Village of Great Neck Plaza trustees voted Monday to authorize Mayor Jean Celender to enter into an agreement with a Hauppauge engineering firm to evaluate if it is safe for cars to park on the west side of a section of South Middle Neck Road between Brompton Road and Pont Street.
“We discussed this at the last board meeting to get a professional to look at that section of road,” Celender said.
VHB Engineering, Surveying and Landscape Architecture, P.C. will determine if cars parking in the parking lane on South Middle Neck Road between Brompton Road and Pont Street make it dangerous for cars turning left onto South Middle Neck Road from Brompton Road.
Motorists trying to make a left turn onto South Middle Neck Road from Brompton have complained to the village they could not adequately see if cars were coming from the north because of the parked cars.
The firm will also determine if the current parking restrictions in the area in front of Tower Ford at 124 South Middle Neck Road are adequate.
The village voted at their April 1 meeting to update the village code to clarify parking regulations in the area, which did not allow for parking.
The revised language now conforms with language on street signs along that section of South Middle Neck Road, which states that there will be “No parking any time, except when authorized to be used as a loading zone” and “Loading zone, commercial vehicles only, 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.”
Village officials had said that people had been parking illegally in the parking lane without getting ticketed.
The village will pay VHB a $3,945 lump sum, and reimburse the company for fees that may come from printing, shipping and the purchasing of documents that might come about during the study. These fees are estimated to be about $225.
VHB will also study how fast cars travel in the area during peak and non-peak hours.
“The point of studying off-peak is that speeds might be faster at off-peak hours,” village Trustee Larry Katz said.
Celender said VHB could do the study in about four to six weeks, and she hopes the firm can be at the May 19 village meeting to make a presentation on their findings.
