Officials Provide Update on Municipal Lot Permit Waiting Lists, Security Measures

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Parking officials received an update during a recent meeting on continued efforts to contact town commuters regarding their placement on permit waiting lists for the Lumberyard, Richmond Hill and Talmadge Hill municipal lots.

Parking Bureau Superintendent Stacy Miltenberg told members of the Parking Commission at their May 11 meeting that the agency started making calls to commuters at the end of January to confirm whether they still wanted to purchase a permit and she reported the following results:

  • Lumberyard: Out of 70 commuters contacted, 28 purchased permits, 17 declined, and 25 did not respond
  • Richmond Hill: Out of 29 commuters contacted, 8 purchased permits, 11 declined, and 10 did not respond
  • Talmadge Hill: Out of 94 commuters contacted, 34 purchased permits, 26 declined, and 34 did not respond

Miltenberg said that the bureau has stopped making calls to commuters on the waiting lists because they’re now in the process of sending out renewals to current permit holders, scheduled to be mailed out this month.

“We can’t give current permits out while we start doing renewals because I have to change the whole computer system over [from one task to the next],” she said.

The bureau anticipates that it will pick up the waiting list call process again at the end of August once the renewal process has ended. Miltenberg added that the bureau is currently working on putting the municipal lot waiting lists online, so commuters can view updated versions of them in “read only” mode.

In May of last year, the Board of Selectmen approved a $10 fee for commuters to remain on the municipal lot waiting lists throughout the fiscal year. The Oct. 31 deadline to pay the fee was later extended to Dec. 31 to give those that didn’t respond a chance to keep their place in line. As of the end of last year, Talmadge Hill’s waitlist ran about one year, Richmond Hill three years, and Lumberyard seven to 7.5 years. The permits cost upwards of $456 annually.

Later in the meeting, Commissioner Christopher Hering gave an update on his ongoing efforts to bring additional lighting and closed circuit TVs to the Talmadge Hill station. He said that after recent incidences of cars parked at the station being broken into or vandalized, he believes these improvements will provide additional safety and security to the station.

“I’ve learned from [First Selectman] Rob [Mallozzi] that there’s been graffiti down there and all sort of things,” he said. “The technology has changed a lot in the past five years. Darien has closed circuit televisions at all three of their stations, our town’s YMCA has a license plate reader that can read every license plate that comes on the lot as well as cameras, and the Westport YMCA has cameras. The point being is that there’s some logistics to work out [for Talmadge Hill],” he said.

Hering said he plans to reach out to the Utilities Commission about the new LED bulbs that were placed downtown last month in hopes of bringing the same lighting to Talmadge Hill. “[I would like to discuss] the possibility of moving to LEDs to save money, not on power, but mainly on maintenance. They only have to be changed every 10 years, so that’s kind of a no-brainer. It’s just getting the momentum going for this situation.”

4 thoughts on “Officials Provide Update on Municipal Lot Permit Waiting Lists, Security Measures

  1. It remains appalling how underwhelming town hall is responding to commuter needs. Any visit to Talmadge Hill should instantly be seen as an embarrassment to our town, as is the archaic allocation of parking spaces. There’s so much potential, but just patch-work solution all around the commuters, while parking focus remains to be only on store employees and town hall employees. It’s heartening to see that the challenger to the incumbent has this on his agenda!

  2. While it might be “heartening” that this is on the agenda, the thinking is severely misguided. It appears one of the challenger’s few new policy suggestions is to erect a multi-level parking garage at the Lumberyard site with potentially hundreds of additional spaces. Great idea turning New Canaan into a transportation hub for non-NC and NY residents – the dream of Governor Malloy.

    Putting aside the significant cost of this project to our citizens in the midst of the Saxe school addition and other infrastructure needs, can you imagine the huge traffic nightmare in our village that this will cause? We are New Canaan, not Greenwich!

    • A parking garage at Lumberyard would be a massive improvement and could be restricted priority to NC residents. Yes, we are not Greenwich, and our property values are reflecting that- try convincing young families on the added hassle of an NC commute when they are comparing vs. the ease of Greenwich, Darien, etc. Lifestyle preferences are changing.

  3. Is the challenger even a commuter? He clearly hasn’t even thought of what to do with the existing Lumberyard commuters who will be displaced while his project is under construction. Where are they supposed to go? Irwin Park? With a complimentary shuttle bus to the railroad station every 40 minutes?

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