By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT–After a discussion with the town’s new administration, it appears that the Downtown Parking Management Plan, in the works for several years, is heading in the right direction, the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee (DPIC) learned on Thursday.

First Selectman Kevin Christie and Second Selectwoman Amy Wistreich “confirmed and agreed that Parker Harding is our top priority to get across the finish line,” DPIC Chair Randy Herbertson reported at a DPIC meeting on Thursday. “In general, there is an agreement to continue to stay the course with what we’re doing now.”

The plan to upgrade the lot will be presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission, but not before 40 additional spaces are found in other lots around the downtown area, Herbertson said.  The number of spaces in the lot were reduced in the upgrading plan to make all spaces larger to meet code and to allow for more accessible spaces, as required by law. The P&Z in October decided not to change the condition they had imposed in April 2024 that the number of available spaces not be reduced.

So far, locations for additional spaces have been identified in the Imperial Avenue lot; along Taylor Place in the Jesup Green area, and in a few other spots that Peter Ratkiewich, director of Public Works, and his team are working to identify, Herbertson said.

After the plan is presented and approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission, it must then be vetted by the Board of Finance and the RTM, he said.

Although building a downtown parking structure was mentioned in the talk between Herbertson, Christie and Wistreich, “There are no immediate decisions on that yet,” Herbertson said at the DPIC meeting. A plan to build a parking structure was put on the back burner in January, when the consulting firm BFJ Planning, did not recommend it, mainly because of the cost.

Herbertson said that he and Wistreich, who has a background in land use, agreed that “we have got to get away from a discussion on just the number of parking spots. Most important is parking utilization,” he said. In the downtown core, those looking for parking spaces are coming into town to dine and shop, he said. “We need to convince our all-day parkers to park in our open lots,” that are farther out from the town center, he said. 

Most all-day parkers are employees of downtown businesses, and some town merchants have objected to requiring their employees to walk a distance to their cars. Many are also against the change to the current two-hour limit for many downtown parking spaces put into effect in April, instead of the three-hour limit put into effect during the pandemic. 

Police drones are currently being used to study the use of downtown parking spaces at different times of the day and different times of the year. Once a December drone study is made, conclusions can be drawn about Phase 1 of the parking project – to evaluate whether the two-hour limit is working or not, Herbertson said. The consultant had recommended putting the two-hour limit into place then studying the results to determine if it was working or not. If not, paid meter parking could be another solution to consider, Herbertson said.

Gretchen Webster

^{_{Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, has reported for the daily Greenwich Time and Norwalk Hour, the weekly Westport News, Fairfield Citizen and Weston Forum. She was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman for ten years. She has won numerous journalism awards over the years, and taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.}}