Culvert work to begin in July, Plandome Manor building inspector says

The Island Now
Christopher Kobos of H2M Architects and Engineers discusses Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping at the Plandome Manor village board meeting on Feb. 19. (Photo by Samuel Glasser)
Christopher Kobos of H2M Architects and Engineers discusses Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping at the Plandome Manor village board meeting on Feb. 19. (Photo by Samuel Glasser)

By Samuel Glasser

Paving work is in store for Plandome and North Plandome Roads, likely starting this summer and extending to spring of 2020, the Plandome Manor Board of Trustees was told at its regular meeting Tuesday night.

The long-awaited repair of the culvert that passes under North Plandome Road between Leeds Pond and Manhasset Bay should be underway in July, Village Building Inspector Edward Butt said. The State Department of Environmental Conservation does not allow construction work at the bay from the beginning of April through June, “so the contractor said he would start the project on July 1,” Butt said.

The reconstruction of the culvert is a Town of North Hempstead project but the road is a village thoroughfare.

The work is expected to take three or four months, Butt said.

Next up will be the repaving of Plandome Road from the triangle south toward the Manhasset business district, likely in the fall after the culvert work is done.

“National Grid has destroyed Plandome Road,” said Mayor Barbara Donno.

The utility has been laying new gas mains under the roadway since last summer.

“There are 35 [road] cuts and they are not done yet,” Butt said, noting that National Grid has a responsibility to pay a share of the repairs.

Then, in spring of next year, the remaining parts of North Plandome Road would be repaved southward from Elm Sea Lane. The stretch of road from Elm Sea to the village line was done last year.

In unrelated village business, the board passed Local Law 1 amending the zoning code to affirm that renting or leasing any part of residential property for parking, including driveways, is prohibited. Commercial activity in residential areas has always been forbidden, but the new law specifies parking.

The issue was raised a few months ago when someone distributed flyers seeking to rent driveway space.

The board also voted to hold hearings at the next meeting on March 19 on two proposed laws. Local Law 2 would authorize the village to repair the private roads within the village and bill the work to the adjacent property owners on an equal basis if they did not undertake repairs on their own. The other law would require a site plan review for property uses permitted by special exception.

The board also heard a presentation on geographic information system (GIS) mapping by Christopher Kobos, GIS director of the engineering firm H2M of Melville. GIS generates a series of overlay maps of municipal assets – roads, utilities, storm sewers, street lights, trees – along with the land elevation and terrain.

“Anything on the ground can be mapped,” Kobos said, “and there’s a database of information on each layer of the specific assets.”

Kobos said that the Towns of North Hempstead, Hempstead and Oyster Bay, and most villages use GIS for “straightforward asset management.” The firm will work up a proposal for mapping the village.

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