By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — A plan to redevelop Parker Harding Plaza, adding a riverfront boardwalk, more green space, sculpture and other improvements, has been in the works for more than a year.
Over the last few months, however, a debate between the plan advocated by the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee, residents of the area and, especially, downtown merchants, has flared over the plan’s impact on the viability of doing business in Westport center.
The issues are many, but primarily related to parking, including:
- Projected loss of more than 40 parking spaces in the Parker Harding parking lot under the plan.
- Employee parking: Should business employees be restricted to parking in specific lots behind the Westport Library to leave room for shoppers, or be allowed to park near their jobs, especially when they leave for home late at night or in bad weather?
- Should downtown parking be metered and, if so, should it be free for Westport residents but not for out-of-towners?
- Would a downtown parking garage solve the parking crunch caused by a lack of surface spaces, or turn the area’s quaint character into a less appealing urban environment?
Other issues are:
- Planned closure of the through-road in Parker Harding Plaza along the river, leaving the only through street in the middle of the parking lot, which likely could back up traffic in and around the area.
- Removal of the loading zones for trucks delivering goods to businesses along Parker Harding.
- Closing Main Street for community events, seriously affecting business on those days for some merchants in the area.
Criticism of the plans, according to Randy Herbertson, chairman of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee, is unwarranted. “People just have to follow the facts, people are ignoring the facts,” he said.
Although the committee says it emailed a letter about the evolving plan to merchants and residents, many merchants said they never got it and were not aware of the committee’s detailed plans spelled out on its website.
“This plan is not about beautification, it’s about safety and bringing it up to code,” Herbertson said this week.
The Parker Harding lot is 40 years old and in disrepair. Just re-striping the lot’s parking slots to current standards would require wider spaces, necessitating the removal of 47 spaces, three more than in the committee’s plan to remove 44 spaces, he said.
But if parking spaces are removed for lot improvements or to add green space, the result is the same, and merchants say parking downtown is already problematic enough.
“I’m upset,” said Catherine Hiriart, the owner of the boutique Catherine H., 144 Main St. “I’ve been here for five years and have clients from all over the state. They have to go all over the place to find a parking place,” she said.
“You want to bring people to dine and to shop, and if they find out there’s no parking they’re going to go someone else,” she said. “All the stores in Westport are now taken … if we’re removing parking, I’m afraid we’re going to see the consequences.”
Hiriart had a store in downtown Milford, and when parking there got too tight, customers stopped coming, she said. “I would have liked to have a voice in [the downtown Westport] plan. When I’ve had something to say, I’ve been ignored.”
Annette Norton, owner of Savvy and Grace, 146 Main St., agreed. “If you take away parking, something’s got to give,” she said. And parking has been a long-term problem in downtown Westport. “Parking has been an issue since I was a little girl,” she said.
But the committee’s plan is not the solution, Norton said. Residents answering the committee’s survey about the plan “saw the beautiful rendering and said that this would be great … They didn’t realize that it would result in losing 44 [parking] spots.”
Norton said she thinks that metered parking would help, perhaps by giving Westport residents two free hours, and charging non-residents to park. Metered parking also would help keep people from occupying spaces for hours at a time, she said. And as for the plan to green up the area, “I already love downtown Westport. I think it’s already beautiful as it is.”
David Waldman, developer of Bedford and Sconset Squares, called the debate between merchants and the committee “a difficult situation.”
He said that if more employees’ parking was moved out to lots farther from the center, there would be more parking for shoppers — and there is a shuttle bus to those outer lots.
Metering the parking also would help, plus raise revenue for the town, Waldman added. And he likes the idea of a downtown parking garage. “If they could find the location to do it, I think it is great,” he said.
Not in agreement is Mathew Mandell, executive director of the Westport-Weston Chamber of Commerce, a Representative Town Meeting member from District 1 and member of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee.
“I personally am dead set against a parking garage,” which he said would change downtown’s character to an urban environment.
“A parking garage is the antithesis of what makes us a unique and enchanting community,” Mandell said.
One man who has been listening to complaints about the downtown plan both from residents who live in or near the downtown area, as well as from the merchants, is Sal Liccione, RTM member from District 9, which encompasses downtown.
His constituents are worried about traffic backup along Evergreen Avenue “and all the back roads in my district” if Parker Harding’s cut-through road is eliminated.
And he understands the parking concerns of the merchants in the area. “I’m not against any green space, but over the weekend there’s no parking anywhere in the downtown area.”
Liccione said that a summit among Westport officials, the committee and merchants is needed to hash out the problems, and he’s working on getting one scheduled.
“I think that our first selectwoman and these committee members have to listen to these businesses … The affected businesses in my district are not happy.”
Gina Porcello, owner of GG & Joe, 165 Main St., agrees. “Ultimately there should be more discussion on this before anybody moves forward — there are things that committee hasn’t thought of,” she said.
“There’s no rush. What is the rush to start this project 1, 2, 3? Everybody should take more time to think about it.”
Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.
As a longtime resident of downtown Westport, I have witnessed many changes over 26 Years.
This decision to remove valuable parking without providing a reasonable and equitable solution is not well thought out. Additionally, closing off the access road along Parker Harding is unacceptable.
How can Mr. Herbertson say that “People are ignoring the facts” when in fact most downtown residents I have talked with were unaware of these decisions until the press started to cover it.
This has not been a well communicated process and will be met with strong opposition from downtown residents. What maybe a good idea to some has been received as a horrible idea by many.
Time to for the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee to go back to the drawing board to rethink a very unpopular decisions that never really took those most vested, both residents and merchants, into consideration.
Oh boy, it looks like the administration is losing the narrative on this. I can tell because it just reached for one of the oldest tricks around: when you feel the walls closing in, reframe the issue – no matter what it actually is – as one of “safety”. Of course this project has nothing to do with safety. It is and always was an effort to “reimagine” a gritty waterside parking lot with green spaces and a boardwalk. At any rate, the “safety” card allows one to quietly brand those raising concerns about your project as being in favor of the opposite of safety. It’s a just another way to shut up the opposition.
I agree with that the issue of safety is hollow….funneling more traffic through the parking lot is creating a “cattle chute” effect. As far back as I can remember no one has ever had a serious safety issue along the current access road and when did Mr. Herbertson become a traffic consultant? If anything…common sense will dictate that closing off this road for purposes of beautification and “safety” will only divert and potentially increase risk of traffic accidents at Evergreen Avenue, intersection at Kings Highway and Route 33 and cut through streets like Gorham Avenue. Can we have a an open and honest transparent discussion and not during the day when most of the residents impacted are working?
Might I suggest the newly published “Paved Paradise,” by Henry Grabar, a new book on public parking in America. It is kind of fascinating how free parking has become a national entitlement. But why?
Count me amongst those who think that removing the Parker-Harding cut-through would be a disaster. Traffic is bad enough on Post already, can you imagine the back-up at the exit by Starbucks? And you know people would be blocking the box, constantly. But otherwise beautifying the waterfront area would be a nice thing.
I really don’t grasp the opposition to a garage (say, on the Baldwin lot). There is so much ugliness downtown, that detracts from the beauty of a waterfront area. I’d much rather see a garage two blocks away from the water in exchange for a beautification of the waterfront that would attract people to that natural resource. Metered parking otherwise runs the risk of chasing off customers. If we are going to charge people to park, let’s make it part of a larger plan, rather than a band aid.
This plan has been massively flawed from the start.
First off the survey was asked in a self serving manner to draw attention away from the loss of parking.
It’s not about the question but how the question is asked.
We all know that. Especially around here… same at longshore. A totally self serving survey which frustrated many for that very reason.
Second businesses were not consulted or emailed at least not the businesses I have spoken with who just happen to be by far the biggest and busiest businesses on Main Street.
But then our input would not have been what anybody doing this plan wanted to hear.
Loading zones cannot be replaced with parking spots.
Other than being I presume a legal requirement they are a fundamentally vital part of doing business, restocking, bringing in fresh food daily.
The group suggested they double park trucks in the middle of the parking lot to deliver. Eh! No.
That brings lost parking spots to almost 70, when the loading zones are put back on the map and the parking removed.
The parallel parking on the thru road. No less space than I measured on rail road place where the pop ups have been installed parking one side pop up the other…
Roadway to pass same as at Parker Harding.
Same as on riverside ave past rive bistro, busy state road. Barely room to pass the parked cars.
So again same conditions.
The cut through, a must have.
Langan firm who did the traffic study ( of course to suit its client) said that cut through is hardly used.
