After Complaints, Police To Look Again at Parking for Officers Downtown

Following complaints from residents, New Canaan Police officers will try to avoid parking on Locust Avenue while working out of temporary headquarters downtown, officials say.

The New Canaan Police Department in November moved into 39 Locust Ave.—the former Board of Education offices at the corner of Forest Street—while the station on South Avenue undergoes an extensive renovation, a project that’s expected to take about two years.

During a Board of Selectmen meeting last week, officials flagged an emerging issue where residents are complaining about Locust parking taken up by police officers.

“I know it’s a learning curve over there,” Selectman Steve Karl said to Police Chief John DiFederico during the Jan. 4 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Karl and First Selectman Dionna Carlson both said they’d received complaints regarding police parking during the renovation.

DiFederico said the department is “consciously trying to use our own part of the parking lot at 39 Locust and then some on-street parking, but we’re staying away from the businesses.”

“That was a directive that I put out to the officers—to not park in front of the businesses,” he continued. “So it should be on-street, the lower part of Locust, on Cherry, or up to the Locust Avenue block.”

The issue arose after the Board approved two modest purchase order increases for the Police Department.

Asked by Carlson whether there are more than five on-street Locust Avenue parking spaces being used by police, DiFederico said possibly during a shift change or if there are officers stopping into the office to change before heading back out to a side job.

Carlson said her understanding was that five spaces would be set aside for on-duty officers who needed quick access to their vehicles.

“Beyond those five spaces and for shift change or just officers stopping in, we probably should talk about where they park and maybe not on Locust, and then finding a different location,” she said.

Carlson added that the Board was trying to be “sensitive to the fact that that is a tight area and there are homes and condos.”

DiFederico said, “Now that things have settled, we can kind of get a better idea of what the parking situation is, but we’ll do better.”

Karl said that the town has known all along that of all the challenges with the temporary PD downtown, the parking would be number one.