If all goes well, the final phase of improvement plans for the New Hyde Park business district should be a reality by late summer or early fall of 2012.
That was the assessment offered earlier this week by Village of New Hyde Park Trustee Donald Barbieri, who has overseen the project,
The Village of New Hyde Park Board of Trustees recently met with representatives of the state Department of Transportation and Saratoga Associates, the architectural firm retained by the village board to design the project, to conduct a final review of Saratoga’s plans. Final approval of the project rests with the DOT.
“The project is in the DOT’s hands. They are going back and forth with Saratoga Landscape Architects,” Barbieri said. “They’re getting closer to addressing all the questions and concerns of the DOT.”
The final phase of the project comprises aesthetic improvements to the shopping district on Jericho Turnpike in New Hyde Park that will also make the area more pedestrian-friendly for shoppers, Barbieri said.
Bulb-outs – rounded corners that would extend slightly into the roadway – would be added at locations yet to be determined by the board of trustees, along with installation of solid medians with plantings and access to water sources to maintain the plantings. Benches would also be installed on sidewalks, which would be paved with the same rustic red brickwork already in place in some sections near the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Lakeville Road.
“Jericho Turnpike has evolved over the years into a heavily trafficked road that isn’t inviting to pedestrian traffic. Jericho Turnpike is main street for New Hyde Park,” Barbieri said. “A combination of an aesthetic improvement with the bulb-outs and plantings would calm traffic a bit.”
Representatives of Saratoga Associates suggested the bulb-outs, according to Barbieri. He said they were intended to slow traffic as vehicles turn.
The village trustees are hoping to coordinate plans for the final phase of business district improvements to coincide with the state DOT’s plans to resurface Jericho Turnpike next April from the Queens County line to the Mineola border, Barbieri said. The DOT plan includes installation of electronic pedestrian crosswalk signs with countdowns to enable shoppers to cross Jericho Turnpike more safely.
“Everything is proceeding. We’re working with the New York State DOT,” Barbieri said. “We’re going to have the New Hyde Park project built out simultaneously with the DOT project so we would only inconvenience store owners during that period.”
The DOT’s repaving work and the village’s improvement project would take approximately four or five months, Barbieri said.
The village originally secured $1.425 million in federal transportation funding for the project through U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola).
“Aesthetically, it should be a transformative project,” Barbieri said.
The most recent phase of the development plan, completed just before last fall’s New Hyde Park street fair, comprised installation of new blue signs with gold lettering denoting the shopping district along Jericho Turnpike. That phase included installation of an information kiosk designed with the same color scheme to alert residents to upcoming community events.
