Around Town

Unwelcome Sight: New Parking Plan for Elm Street Takes Shape

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An unwelcome change to parking on Elm Street in New Canaan has materialized in the form of thin strips of white paint. Though the permanent striping on New Canaan’s main business road is yet to come, public works officials have drawn the outline of a new parking arrangement over the recently repaved Elm Street that will see it lose 15 spaces. 

Prompted by a resident formally putting New Canaan on notice that the town was out of compliance with a little-known (and variously observed) state law that calls for a 25-foot buffer zone between a crosswalk and legal parking space—a notification that could open up the municipality to liability in the event of a collision—officials studied the parking plan on Elm Street and, reluctantly, approved revisions that respect the statute. Last week, residents got their first look at the new “no parking” zones based on outlines in the asphalt, and the change is dramatic. 

It also means downtown New Canaan, always struggling to accommodate demand for parking between workers and visitors, soon will be squeezed even tighter. Laura Budd of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce said the change makes it that much more urgent and necessary for those who work in both first- and second-floor businesses on Main and Elm to park in municipal lots. “Prime spots are for prime customers,” Budd said.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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First Selectman Kevin Moyinhan said during a media briefing Thursday that he’s asked one of New Canaan’s foremost nonprofit figures—Leo Karl III—to lead the New Canaan Athletic Foundation. Karl, known for his extensive volunteer work with organizations that include the New Canaan Community Foundation, where he had served as president, agreed to take on the role, according to Moynihan. Praised by Moynihan for its fundraising ability, the NCAF among other organizational priorities is seeking to establish its own nonprofit arm along the lines of what a similar  group has in Darien, the first selectman said. ***

A Darien homeowner is taking a New Canaan man and his company to small claims court for $4,660.32, saying he committed breach of contract by failing to complete painting work, sealing broken plumbing behind “impenetrable tile and drywall work” and incorrectly installing tile, according to a complaint filed in May. In an answer and counterclaim, the New Canaan man said he’s owed $2,089.63 and that the plaintiff is suing for work not included in the contract.

Government
Talmadge Hill Railroad Crossing

First Selectman: New Canaan To Ask State for Cooperation in Expanding Talmadge Hill Lot

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New Canaan is “actively investigating” whether it could expand commuter parking by extending two lots at Talmadge Hill into state-owned property alongside the Merritt Parkway, the town’s highest elected official said Tuesday. According to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, the town soon will send a letter to the Connecticut Department of Transportation “to ask for their cooperation to let us pave” the areas, which would yield some 50 additional spaces. Combined with efforts to gain another 150 to 200 spaces for commuters through the Boxcar app and a possible northward expansion at Locust Avenue Lot, the project at Talmadge Hill is expected put a dent in waiting lists for parking permits—nearly 600 between the Lumberyard and Talmadge Hill, as of last month. By bringing that number down, Moynihan said, the town could be looking at a smaller structure needed to bolster parking at Lumberyard itself. “We really have to have a hard number as to how many spaces we need to build,” Moynihan said during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall.