By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — Plans for downtown upgrades that include a sculpture garden, a boardwalk along the river and a pedestrian bridge, a playground and picnic spots, and more green space could be under construction as early as this summer, according to the project timeline prepared by the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee.
But there’s one big drawback, according to several merchants: The plan calls for eliminating more than 40 parking spaces in the downtown area, a change some contend will only make a bad situation worse.
Plus, some business representatives say, they didn’t know about the plan’s details until recently, late in the design phase.
“Merchants are complaining,” Patrick Jean, general manager and partner of Nômade restaurant, 150 Main St., told the committee at its Thursday meting. “When my chef gets done at 1 or 2 a.m. in the morning, why should he have to walk over to Jesup Green [for his car]?”
“My bartender is a woman. You want her to park in the middle of nowhere by herself — it’s not practical,” Jean said after the meeting. “The downtown needs more parking, not less parking … I completely understand you want to make the town pretty, but we need those parking spaces for vendors, patrons and employees.”
Barry Brennan, general manager of Mexicue restaurant, 38 Main St. agrees.
“If you walk around here on a nice weekday afternoon, there are no parking spaces. Our staff rides around and around before they come in,” Brennan said about a lack of parking spots. And, he added, it’s worse on Saturdays and Sundays.
Brennan said that sacrificing parking to add green space doesn’t make sense to him. “We’re in Westport Connecticut. There’s a lot of green space in Westport, Connecticut.”
The Downtown Plan Implementation Committee got 4,000 responses to a survey and the majority of responses showed that people want more “walkability” in the area, according to Randy Herbertson, the committee chairman. Some survey responders had said that they would like to see less parking downtown, he added.
“This has been a very public process from the beginning,” Herbertson said. The plans are posted on the committee’s website.
Too many parking spaces are taken up by employees at stores and restaurants and not customers, Maxx Crowley, a member of the committee and president of the Westport Downtown Association, said after the meeting. The committee publicized the plan with surveys, a public meeting and flyers with QR codes for access to more information, he said.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Crowley said, referring to the number of positive survey responses. “Quite a few merchants are excited about the walkability,” he said. “Towns all over the world and the country are doing this.”
But several merchants said they didn’t know much about the plan’s details until recently.
Ciara Webster, investment partner of Nômade, said she believes traffic studies for the plan were done during the COVID-19 pandemic when traffic was minimal and several new downtown restaurants, including Mexicue, the Original Pancake House and Nômade, were not yet open.
“The calculation of cars and people is seriously flawed,” she said. “We field calls all day from frustrated patrons who cannot find parking even midweek … They will not come if they cannot park.”
She agreed with Brennan that Westport does not need more green space.
“I do not think it is a good idea to lose parking spots in town in favor of river access or green [space]” she said. “We have plenty of parks in town all empty [I live across the road from one of them] and anyone wanting to enjoy the river view or have a picnic will find these parks to enjoy.”
Herbertson said that as part of the process, the project plan and funding for each step still must be approved by town bodies, including the Planning and Zoning Commission and Representative Town Meeting.
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.
I take issue with Randy Herbertson’s statement that this has been a very public process.
If I hadn’t read about it in Dan Woog’s 06880 blog (where he gave a link to the surveys) I wouldn’t have known a thing about it.
It isn’t helpful to have complete information on a website when no one is aware that there IS a website.
And saying the majority of respondents want more walkability isn’t the same as saying the majority of the respondents don’t mind losing parking spots at Parker Harding.
In fact, I found the survey very frustrating. It was sometimes skewed in a way that provided incomplete options. Sort of like asking do you want onions with your liver or peppers with your liver, without having the option of “I don’t want liver at all, can’t I have chicken?”
I can’t imagine parking several blocks away just to go to Parker Harding and walk on a strip of grass. You want walkability in the same place you park your car. Otherwise, just go to one of the many parks and beaches our wonderful town has to offer.
I side with the merchants on this one.
The use of a one-sided survey to justify radical change in Downtown is sad to see. Removal of a substantial number of parking spaces is, on the face of it, a ridiculous idea. Add on top of that the removal of the cut-through road, which will force traffic onto other terrible intersections like Wilton Road and Kings Highway North, and you have a recipe for a disaster.
Gretchen, thank you for writing this thoughtful and very current piece of journalism.
I am happy that at the very least it will be read by many likely not aware of the current coming disastrous changes.
