Parking Officials Seek To Re-Designate Loading Zone at South and Elm as ‘24/7’

Saying it will ease congestion on Elm Street, parking officials are seeking to re-designate a loading zone just off the main drag downtown as 24 hours.

The loading zone on the west side of South Avenue, just below Elm, currently is in effect from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg.

But “people don’t read the signs that say ‘loading zone’ and they’re constantly using it as a parking spot,” she told members of the Parking Commission during their regular meeting, held Wednesday at Town Hall and via videoconference.

“So it’s a recommendation that we make it a loading zone 24/7, technically, because we want to mark the street,” she continued. “If you mark the street, then it can’t go back to a regular parking spot at 3 o’clock. We don’t lose those three spaces because it can’t be utilized as parking during the day anyway. And later in the evening, after 3 o’clock, there’s plenty of space throughout the town for people to park anyway.”

Miltenberg added, “Right now we are having trouble with trucks trying to park in that area. That [trucks] is what the area is for … So if we can keep the cars out of that area by marking it [on the street, as well as with signage] as a ‘loading zone,’ we’re hopefully taking the trucks off the street that are double-parking and now putting them where they’re supposed to be.”’

Commission Chair Jennifer Donovan and members Kevin Karl and Drew Magratten voted 3-0 in favor of the change. Their recommendation now will go to the Police Commission for its sign-off. While the Parking Commission oversees off-street municipal lots in New Canaan, the Police Commission makes decisions with respect to on-street activity. 

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Donovan said.

Magratten noted that the situation with the loading zone on South Avenue is “only going to get worse once Dunkin goes in.” He referred to the Dunkin Donuts and its pending move from Elm Street to the corner of South and Elm (directly opposite the loading zone).