Heritage Hill Road residents say they’re concerned about an early mock-up of the Locust Avenue Lot parking deck that would have traffic exiting onto their street dangerously close to a busy intersection at the end of a curve.
A modified long-range plan rendering of the proposed Locust Avenue Parking Deck. Specs by Kent Turner, STV Incorporated
It’s the mostly heavily trafficked area in the vicinity of the Locust Avenue Lot “and the offset from the intersection does not allow a lot of time for people to enter and exit onto Heritage Hill,” Jim Stevens, representing the Oenoke Association on Heritage Hill Road, told members of the Parking Commission at their most recent meeting.
“I think it would be problematic having traffic make a left out of the proposed lot,” Stevens said at the Nov. 5 meeting, held at Town Hall. “And if you are going to force everybody to go right, you have everybody who is trying to get back to town or back to over to the Merritt or other towns who are going to be making U-Turns onto Heritage Hill Road.”
Parking Commission Chairman Keith Richey responded that the mockup of a Locust Avenue parking deck that features two levels with no ramp between them and access to the top level from Heritage Hill Road in fact was a high-level rendering offered up by a local person “without checking on elevations or anything.”
“It was a pretty cute plan but it was by no means a fully laid out or potentially final plan,” Richey said.
He added that the commission feels a ramp between the two levels is most sensible.
The Parking Commission for many years has argued in favor of decking the lot at Locust (as well as the Lumberyard).
The exact status of the parking deck, which was to have been taken up on the heels of Town Hall reopening with a projected finish date about one year from now, is unclear. The emergence of a time-sensitive $18.6 million renovation and expansion at Saxe, many months in development, has occupied a place as top priority among major capital projects in New Canaan, and town funding bodies began formal approvals this month.
“I’m not that overly optimistic, but not overly pessimistic either,” Richey said of the parking deck’s prospects.
Asked about the project, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said the town is collecting data now and working with architects and engineers.
“The egress on to Heritage has always been a concern of the neighboring residents and I understand their concern,” Mallozzi said. “I live off of Heritage Hill myself and understand the present traffic patterns. We are looking at that option as well as others that may make it possible to limit in- and out-bound traffic onto Heritage.”
Two tiered parking is not a well thought out plan for Locust. If you see the traffic backed up now, it would be unfathomable to double the capacity and have it flow onto Locust, especially when you add in the additional traffic when the post office is completed. I urge all those involved to reconsider this potential traffic nightmare.