By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Signs of spring sprung up Wednesday as as a slate of seasonal events and outdoor dining won official approval, some as soon as next month.

Closing off Church Lane for outdoor dining, shopping and entertainment — a seasonal attraction since the pandemic — “has been a tremendous success,” Maxxwell Crowley, the president of the Westport Downtown Association, told the Board of Selectwomen, which was asked to permit the road closure for another year.

The selectwomen unanimously approved closing the downtown street from April 7 to Nov. 2. However, it may be re-opened sooner than Nov. 2 to allow for parking if construction on the redesigned Jesup Green or Parker Harding parking lots starts sooner. 

Church Lane has 13 parking spots, Crowley said, which will be needed if construction temporarily closes off parking in other lots downtown.

The selectwomen also approved the Summer Music Series, held Friday and Saturday evenings on Church Lane during the summer. “The Summer Music Series is a wonderful stage for musicians in our community,” Crowley said.

A Pop-Up Cafe permit also was granted to Tarantino restaurant to allow outdoor dining in two parking spaces at 30 Railroad Place. The board had issued a similar outdoor-dining permit to the restaurant last year.

Other restaurants on Railroad Place are also likely to apply for outdoor Pop-Up permits again this year, police Cpl. Alan D’Amura said.

Regulations for outdoor dining limit restaurants to use no more than two parking spaces, and do not permit tents, chairs, tables or other structures to extend too far into the road, D’Amura said. All structures and traffic cones marking the outdoor dining spots must be removed by Nov. 1 to potentially allow for snow plowing, Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich told the selectwomen.

The board also renewed permission for three annual events staged in the downtown area:

• The 51^st Westport Fine Arts Festival on Memorial Day weekend, requiring closing parts of Main and Elm streets, from Friday, May 24, through Sunday, May 26.
• Sidewalk Sales, closing town-owned sidewalks in front of downtown stores to accommodate merchandise outdoors, from Friday, June 28, through Sunday, June 30.
• Westoberfest, an outdoor craft beer-tasting event organized by the Westport Downtown Association, which will use part of Sigrid Schultz Plaza off Elm Street, from Friday, Sept. 20, through Sunday, Sept. 22.

“The Fine Arts Festival is a staple and the crown jewel of the town,” recognized as one of the top three art festivals in the nation, Crowley said. Artists from throughout the region and the East Coast display and sell their work at the annual event.

Westoberfest is “a marque event … a home-run event,” Crowley said, which drew more than 1,000 people last year.

Although the Sidewalk Sales event does not involve street closures, as the town’s Traffic Authority, the selectwomen must approve use of public sidewalks for merchants to display merchandise in front of their stores. 

Some concern was expressed that the Sunrise Rotary Club’s Great Duck Race is scheduled for the same weekend as the sidewalk sales. 

D’Amura, however, said both downtown events took place the same weekend last year and there were no problems. Additional police will be assigned to help with traffic control, he said.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.