The widely anticipated, proposed parking deck on Locust Avenue cleared a final major planning hurdle Tuesday, as consultants with a transportation planning firm reported that there’s a way to design the new structure without jeopardizing pedestrian or motorist safety.
Looking across Locust Avenue at the parking lot on Aug. 23, 2016. Credit: Michael Dinan
Expected to increase the total number of spaces there by 58 percent, from 153 to 242, the proposed parking deck—with one minor timing change at a nearby traffic light—also will not noticeably change current traffic patterns in the area, a consultant from Cheshire-based Milone & MacBroom Inc. told the Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting.
Plans call for a parking tier accessible from Heritage Hill Road with a non-connected lower level that feeds onto Locust Avenue.
Addressing a major concern from residents of Heritage Hill Road, the firm’s traffic study examined three different sight lines for the proposed entrance/exit there, Milone & MacBroom’s David Sullivan told the selectmen at the meeting, held at Town Hall.
“We looked at the sight line if you are coming out of the driveway if you can see to the left and right, on Heritage Hill Road,” he said.
“And so coming around the corner we estimated around 15 mph and coming down Heritage Hill about 30 mph, which is the posted speed limit. The second one we looked at is if you are on the road can you see the cars as they pull out—which is the ‘stopping sight distance’—and the third thing we looked at is if you are taking a left turn into the driveway, can you see a car approaching? So we looked at the currently proposed driveway. The one issue we saw was intersection sight distance looking left was a little bit short so if we looked to move the driveway to the other side of the site, we looked at that, and then looking to the right became substandard, so we said ‘Let’s see if we can find a sweet spot.’ We talked about it in the report, and we did find a sweet spot where all of the sight line criteria were met.”
On a backburner for more than two years during the renovation and expansion of Town Hall, the Locust Avenue parking project has earmarked $4 million to it in the fluid 5-year capital plan for the current fiscal year. The project itself likely is two years away, First Selectmen Rob Mallozzi has said. Town officials have said they would put in for $2 million in state-administered funds to help offset costs.
Sullivan in addressing the selectmen reviewed the firm’s methodology and findings, saying consultants collected traffic counts at three area locations (Locust, Heritage Hill and Main) as well as the existing parking lot (7 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and counted pedestrians and accidents.
Using conservative estimates about those expected to use the lot—for example, the Town Hall workers and rail commuters expected to park all day on up on the new deck—Sullivan said he estimated that 45 trips in and out would be made during peak hours (that’s 8:15 to 9:15 a.m. and 5 to 6 p.m.), as follows (full report embedded at bottom of article):
Estimated Site Traffic—Proposed Locust Avenue Parking Deck*
| Parking Deck Vehicle Users** | No. Vehicles | Peak Hour Trips*** | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOTAL | 112 | 37 | 8 | 45 | 8 | 37 | 45 |
| In | Out | Total | In | Out | Total | ||
| Town Vehicles | 8 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| Town Employees | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Commuters | 69 | 23 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 23 | 23 |
| Business Permit | 23 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
** The study assumes that town vehicles depart the lot during peak times in the morning and return in the evening, while the opposite is true for other permit-holding categories (half of all town worker vehicles, one-third of commuters and one-quarter of local businesspeople)
*** Peak hours are: weekday mornings from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m., weekday evenings from 5 to 6 p.m.
The selectmen asked Sullivan whether the consultants relied on Connecticut Department of Transportation traffic data or collected their own (got their own though it was consistent with what the DOT found two years ago) and whether based on a .5 percent growth rate the traffic study would still hold five or 10 years from now (the impact of the deck would be similarly negligible, yes). They also asked Norm Goldman, executive vice president of Desman, a Rocky Hill-based company that’s expected to provide architectural and engineering services for the project, whether New Canaan could expect schematics within a few months (yes) and whether the new design is expected to take into account the Federal-style Post Office building going up now next door (yes).
“I cannot overemphasize the importance of appearance,” Selectman Nick Williams said.
Mallozzi underscored that with permit parking for commuters planned for the upper deck of the new lot, “it really is a benefit not just to commuters but to the traffic pattern coming out of Heritage Hill Road” because those motorists are expected to arrive early in the morning and leave in the evening.
“The Town Hall traffic, for lack of a better word, is ‘minimal’ and the Locust Avenue level stays the same, so that is a given fact, but the upper area is not as transient as the lower, and once that is understood, it becomes a relief for folks,” he said.
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