The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved funds for preliminary, pre-construction work on a proposed new Locust Avenue parking deck, conditioned on two things: that a widely anticipated traffic study turns up no safety concerns and that there’s input from police, fire and EMTs on the plan.
Locust Avenue Parking Lot. Credit: Sarah Maddox
The architectural and engineering services, from a Rocky Hill-based firm, come to a total of $52,226, under a contract approved during the selectmen’s regular meeting.
“We are not going to go ahead with this until we get our traffic study and involve our police and fire department,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said during the meeting, held Tuesday at Town Hall.
An initial traffic study conducted several years ago flagged no reasons to delay or reject the project, however, people felt that the study wasn’t complete, according to Mike Pastore, director of the Department of Public Works. A second traffic consultant was hired, and the report should be analyzed within the next few days, he said.
Two designs for a proposed parking deck on Locust Avenue.
“There are several studies that point to the need for more parking,” Pastore said. “The existing parking lot would stay as it is, basically people who come and go to Locust. The deck itself would enter and exit onto Heritage Hill. It will be set aside mainly for town hall employees and permanent parking.”
On a backburner for more than two years during the renovation and expansion of Town Hall, plans call for a parking tier accessible from Heritage Hill Road with a non-connected lower level that feeds onto Locust Avenue—a project that would add 89 overall spaces to the lot. There would be no connecting ramp between the two levels—installing one would cost the structure about 20 spaces—and the upper deck would meet a need for permitted parking for town employees and commuters, Department of Public Works officials have said.
Yet there are still many who are concerned about any plans for a parking deck that would see traffic flow to and from on Heritage Hill Road. Jim Stevens, representing the Oenoke Association on Heritage Hill Road, called for the Board of Selectmen to reject the request. He sees the exit onto Heritage Hill as “completely unsafe.”
“If you look at that intersection, it is one of the most convoluted intersections in all of New Canaan,” Stevens said.
“It is going to impact the quality of our lives, it’s a safety issue and it potentially impacts our property value,” he said.
Stevens added that he is concerned that there is not enough public opinion involved in the decision of the new parking lot design.
Specifically, Stevens questioned the process of moving forward with pre-construction work that’s based on a design that specifically includes entrance to and egress from a proposed parking deck that feeds Heritage Hill Road.
However, Mallozzi said, alternative designs will be presented again at future public meetings and that if there’s a problem with the model currently preferred by the town, then there is money to solicit new drawings and studies. Also, selectman Nick WIlliams said that “there is going to be a lot of discussion on this” among multiple town bodies.
Selectman Beth Jones noted that neighbors and others already have weighed in during past public hearings.
Pastore said the town should hold public hearings after the summer, when residents who are away on vacation have returned, with an eye on securing approval for the project in the spring and hopefully finishing up in time for the 2017 holiday season.
So once again yesterday after returning from a client meeting at noon To my office on Locust Avenue there were no parking spots available and people sitting in their cars waiting for spots, many with out of state plates. So I ask myself why do I pay $400 a year to part at the Locust lot where the powers to be issue more permits than spots, give free passes to construction workers and have the nerve to tell me that paying $400 a year for a Locust permit in addition to the $1,200 car tax and real estate taxes as a New Canaan resident that I do not have a guarantee of a spot to go to my business. Well boys and girls you now want to spend more of our tax dollars to build a new locust lot mostly for non New Canaanites. We should object to this unless a sufficient portion of the parking spots are reserved for permit holders. Tired of the double and triple dipping by town hall. Totally inconsiderate of town residents paying for a permit. Other towns reserve spots for permit holders. If you want to spend our tax dollars do it for residents more than non residents.