Independence City Council took the first step to reduce the speed limit on part of Hogrefe Road from 35 miles per hour to 20 on Monday night. Hogrefe Road is off of State Route 536.
“We have always had calls about the speed on Hogrefe,” said City Administrator Chris Moriconi. “Now it has been developed on both sides of the road. One side is Kenton County, it is not the city, and the other side is the city. But it is a major gateway to some large subdivisions up there.”
He said since both sides of the road have been developed, the calls for better speed control have been increasing, so the city believed that the time has come to deal with it. He said if someone drives the current speed limit, which is 35, a resident would not be able to back out of their driveway.
Independence Police Chief Tony Lucas was asked to assess the situation, and he told council that he was aware of the problem right away.
“If you guys are familiar if you’re going up the hill off of Hogrefe, we feel we need to keep that speed at 35, because there’s no houses, there’ s no one living on that main drag, there’s nobody going to live there ever, we can keep that at 35,” said Chief Lucas. “Once you come past the first street it stays 35 as you turn right. We want to reduce that to 20 all the way back because once you get into the new section both sides of the road now have houses and people living there. Now the left side and the right side has residents on both sides. It’s definitely time to change that speed to 20 to match the rest of the subdivision.”
Moriconi said 732 Hogrefe is the address where the speed change will start. He said there is a barn located there, and that could act as a landmark for residents to indicate where they should start slowing down for the new speed limit, since it is a decrease of 15 miles per hour.
The on-street parking can be addressed by signage, Lucas said. With fire hydrants installed he said he thinks putting speed limit signs and no parking signs along one side of the road should be sufficient.
Council members asked if he thought enforcing the new speed limit would be a problem. Lucas said right now they have digital signs up showing people what their speed is and heralding a speed change coming. He said they plan to give it a month or so after the signs are formally posted for people to recognize the new speed limit, and then see what kind of complaints they receive from residents who are seeing non-compliance.
“And really, think about it, most of it is residents who live back there,” said Lucas. “Honestly, it all falls in together.”
The second reading of the ordinance will take place at the next regular council meeting, which, due to the Labor Day holiday, will be pushed back to Sept. 12. The new speed limit signs will be posted after that meeting.
There will be a special meeting of council on Aug. 22, but the speed limit issue is not scheduled to be discussed at that meeting.