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. Seven of those would go on either side of Elm Street, and two more on a short stretch of South Avenue running south from Elm, Carlson said.
Town officials have been looking at flip-flopping where to charge for parking for more than 10 years. In examining the idea in 2014, parking officials framed their reasons for the change in terms of downtown workers taking up the free spaces all day. That problem has been somewhat addressed through “business permits” sold or given to downtown business owners for their employees’ use at lots including Morse Court, Center School and Locust Avenue.
The new parking machines will be installed some time after July 1, in the next fiscal year, officials said.
The dumpsters in Playhouse Lot on April 10, 2025. Credit: Michael Dinan
Carlson said the town is taking a multi-faceted approach to relieving congestion on Elm Street. In addition to the paid parking change, the town is creating a new loading zone behind The Playhouse, with a ramp running down to the alley between the movie theater and Le Pain Quotidien (currently a staircase). The dumpsters currently located directly behind The Playhouse will be moved into a new corral that is to be built into the hillside that forms the grade change with Park Street lot, officials have said.
The new loading zone will hopeful serve some trucks currently double-parking on Elm “so we’ll have fewer trucks on Elm Street as well,” Carlson said.
The alley between Le Pain Quotidien and The Playhouse on April 10, 2025. An accessible ramp is coming. Credit: Michael Dinan
The first selectman underscored that the town is not making the change in order to make more money off of parking.
“It’s not for revenue,” Carlson said. “I’m not doing this to get more parking revenue. That is not the point. It will get people off of Elm Street and open it up for shoppers and we’re going to do it [offer parking] in 15-minute increments so people can do the quick pickup.”
Finally! And getting trucks off Elm would be helpful, in addition to 15 minute spots throughout for food and merchandise pickups.
I hope they do something about making the Park Street spaces wider
Monitoring the double parking and parking in spots that are not legal is also a very needed approach. We need a traffic control person uptown daily on a regular basis.
Take back the parking spaces that the town eliminated on Elm. The side walk “bump out” infinitive has resulted in a tremendous inconvenience for shoppers and the business that rely on them.
Peter thanks for submitting this comment. The “bumpouts” that are now going in on the south side of Elm Street will gain five parking spaces for the town. At the moment, the town is susceptible to a state law that requires “no parking” within 25 feet of a crosswalk. It’s why there’s no parking, for example, in front of the Moreno Clock and Vineyard Vines, and why parking is so limited in front of the Bank of America building. The bumpouts will effectively shorten the crosswalks to the point where the town is no longer susceptible to the “25-foot” law, meaning Elm Street will gain spaces back. Thanks again.
Can something be done about the alley way behind Starbucks where their dumpsters are, it is very dangerous; cars egress and ingress and
not safe to pedestrians, also there are many sidewalks crack,
it’s only a matter of time before someone will fall or a car plow through.
Thank you.
Awesome news! The town should consider charging higher rates at peak hours so there are still available spaces to park, and lower rates at other times so spaces are not wasted.