10.08 of the Madison General Ordinances governs driveway approaches, City Engineering issues the Street Terrace Permit, Traffic Engineering publishes the width and spacing standards, and the City's standard specifications set how an apron is built. For anyone planning Madison driveway paving, the practical order is to check the standards, apply for the permit, and hire a contractor who is allowed to work in the terrace.

The Street Terrace Permit

City Engineering's Street Terrace Permit covers residential driveway aprons serving fewer than five parking stalls, along with sidewalk replacement, minor landscaping in the right-of-way such as pavers, retaining walls and stairways, and terrace rain gardens. The application is made and paid online, and the City allows 5 to 7 working days for review, so a permit requested on a Monday may not be ready until the following week.

The permit page cites the ordinances behind it, including sections 10.09(5), 10.17, 10.18 and 10.25 of the Madison General Ordinances and sections 23.21 and 23.22. Other excavation in the right-of-way, such as utility work, goes through the City's separate Excavation in the Right-of-Way permit, and aprons serving more than four stalls fall under the commercial approach classes handled by Traffic Engineering.

How wide, how close, how many

Traffic Engineering sorts approaches into classes. A Class I approach serves four or fewer stalls on a street with raised curb: the entrance can be up to 20 feet wide, the curb cut up to 30 feet, and each flare up to 5 feet. A Class II approach serves the same size of property on a street with shoulders and no raised curb, and allows a 30-foot entrance, a 50-foot approach and 10-foot flares.

Position rules apply to both classes. An entrance has to be at least 5 feet from the property line and 10 feet from an intersection, and two entrances need at least 10 feet between them. Anything serving more than four stalls, or a commercial use, moves to Class III or IV, with wider limits and its own permit through Traffic Engineering. The standards also point to the City's detail drawings 3.02 and 3.06 and to specification section 303.2(M), the profile saw cut.

• Class I, curbed street: 20 ft entrance, 30 ft curb cut, 5 ft flares
• Class II, shoulder street: 30 ft entrance, 50 ft approach, 10 ft flares
• Both classes: 5 ft from the property line, 10 ft from an intersection, 10 ft between entrances

Who can do the work

The City requires every contractor doing any work in its right-of-way to be prequalified. Its prequalification list is organized by type of work, with categories for asphalt paving, concrete paving, concrete sidewalk with curb and gutter and other flatwork, and grading and earthwork, plus right-of-way categories for work done for property owners, one of them for asphalt pavers. Asking which categories a contractor holds, and checking the City's published list, takes a few minutes and heads off a stalled permit.

The finished work is then measured against the City's specifications. For concrete, that means 7 inches of nonreinforced concrete over 6 inches of compacted crushed aggregate, with a half-inch expansion joint where the driveway meets the curb. For asphalt, the driveway and terrace paving section is 3 inches of upper-layer mix placed in one lift on select fill. The curb opening follows the specification's profile saw cut, which takes the curb head off with a machine saw. The apron and approach page covers the construction side in more detail.

Timing, streets and the neighbors' rules

Two schedules matter besides the permit review. The first is the weather: City specifications do not allow upper-layer asphalt when the air is below 40 degrees without written approval, and concrete has its own cold-weather protection rules, so terrace work is a warm-season job. The second is the street itself. The City resurfaces about five miles of street a year and reconstructs others, and a curb line or grade that is about to change is a reason to wait before replacing an apron.

Across municipal lines the rules change. Monona requires aprons in its right-of-way to be concrete, caps openings at 30 feet and at half the lot frontage, and wants a notarized affidavit from each contractor. Stoughton requires a permit even for a private driveway rebuilt in place. Cottage Grove makes owners pay for approaches unless a street or curb grade change of 6 inches or more forces the work, in which case the village pays. An address a few blocks outside Madison can face a very different permit.

Before the saw comes out

A short list keeps an apron project from stalling between the design and the day the crew arrives. Each item below is either a City requirement or a step that the other requirements depend on, and most can be done in a single afternoon.

• Measure the existing entrance, curb cut and flares against the Class I or II limits
• Confirm the address is inside the City of Madison, not Monona, Maple Bluff or Shorewood Hills
• Ask the contractor which City prequalification categories they hold
• Apply for the Street Terrace Permit online and allow 5 to 7 working days
• Schedule a Diggers Hotline locate before any digging
• Check City Engineering's project listings for planned work on the street

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