Traffic Analysis Broadens Tarrytown Station Area Study

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May 4, 2016

by Robert Kimmel

Tarrytown Train Station and pedestrian overpass viewed from Village Hall.

Traffic conditions are getting a closer look within Tarrytown’s project to enhance the area around its railroad station and upgrade the sector’s connections to Main Street and the remainder of the village. The Station Area Study has engaged a consulting firm, VHB, to undertake a traffic study of the station vicinity.

“Existing and projected traffic patterns around the station, including additional trips that will be generated by the Edge-On-Hudson development in Sleepy Hollow,” will be scrutinized, according to David Aukland, one of the chairs of the Station Area Study and a Village Planning Board member. The selected consulting firm, VHB, specializes in such traffic analyses.

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Adding the traffic study resulted in the postponement of a public workshop that had been scheduled for May 1. It has been rescheduled to Saturday, June 4, in the Senior Center at Pierson Park, in order “… to give us a stronger basis for the proposals we want residents to help us with at the workshop,” Aukland said. He noted that at the workshop, “…we intend to cover development opportunities at sites to the east of the railroad tracks, and propose alternatives for ways to use available land along the river, together with related infrastructure changes.”

The Station Area Study has pursued public input and preferences through scheduled workshops and will arrange an “Open House” following the group’s summer break “for further public comment,” Aukland noted. The “…public’s ideas and preferences,” will be taken into account when the Study group works with the Board of Trustees to examine “…related zoning and other changes to be addressed in the next phase.”

Also weighing heavily in the Station Area Study are the results of the village-wide Tarrytown Economic Development Strategy (TEDS), being prepared at the request of the Board of Trustees. The TEDS report is by Kevin Dwarka LLC for Melissa Kaplan-Macey’s Collaborative Planning Studio, who are also the consultants for the station area project. Aukland anticipates that the TEDS will provide a “focused fiscal analysis…to better guide the station area alternatives to be considered at the June 4 Public Workshop.”

Aukland and the project’s co-chair, fellow planner Joan Raiselis, met in April with state Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, whom they describe as “being enthusiastic about our work.” They have also met with state Assemblyman Tom Abinanti, whom Aukland stated, “…is also very supportive.”

One structure that could factor into pedestrian access to and from the station side of the rail tracks, is a long abandoned pedestrian tunnel that is about to be checked for potential restoration. The Board of Trustees approved a contract for excavating the tunnel to allow a feasibility study to determine its fitness for re-use. Village Administrator Mike Blau indicated that would begin soon.

The public now has a means of keeping informed of Station Area Study activities with the launching of a new website, “tarrytownconnected.com,” “We hope residents will make full use of the opportunity to comment or to offer help,” Aukland remarked.

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