When one sided surveys are conducted and a downtown ( lol, not for profit) association are literally making things up, it is hard for people to see what is true and what is not.
What is true is that I have walked from the imperial lot to downtown.
It is 20 minutes minus a physical disability, or stroller.
The imperial lot is included in all the survey calculations.
The imperial lot is not a downtown lot and nobody going to shop downtown is using it.. never mind it is the venue for fairs, and theatre and a fabulous farmers market( we all love)
So remove imperial from the equation.
I was in my car downtown today.
It is a public school spring break weekend. That means many many thousands of Westport residents are potentially taking time away on vacation..
It was 67 degrees at 1 pm today. Not sunny.. it is April.
Downtown was packed. At 1pm. Not a single parking spot to be had in any of the lots, Parker Harding in particular was an insane cluster… it was lines 20 cars long waiting to park… people double parked who gave up.
People in loading zones who gave up.. even the police don’t have time for this cluster.
Are those of us trying hard to run great businesses in town the only people who notice this catastrophe ?
Is it wise to ignore our “on the ground” reports ?
We are fielding calls constantly from patrons who cannot find parking. Especially during the day.
Our reservation system is the old fashioned one of calling in and so when people have a problem they call us.
All we hear is we cannot find parking, from panicked customers.
We understand. Our staff have the same problem.
Covid has changed peoples habits. And now we have a huge number of folks who work from home and actually spend their lunch break grabbing food or going shopping in downtown.
If anything, now that masks are off, more and more people come downtown for the buzz.. they go to church lane, to spotted horse, and shop at Williams Sonoma and the fantastic retail stores there. They grab coffee at gg and joes if they can find parking, pancake house,
Go to retail stores, but there is NO parking, today, Gotham was full, Parker Harding full, Bedford full, Avery no spots… everywhere was packed on a spring break holiday weekend which is typically quiet.
The survey sent out is flawed because of how the questions were asked…
Would you like more green space ?
Of course who doesn’t love green space ?
Would you like to lose parking and add more green space( excluding the imperial lot, a camel ride away)
Absolutely NOT !
Town officials, do your traffic surveys on a Saturday! And check in with ALL the downtown businesses, not only the landlords of those businesses( whose opinion once the business is leased becomes irrelevant)
I amongst others have been trying to highlight this issue with the “decision” makers for months.
It appears their ludicrous position becomes more entrenched the more they get pushback.
I only hope that before it is too late that the public speaks up and advocates for the right thing.
We can turn our town into a public park with lots and lots of green space or we can have a vibrant downtown. Having both is just simply not possible.
Ciara
I just reread that piece and I would like to speak directly to Max Crowley chairman of the now downtown association.. used be downtown merchants association, of course that was a farce run by landlords and no merchants.. so the solution.. change the name. The downtown association is clearly very disconnected from the real world.
Max ! In the real world( you don’t live in)
Businesses have and employ staff. Oh including your own !
Last I checked those staff are human beings, people, with the same rights as you and I have…
To suggest staff and restaurants are ruining parking opportunities is to infer that maybe Westport should have capped the number of businesses it allowed to come to town…. And maybe it still should… last in first out ? Is that how you would envision this working ?
This would hardly have suited you.. as family of a major landlord in town !!!
So now let’s talk in the open about parking !
Since you clearly have a problem with staff parking in downtown( where they work and provide a service) especially it seems restaurant staff, where exactly would you like them to park ?
I would be very curious to hear where exactly you think my staff should park !
My very hard working and dedicated to customer service staff. Do you have any idea how difficult it was especially post covid to find staff who even wanted to still work in the restaurant business. Let alone the incredible team we have.
Do you also realise that nômade, ( tavern on main) has existed as a restaurant in Westport since chez Pierre’s days.. well over half a century.
Should I ask them to take the bus ? The train ? What if they do not live on a bus line or train line ? What if they have children to pick up after work… what if they walk out of my restaurant at 2am ????
Or maybe they should just parachute in to work ?
It is a downtown duty to provide parking for staff as well as patrons. ( without whom businesses would not be able to open)
Please step into 2023, and remember that staff are people too.
And I for one do not approve of parking whether for staff, patrons or green space seekers, being replaced with trees ! At least not in a downtown with no space to do so.
My staff deserve more respect than that. Time to pick ! Business or green space.
You are welcome btw.
