Parking Issues Being Addressed for Kensington Road Project

Last Tuesday night, Village officials had a very productive meeting with the developers of the Kensington Road condominium project and nearby residents and parkers. We have listened to the concerns of our residents and have made some adjustments to our plans, in particular those having to do with residential parking.

Specifically, the Lower Kensington lot had 90 resident parking spaces, and we have no other lot available for so many cars. Since the project became a reality, we whittled the number down to 72 through attrition. The only option we had was to seek hardship assistance from the State. When parking on public streets is to be designated for any special sector, New York State requires the passage of legislation that specifies the need and grants permission. In other words, a local municipality may legislate that streets are available for parking around the clock for everyone, but when limiting to a certain population, State legislation is required. Such is the case in Eastchester on Garth Road and in Yonkers on Gard Avenue and on Garrett Place.

The New York State legislature passed this Home Rule for Bronxville and as a result, certain streets were striped for parking but were not numbered or metered. Areas that will open up for the Lower Kensington parkers include Sagamore Road north of Avon Road, spaces from the playground on the east side of Sagamore Road to Avon Road, Prescott Avenue between Sagamore Road and Valley Road, Kensington Road and on the west side, Paxton Avenue and Dewitt Avenue. In recognition of the displacement of our parkers, the fees have been reduced by 25 per cent. At the Tuesday meeting, residents of the Sagamore Road neighborhood impressed upon us the need to keep Sagamore Road open for daily activities parking - the coming and going for errands, school pickup and drop off, et cetera - from Christ Church to Sagamore Park. These newly opened parking areas will accomplish this goal. As was stated at the community forum, nothing is etched in stone. If we need to tweak our plan, we will do so.

In addition to parking, soil removal, traffic and the construction management plan were the most pertinent topics at the community meeting. To recap, construction will commence in late July beginning with soil removal followed by rock removal. In terms of quantity, 40,000 cubic yards of material must be removed including. 20,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, 10,000 cubic yards of uncontaminated soil and 10,000 cubic yards of rock.

Due to the property's former uses as a gas station and a coal burning power plant, the soil contains volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds and metals. No work can be done until the Village receives proof of approval by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) of the developer's proposed Remedial Action Work Plan. Daily on-site monitoring is required and all monitoring reports will be forwarded to the DEC. All companies involved in the actual handling of contaminated materials will be fully licensed and authorized by the DEC. All material removal trucks will be covered and a tracking pad will be installed at the construction site's point of egress.

Daily dust monitoring is an integral part of the Remedial Action Work PLAN. There will be additional particle monitoring in and around Christ Church. Galli Engineering and Walter Sedovic Architects (Architects for Christ Church) will oversee all dust monitoring efforts.

All efforts will be made to route construction traffic away from Sagamore
Road. Approximately eight to ten trucks will be filled two to three times daily during the first phase of the project. Pedestrian access will not be interrupted because temporary sidewalks and crosswalks will be created with the guidance of our police department. All construction workers will park on the enclosed work site, not on the street. Once the parking garage is complete, they will park in the structure.

The developer anticipates that the soil removal will take 10 weeks, that the rock removal will take eight weeks, and that the garage will take six months to complete. Once a certificate of occupancy has been issued and the site is deemed safe by public safety, vehicles will be allowed to park in the Kensington facility.

The Village's new website will have a section devoted to the weekly activities of the construction project so residents can plan accordingly.

This project has been thirty years in the making. At its completion, it will enhance the Village on many levels: it will increase the parking supply; it will significantly add to the neighborhood beautification; it will add a home option for our empty nesters; and it will add a major tax infusion to the Village. We know that arriving at the end result involves disruption and inconvenience for our residents. We ask for your patience and for your constructive ideas as we partner with you to mitigate the side effects as much as possible.