They should be fired for that outright lie, and never used again for any project in Westport, not to mention they are getting fed what the desired result is and paid for it so it’s really a large conflict of interest.
The cut through is massively used now that cars who used use church lane to make the right onto post road, have to use PRE, and that junction or intersection backs up to evergreen and beyond.
Maybe someone should have thought about that but alas they did not.
Even if a parking garage were to be built downtown, there’s no way it could even be big enough to cover the lack we already have.
Next will be the big debate about rationing time spent parked.
Right now the biggest draw by far is our restaurants. Our restaurants are THE reason Westport is on the map again.
So people come to eat and then shop.
Eating is a 1 hour 30 to 2 hour activity.
Shopping add another 1-2 hours.
Therefore 2 hour parking does not work.
I’m not sure what all the solutions are but I know one thing for sure parker Harding needs to be left exactly as is.
Ciara Webster
There are many challenges to address. We live in a 18th century town struggling to perform in the 21st century. Everyone wants to drive their big vehicles yet we love the idea of a walkable pedestrian-centric downtown. We need parking garages but nobody wants to look at them. As everyone knows, we’re a coastal town with nor-easters and hurricanes that make building below ground difficult. Maybe it’s time to move the police station and build a sizable parking facility that can service Levitt, Library and all of downtown shopping and dining. Done well, it could provide much needed parking as well as commercial and open space.
This committee needs to host a forum at night to accomadate all the stakeholders that work during the day. Also the website should post in a clear fashion the recent studies concerning traffic and safety. Additionally the website has too many stock photos that are not realistic for the parking lot. A trial run of lost parking and road closure would be a far better tool to evaluate this plan . Two months or more during that end of summer and fall perhaps.
Great recommendations.
1. Transparency
2. Test for two months under real conditions. Block off the cut through road, block off 44 parking spots. Then let’s measure the traffic effect downtown and surrounding areas and the effect on businesses.
Would be great to hear from our RTM Reps that represent District 9/Downtown. Sal has spoken out against this. Kristin Schneeman, Nancy Kail, Lori Church, what do you think about this project and how do you think it will impact your D9 Neighbors?
Traffic like water seeks its own level. Closing the Parker-Harding cut thru is irresponsible. This mistake would result in added stress to all of the surrounding roads and neighborhoods. These roads/intersections are among the most stressed and difficult to navigate in Westport. All of these intersections are state managed which leaves the town of Westport minimal recourse to alleviate stress of our own cause.
Building parking garages or adding parking with single access compounds the the problems above. In 2021 91.7% of US household owned at least one car. I am sure Westport is ahead of the average. Stop the insanity and come up with a better solution which involves cars, parking, and business with customers arriving to downtown by car.
This is the most bizarre idea I’ve ever heard in my life. There are green spaces all over Westport, many barely get used. We have Compo, Longshore, Dog parks, hiking trails, fly fishing, Sherwood park, and many others. Why put a small green space in the middle of a parking lot off Main Street. People come to town to dine and shop. There are benches and walking paths all over there. They never get used. How many days are cold and rainy anyway?? A lot. Noones strolling thru there in cold and rain. Plus you know very well the scene will be dump trucks and cranes pushing dirt down there for years. The whole lot will be closed off for years. Zero parking and zero driving through on many days. It will turn downtown into a logistical nightmare. It’s very anti local business. And for what? We need more parking spaces, not less. And you know the project will go way over budget as they always do. This reeks of creating a phony project to get some people paid. When this is done , after years of a messy construction site and road closings, and a ton of money, u will stare at a little patch of grass that no one uses. Plus wait and see all the problems you can’t foresee now that will pop up once they start digging up concrete. I can’t believe every business on main street isn’t going nuts. People are already parking illegally all over town. Taking handicap and emergency lane spots is dangerous for a host of reasons and it’s constant in that lot. Drive by Starbucks or GG any day and you will see it. Trucks can’t even deliver their goods sometimes with people in the spots. You wanna make this worse? When parking and traffic is a nightmare, people will go somewhere else. We’ve had so many new families move into Westport since Covid. This town is so hot right now. Let’s keep it that way. Don’t ruin town for the next God knows how many years with dumpsters and traffic and no parking. There’s plenty of places to stroll by the river. Stop with this nonsense.