By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–It’s been several weeks since Westport limited daytime parking to two hours on some downtown streets to help free up spaces for more shoppers. Some merchants and their employees find the change frustrating.

Horrible

“It’s horrible,” said Vanessa Gillick, assistant clinic manager at Skin Laundry at 135 Main St.  “We constantly get tickets.”

The restriction, tightening a three-hour limit, began at the start of August and is in effect from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. At some businesses, employees and owners who don’t snatch one of the all-day spots in a nearby lot move their cars periodically throughout the business day. But that’s not an option for some, including the Skin Laundry specialists working with clients. They have no choice but to accept the $25 fine.

“Our nurse practitioners will have to just get a ticket,” Gillick said.

It’s a choice that Brittany O’Rourke, stylist at Bobbles & Lace women’s clothing store, makes when she works at the store by herself. 

“Some days, I’ll lock the door and move my car,” she said. “Other days, I’ll just deal with the ticket.”

Not the intent

That’s not the way the parking plan is meant to work, said Randy Herbertson, chair of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee, which spearheaded the change. He said the aim of the two-hour limit on several core streets is to generate turnover for visitors who want to shop and dine downtown. The streets impacted are Main Street, Elm Street, Church Lane, Bay Street and Jesup Road.

Town-owned lots retained their three-hour restrictions and all-day spaces.

990 all-day spots

Rather than hopping from spot to spot throughout the workday, Herbertson said, business owners and employees should look for one of the 990 all-day spots, even if there are none left in the nearest lot, he said.

Monitoring of the situation has shown that even when parked cars were “heavily clustered” on the core streets, “we found there was plenty of parking in the farther lots” including those at Town Hall, Jesup Road and Imperial Avenue. The farthest, the Imperial Avenue lot, is about a seven-minute walk from the downtown core, Herbertson said.

A list of the lots and the numbers of all-day and time-restricted spaces they offer can be found at discoverwestportct.com/parking.

“I like the walk”

Parking a short distance away works for Bryand, a nurse at Rowan Westport, the ear piercing facility. He finds all-day spots near Westport Library and walks the quarter mile to the business at 47 Main St.

“I like the walk, so I’m fine,” said Bryand, who asked to be identified only by his first name. “I’m a gym kind of person.”

Ashley Wilson, manager at the Westport Book Shop, 20 Jesup Road, said she hasn’t heard much from customers about the change, “But I have seen cops out there writing tickets.”

Surge in tickets issued

No doubt she has. The number of tickets issued for overtime parking jumped dramatically in the first weeks of the two-hour limit. On the streets impacted, police issued 93 overtime parking tickets during the first seven weeks of the new rule, according to numbers provided by the Westport Police Department. That was a jump from 56 tickets issued during the previous seven-week period, the numbers showed.

Some said even the three-hour parking rule established in May 2024, as businesses returned from the pandemic, was limiting.

RTM member unhappy

“The merchants don’t support two-hour parking or three-hour parking,” said Sal Liccione, a District 9 Representative Town Meeting member who has been concerned about the parking matter. Merchants are not worried only about their frustrations; they fear that the tighter limit will discourage would-be visitors who want to stop for lunch, maybe with friends, and then get some shopping in.

“We get a lot of residents from out of town who tell us they don’t want to shop in downtown Westport because of the two-hour parking,” Liccione said.

He suggested issuing parking stickers to the businesses to allow owners and employees to park free. He also said the administration should have met with the merchants before making the change.

Review after four to six months

Herbertson said all facets of the public were invited to discussions and involved in surveys throughout discussions of parking solutions. And changes may come. Herbertson said the commission plans to monitor the situation and revisit it every four to six months to determine whether adjustments are needed. At the same time, the town is looking for ways to make it easier to find where spaces are available.

Not everyone sees a major difference.

“We never have a problem,” said Pino Pace, manager of the Spotted Horse at 26 Church Lane. Open daily for lunch and dinner, the restaurant is consistently busy, he said.

Some, such as Elizabeth Walsh, an employee at Clarendon Fine Art gallery, 24 Main St., did not see how the two-hour restriction even helps.

“I’m not sure what they think they’re solving,” she said.