All projects begin with a blueprint, and the Village of Sea Cliff is crafting its own to improve safety, mobility and the quality of life for everyone who travels around the village.
Over 25 residents attended a two-hour public meeting at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church on Nov. 5, to learn and provide input about Sea Cliff’s Safe Streets for All Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.
The plan is funded by a $120,000 grant from the federal Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed into law by President Joseph Biden in 2021.
Local municipalities can submit applications for grant funding for safe-streets initiatives. The funding is intended to support planning work, not construction.
“We're here to work on a plan as we move forward, to make the village safe,” Dan Flanzig, a personal injury lawyer specializing in representing cyclists, said to open the meeting. “Some things are simple, they're cheap. Other things are redesigned roads, and we live in a very interesting area.”
Flanzig, a member of the village’s traffic safety committee, highlighted how during the creation of that village’s 1970 comprehensive plan, some of the highest residential concerns involved road safety. Those worries from residents, Flanzig said, have not changed “for 30-40 years, right? It’s still a concern.”
The village hired NV5, a Florida-based engineering and consulting firm to help devise its plan. NV5 specializes in infrastructure resilience, asset management, and road safety analysis. This spring, the village and NV5 began collecting crash data in the village from 2019 to 2023 and analyzing roadway safety.
Senior Planner Sofia Kyle and Transportation Engineer Bill Nicolle, both with NV5, focused on the grant program the village was a part of that allowed for the funding of the planning, the Safe System Approach, the firm's safety analysis of the village and what the next steps would be following the meeting.
The purpose of the plan, Kyle said, is to “put an end to traffic related and serious injuries, to master plan a roadway for safety improvements, to initiate safety programs, to bolster safe communities, and create the framework to win future grants.” Another goal of the plan is to have zero fatal and serious injury crashes by 2040 in Sea Cliff.
Nicolle contextualized crash data in the village from 2019-2023. While there were no recorded fatal vehicular accidents, crashes throughout the village have increased in recent years per the presentation. Records show 29 of the 38 recorded crashes occurred in 2022 and 2023.
“This is on a national level,” Nicolle said. “The whole nation is seeing this increased trend.” While he did not identify a singular cause for the increase, some of the possibilities he mentioned included more home usage, distractions for drivers, and increased speed.
Glen Cove Avenue at Sea Cliff Avenue near Donahue Street and at Downing Avenue, along with Prospect Avenue near Tappen Beach at Sea Cliff Avenue and Carpenter Avenue were all identified by Nicolle as “high focus,” areas. He highlighted that there were two serious injuries at Sea Cliff Avenue at Glen Cove Avenue and one serious injury at Prospect Avenue near Tappen Beach.
He also suggested trimming of vegetation at street signs, retroreflective signal borders and the replacement of faded street signs. A village-wide speed limit of 25 miles per hour was also presented by Nicolle. Villages can change the speed limit to 25 mph due to a 2022 state law that removed the previous 30 mph minimum. “Considering that law change,” Nicolle said. “We looked into that and then found justification where that is feasible in this village.”
The speed limit would only be applicable on village-owned roads. Nicolle also highlighted that new traffic signals are expected on Glen Cove Avenue in 2026 while work on Prospect Avenue will include traffic calming, streetscape and drainage Improvements in 2027 because of two separate countywide projects.
Several attendees raised questions for the presenters and the traffic committee. Some focused their comments on increasing county police presence on Sea Cliff Avenue and Glen Cove Avenue–both county owned roads. Others asked about limiting vegetation on village sidewalks and a potential village-wide speed limit.
Resident Kevin Bell questioned how many intersections in the village qualify as uncontrolled intersections — road junctions without traffic signals, stop signs or yield signs — requiring drivers to follow right-of-way rules.
Bell’s mother, Maureen, focused on the efficiency and differences between normal stop signs and those with LED lights to increase visibility, especially in low-light or adverse weather conditions. “Are they more effective or do they have more of an impact?” she asked. Nicolle acknowledged that they were safer but emphasized that they “don't want to do that at every single stop sign, or people will just become complacent.”
At the end of the meeting, residents were encouraged to sign a “safety pledge,” agreeing that it is possible to eliminate traffic-related deaths and serious injuries. The pledge contained ten affirmations, including maintaining sobriety and driving in distraction-free environments, observing posted speed limits, and exercising extra caution when approaching and traveling through school zones.
Looking to the future, a first draft of the plan is expected to be done by February 2026, and a finalized action plan completed by March. Additional information about the project is available at SeaCliffSafeStreets.com.
