Government
Talmadge Hill Railroad Crossing

First Selectman: New Canaan To Ask State for Cooperation in Expanding Talmadge Hill Lot

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New Canaan is “actively investigating” whether it could expand commuter parking by extending two lots at Talmadge Hill into state-owned property alongside the Merritt Parkway, the town’s highest elected official said Tuesday. According to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, the town soon will send a letter to the Connecticut Department of Transportation “to ask for their cooperation to let us pave” the areas, which would yield some 50 additional spaces. Combined with efforts to gain another 150 to 200 spaces for commuters through the Boxcar app and a possible northward expansion at Locust Avenue Lot, the project at Talmadge Hill is expected put a dent in waiting lists for parking permits—nearly 600 between the Lumberyard and Talmadge Hill, as of last month. By bringing that number down, Moynihan said, the town could be looking at a smaller structure needed to bolster parking at Lumberyard itself. “We really have to have a hard number as to how many spaces we need to build,” Moynihan said during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall.

Government

Parking Officials: ‘Clean’ Waitlist for Lumberyard Lot Permits Down to 475

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Parking officials say the number of New Canaan residents now waiting for permits for the convenient Lumberyard Lot next to the train station is 475—the lowest figure in memory. Another 189 names are on a waiting list for the Richmond Hill Lot and 115 at Talmadge Hill, according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. The number of people on the Lumberyard waitlist had stood at 606 in November. But a total of 168 names were removed after people either opted out or failed to respond to a call for a $10 fee to remain on the waitlist, Miltenberg told members of the Parking Commission at their regular meeting Thursday. Chairman Keith Richey called the 475 figure “very interesting.”

“There was a point not so long ago when we would say that there were 1,200 people on the waiting list,” Richey said at the meeting, held in Town Hall.

Government

Town Commissions ‘Design Concepts’ for New Parking Deck at Lumberyard Lot

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to enter into an $8,000 contract with a New York City-based engineering firm that specializes in parking facilities, the first formal step toward adding spaces at New Canaan’s most coveted commuter lot. DESMAN in three to four weeks will provide New Canaan with “several different concept designs” for a parking structure at the Lumberyard Lot, Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held in Town Hall. “They are going to be looking at vehicular circulation, and where we would get the best bang for our buck as far as where we could actually put a deck or a structure in, and then get the most parking spots back out again for the least cost.”

Officials from DESMAN already have walked the property and will come back for another review prior to putting together three functional designs, Mann said, that New Canaan could choose from. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of the contract. The funds will be paid out of the DPW’s current engineering and administrative budget.

Government

Town Pursues Parking Deck at Lumberyard; One-Third of New Spaces To Be Designated for Businesses

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Town officials say they’re moving forward with plans to increase commuter parking at both the Talmadge Hill and Lumberyard lots. Members of the Parking Commission at the group’s most recent meeting said that First Selectman Kevin Moynihan is eyeing a private property in the area of the Talmadge station for acquisition by the town, and the first selectman himself has said that municipal officials have walked the Lumberyard property with an architect who is expected to produce a conceptual rendering, hopefully some time in the first quarter. Plans at the Lumberyard call for a single parking deck that will use the grade between Elm Street and the lot itself, Moynihan told members of the press at a Dec. 28 press briefing in his office. The parking deck itself would rise no higher than the street-level of Elm, he said.

Around Town

Caught by License Plate Reader, Parking Violator Faces Uncertain Future

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Using a newly issued license plate reader, Parking Bureau workers caught on to a New Canaan man who for about three months had been displaying a friend’s permit to park in the Lumbeyard Lot—skirting the rules to use the most coveted commuter lot in town. Now, parking officials are trying to decide what to do as that man apologizes and requests that the town renew the permit he previously had held for the Richmond Hill lot (all of two blocks further away from the train station). The waiting list for the Lumberyard Lot is about seven years, the Richmond Hill lot three. At their regular meeting Thursday, members of the Parking Commission weighed just what to do with the violator and decided ultimately that more research of the Town Charter is needed to clarify the group’s power in these situations. “We feel that we need to do something to deter this from happening in the future,” Commissioner Pamela Crum said at the meeting, held in the Art Room at Lapham Community Center.