Coventry Place is a subdivision on the west side of Seymour.
Zach Spicer | The Tribune
This story was updated the afternoon of Jan. 23 following updates presented during the Jan. 22 Seymour Common Council meeting.
Increased traffic in a Seymour subdivision has led to the homeowners association reaching out to city officials to help address some issues.
Mark Echard, who recently was appointed president of the Coventry Place homeowners association, said he had met with Mayor Matt Nicholson to discuss the concerns before bringing them to the Seymour Common Council.
“We’ve had many opportunities for improvements for our development,” Echard said during the Jan. 8 council meeting. “We want to try to move forward to make our development a little more appealing, not only for the residents of Coventry but also for the city of Seymour.”
One issue is speeding. Echard said when the subdivision was established, Coventry Drive went about 1,300 feet off of State Road 258 and dead-ended into a half-cul-de-sac.
A few years later, however, the city decided to open that up to provide access into the Crestview neighborhood.
“I know there were a lot of people at the time at Coventry very upset about that, but honestly, a very wise choice for the city to do that, particularly from an emergency services standpoint, to get people into Crestview,” Echard said.
More people also started to walk or run on the Coventry streets because there are no sidewalks, and there have been instances where people have been clipped by a vehicle’s mirror because the streets are 16 feet wide, which is narrower than many others around the city, he said.
Echard also said people use Coventry as a shortcut to get from the west side of the city to State Road 11.
“For the most part, most of the people drive at a reasonable rate, but there are some that come through that speed through there or at least appear to,” Echard said. “There’s also a stop sign there (at Coventry Drive and Hampton Court), and they fail to stop at the stop sign.”
After talking to Police Chief Greg O’Brien about possible solutions, Echard said he wondered about installing rumble strips on the street leading up to the stop sign.
“I know the city kind of frowns on that because of snowplows, but I understand there are some other areas in other communities that do have them that are very effective,” he said.
He also suggested an additional four-way stop at Coventry and Kensington drives and reducing the speed from 30 mph to 20 or 25.
Councilman Chad Hubbard asked O’Brien if he had collected any speed data through the area. After meeting with Echard, O’Brien said he had officers begin monitoring the stop sign, but there wasn’t an issue as long as motorists saw police there.
Nicholson said SPD can put signage up again to collect data, including vehicle speed and count, and the thoroughfare and drainage committee can look at those numbers.
“I’m looking for opportunities where we can get it taken care of without having PD onsite 24/7,” Echard said. “That’s not fair to those guys, either, or the rest of the city. If there are some other options, we would certainly like to look at that.”
Since there aren’t any sidewalks, Echard said the homeowners association has sought a bid to put a walkway through the center median on Coventry Drive. With the city’s drains running down the middle of the gravel median, he said he talked with officials to get their recommendations.
“We wanted to know if the city had any funding available for that or not,” Echard said.
Echard said a lot of people park on the median, so they want to get that under control, too.
O’Brien said according to the city’s parking regulations, if a street is narrower than 20 feet, vehicles are not allowed to be parked on a curb or on the grass. That results in a parking problem in Coventry.
“There’s nowhere else to park, so I don’t know what the answer is,” he said. “It’s gravel, not grass, and so we’re kind of in a rock and a hard place.”
Echard said the roadway surface, especially from State Road 258 to Hampton Court, is another issue. When Coventry opened, the streets weren’t built for the frequency of traffic that’s being seen today.
“The road is not in great shape at all,” he said. “The street department I know has come over with patches in there. There are some areas that have really deteriorated and probably need some more work. If we can get that paved from 258 out to Hampton, I think it’s like 670 feet, that would be very much appreciated.”
Nicholson said the city has a rating system to determine the conditions of streets, and the ones in need of most attention are the highest priority when applying for funding. Even though Coventry Drive isn’t on this year’s list, the mayor said it possibly could be in the future.
“Every street is on the list every year, and we whittle it down what we can afford,” the mayor said, noting the city is requesting nearly $3.8 million in funding this year.
Finally, Echard said there are some light poles in the neighborhood that need to be painted black because they are showing the white fiberglass material.
Since this meeting, the thoroughfare and drainage committee met to discuss the issues brought forth.
During the Jan. 22 council meeting, committee Chairman Drew Storey said it was the committee’s recommendation to take no action at this time on the Coventry Drive repave or repair on account of the city’s Community Crossings Matching Grant management plan.
“We want to continue to follow that strategy,” Storey said.
The committee also recommended no action at this time on the speed reduction devices and lowering the speed limit.
“We felt like volume may have been an issue, and we are still waiting for some of the details to come back,” Storey said, noting police put a sign in place to collect data.
The committee also wants more data from police before making any specific recommendations regarding a four-way stop at Kensington and Coventry drives, and Storey said a preliminary engineering assessment, including right of way, utilities and feasibility, will be performed in preparation for any future grants for the proposed sidewalk on the Coventry Drive median.
Clerk-Treasurer Darrin Boas said with the light poles, he had been in contact with Duke Energy, and the company put a work order in to paint them since it owns them.