Government
Town To Charge for Parking on Elm While Making ‘Park Street Lot’ Free
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Reversing a decades-old system, town officials are planning to charge for parking in the heart of downtown New Canaan while creating free spaces just off of the main drag. Making good on a proposal she made public nearly one year ago, First Selectman Dionna Carlson said the town is planning to create 75 paid parking spaces on the one-way stretch of Elm Street while offering the 100 spaces in Park Street for free. “ It’s a more economic way to do parking,” Carlson told NewCanaanite.com in an interview. “We currently—and I’ve said this multiple times, we currently charge for our least valuable parking, and we give away our most valuable parking for free. And we are creating congestion on Elm Street that people have written to me about, with people circling for free parking.”
The Board of Finance on Tuesday voted unanimously in favor of a bond issuance including $91,000 “for the acquisition of parking pay machines for Elm Street and South Avenue.”
Those funds will be used to purchase nine solar-powered parking machines similar to those already in paid lots such as Morse Court and Playhouse Lot.