Jul. 23, 2014:  On June 24, we had a very productive meeting with residents impacted by the Kensington Road development project. We listened to the concerns of those who are the boots on the ground and made changes to our parking/construction roll-out plans. Meetings of this sort demonstrate our community at its best, providing a cordial free flow of information and conversation that results in a better outcome.

Chief among the residents' concerns was not changing or impacting the current parking on Sagamore Road from Kensingtion Road to the play park. As a result, we found enough spaces for Lower Kensington Road parkers in areas out of this already congested zone.

Our displaced parkers will now have the opportunity to park on Sagamore Road north of the play park to the Tuckahoe Village line, on Valley Road, in some spaces on Prescott Avenue, and on Kensington Road, and if willing to walk a little, they may park entirely free on Paxton Avenue.

It is important to note that our permission for this overnight parking for a discrete group of displaced parkers required the passage of a state legislative act. Once passed, the act had to be signed by the governor. The village purposely placed a sunset date on this parking so no villager would be concerned that these spaces would morph into permanent parking. This street parking will be in effect only until the new parking structure is ready for occupancy.

At the completion of the project, all of the striping and signage will be removed in these designated areas. Those commuters who used the Lower Kensington lot may park in the Kraft Avenue lot if they have a resident or prepaid commuter permit. Holders of a commuter permit may also park in the Avalon Lot. Merchants who normally park in the Lower Kensington lot may park in the Garden Avenue lot. In addition to the current merchant section, the second row of public parking will be available for merchants.

Our Lower Kensington lot officially closed on Monday and construction fencing will be erected this week. The contractor has agreed to provide a covered walkway on Kensingtion Road for the duration of the project. And again, in response to area residents, Sagamore Road will not be used as a truck route for the project. We know our construction/relocation plan can always be perfected and we will continue to ask for resident input and adjust and modify as we go along.

As a corollary to the Kensington project, residents at the public meeting raised additional concerns regarding speeding and safety on Sagamore Road.

In response, our police department inventoried signage on the length of Sagamore Road and added two additional 25 mph speed limit signs near the play park as well as a traffic calming pedestrian crosswalk sign in that crosswalk. The fire zones on Kensington Road and Avon Road were also restriped and two traffic volume and speed surveys were conducted. Our monitoring equipment was stationed near the play park and our police department recorded over 10,000 readings during a full seven-day stretch.

The average speed was 23 mph, or 2 mph less than the posted 25 mph. (Note: due to special legislation enacted many years ago, Sagamore Road was allowed to be reduced from the state's 30 mph minimum speed.) Those who were speeding averaged 28 mph, above the reduced speed zone but below the 30 mph allowed throughout the rest of the village.

On the downhill side of Sagamore Road, our equipment was set up near Latimer Lane and over 7,500 cars were monitored. The downhill results recorded an average speed of 26 mph, or 1 mph above the posted limit. It appears that because of the curves and narrow features of Sagamore Road, there is a widespread perception that vehicles speed up and down the road. However, our data did not support this.

Our monitoring equipment, which is an important new acquisition, can highlight by the hour when speeding is most frequent and volume is at its highest. Armed with data, we can more effectively and economically target our enforcement efforts.

We will do this in the coming weeks on Sagamore Road. We recently just completed a similar monitoring/enforcement effort on Summit Avenue.

Village officials are available to speak at annual meetings of co-op boards as well as on an individual basis with any resident concerning the timetable/adjustments required due to the upcoming construction.