Adopt a complete streets policy, or a living streets policy, which addresses landscaping and stormwater.

Complete Streets Policies: 

• Complete Streets are streets designed and operated to enable safe use and support mobility for all users. Those include people of all ages and abilities, regardless of whether they are traveling as drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, or public transportation riders. The concept of Complete Streets encompasses many approaches to planning, designing, and operating roadways and rights of way with all users in mind to make the transportation network safer and more efficient. Complete Street policies are set at the state, regional, and local levels and are frequently supported by roadway design guidelines. (U.S. DOT, 2015)
• Complete Streets Implementation Resource Guide for Minnesota Local Agencies (MnDOT, MN Local Road Research Board, 2013)
• Complete Streets from Policy to Project: The Planning and Implementation of Complete Streets at Multiple Scales (MnDOT, MLRRB: 2014)
• Local Government Complete Streets Toolkit (MN Complete Streets Coalition, 2010)
• See the Best Complete Streets Policies and evaluate your policy (Smart Growth America, 2023)
• 10 policy elements of a comprehensive complete streets policy (updated Oct. 2018) as identified by the National Complete Streets Coalition.
• Complete Streets Mean Equitable Streets (Smart Growth America, 2016). 
• Safe streets aren’t always safe for everyone. Include diverse public input to implement strategies that address systemic racism. See ‘Safe Streets’ are not safe for black lives (Bloomberg City Lab 2020). 
• See also a model complete streets resolution and A Guide to Building Healthy Streets (Change Lab Solutions: 2016) that highlights the unique role public health staff can play, and a brochure, economic talking points, and a policy-writing workbook from the National Complete Streets Coalition and Smart Growth America.

Living Streets: 

• “Complete Streets typically refers to street design that provides for multiple modes of transportation. Green Streets typically refers to street design that reduces environmental impacts by reducing impervious surface, managing stormwater, and providing shade. Living Streets for the purpose of this document is a combination of the two. Living Streets combines the concepts of complete streets and green streets, and also puts additional focus on quality of life aspects for City residents.” (City of Maplewood, 2013) 
• See North St. Paul's 2011 Living Streets Plan that details a less expensive way to, as the need arises, rebuild 30-foot streets without sidewalks into 22-foot streets with trees, zero stormwater runoff, parking bays, sidewalks, and a bike lane. 
• See the Maplewood 2013 Living Streets Policy that includes goals of: enhancing biking and walking conditions, enhance safety and security of streets, calm traffic, create livable neighborhoods, improve stormwater quality, enhance the urban forest, reduce life cycle costs, and improve neighborhood aesthetics. 
• In 2013 the Maplewood Living Street Demonstration Project reconstructed 2 miles of residential streets and saved $100,000 by using this complete green street guidance (see their policy under the Who's doing it tab on this GreenStep page).
• Principles for the Living Street of Tomorrow (National Street Service, Ford Motor Co., Gehl Inc.: 2018)
• The Promoting Active Communities assessment form from the state of Michigan is an extensive resource with over 100 detailed questions in 13 sections including planning, zoning, site plan review, maintenance, schools and worksites.

Street Design: 

• See, for example, the Minneapolis Street Design Guide (Minneapolis, 2023) and the St. Paul Street Design Manual (St. Paul, 2023). The guides inform city, county, and state planners of future street projects.
• The Model Design Manual for Living Streets was produced in 2011 by 45 of the nation's top street designers and covers the principles of complete streets and green streets in extensive detail, though is tailored for Los Angeles County. 
• Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares (Institute for Transportation Engineers, Congress for the New Urbanism, 2010)
• Urban Street Stormwater Guide (and Urban Street Design Guide: National Association of City Transportation Officials: 2017, 2013)
• Resources and background on emergency response and narrower street design, rethinking the size of fire trucks, and the latest data on saving lives by means of evidence-based good street design. 
• See also San Francisco Has a New 'Vision Zero' Fire Truck (Planetizen: 2017). 
• Rather than following the International Fire Code section that requires 20- and 26-foot street clearances for fire access, some cities use the more flexible guidelines in the Urban Street Design Guide (National Association of City Transportation Officials: 2013).
• See several national-level efforts that integrate transportation planning and sustainability: 
  • Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System being used in Edina
  • GreenLITES self-certification program
  • GreenRoads rating system
  • Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Sustainable Highways Self-Evaluation Tool called INVEST
  • 2019 design principles (from Sidewalk Labs, the smart cities arm of Google parent company Alphabet) to make streets safer and more efficient as new mobility technologies come online