Ciara
The proposed elimination of that many parking spaces is bonkers. Everyone knows Parker Harding is already maxed out. But what really alarms me is the elimination of the cut through road. There are really only three convenient ways to get back to the Post Road from downtown: Church Lane – which is now closed seasonally; the Parker Harding cut through; and Myrtle Ave – which now features backups that can extend past Evergreen Avenue. What the heck are we doing?
To get irid of cut through is just wrong. They want to take away our river, f- em
Without judging the whole proposal, I do think adding green-space by the river is a sensible way to make downtown more appealing and a sensible way to utilize a natural resource. The river view is wasted as a parking lot exit lane.
Can someone clarify – the cut-through being the one at the north end of Parking Harding, that connects to Main Street at the light? Getting rid of that wouldn’t make the slightest amount of sense, for reasons others have noted.
I appreciate what the Nomade manager is saying, but I would think that most of their customers would be parking in the Baldwin lot. I kind of intuitively think of the Parker Harding lot being mostly used by the Parking Harding business customers (and staff, I suppose), with the Baldwin lot more or less being used by folks shopping and dining on the other side of Main Street, Bedford Square, etc. If the argument is that we can’t lose one parking space downtown because it’s completely full in busy times, that’s a different argument. And that should be fairly easy to determine.
You cant make the river more beautiful than it already is. Putting a lityle grass area with sculpture is an insult. The PIC is a tertible rediculas waste of time. The only factor that effects downtown, asside from un elected people trying to build monuments to themselves is,…… the mix of stores… thats why Drew Friedman brought in the Gap and Starbucks.
Right now, you have a fugly lane of parking exit next to the river. You can’t make the river more beautiful, but you can allow people to actually enjoy it more by getting closer to it. Because nobody is enjoying it when they are trying to drive out of the Parker Harding lot.
Fred, respectively, every time one drives down the lane one is bathed in the beauty of the river. Plus its a great way to get to the other side of town. We have parks along the river all over town..usually empty. People need to shop .. by car… that is why Parker and Harding built it the way they did.
People are gunning it for the light. not lingering on the river. Saying dopey stuff to try to defend your point doesn’t help, respectfully. That lot has always been a PITA and it is pretty much an eyesore between the building and the river. Setting aside lots of other concerns about the project. beautifying it and giving better pedestrian access to the water. There are (Google is your friend) 1,885 public parking spots downtown. We don’t need to waste waterfront space for parking.
I counted every spot personally with Drew Friedman more than once. Took plenty of notes on which spots were used at which times. An eye sore? That is a dopey thing to say about the most beautiful spot in town. Do you own a building along the row? I dont remember your name coming up as an owner when five owners along that row asked me to research the tax roles and send notices to the owners about the parking situation.
Also, one thing google wont tell you is that yhere are only abiut 1200 spots after the employees show up. We lose spots every year year due to the terrible decision making. There are outliers… library parking… Gorham weekends… bus training…
And you know what? Everytime the pnz allows more square footage, such bedford square and allowi m g 2nd floor retail, the 1200 spots for customers become a less viable oportunities fir potential anchor stores like apple. The anchor stores want parking, the mom and pops want parking, the customers want parking. So you see, you dont know what you are talking about Fred
Geez, kiddo, have a drink of water. And try gathering your thoughts in one comment.
No, I have no interests in any downtown business. I live in Greens Farms and don’t spend much time downtown because it’s ugly and poorly laid out. It is not a walkable downtown like New Canaan. But I guess you are one of those people (one sees it on your 06880 comments, too) who questions the motivations of anyone who disagrees with you. Grow up.
Apple would come to Westport if not for the parking situation? Alrighty. What a dope.
In an ideal world with no parking issues and no exit and access issues a lovely park on the river would of course be a huge asset.
Parking in Westport has always been a problem and lacking.
Every year the problem is growing.
I drove through Westport on Saturday, a Saturday where Westport schools were on spring break. This means a lot of our towns resident were out of town.
At 1pm there was not a spot to be had and I observed at least 30 cars snaking their way around parker Harding hoping unsuccessfully to get a spot.
This is no joke.
There is no way that businesses will be able to function in Westport without adequate parking, and gridlock traffic because if the very busy cut through in Parker Harding is closed down, during the 8 months of the year that church lane is closed there is only one way out of town to go towards saugatuck and that is elm to Myrtle and it’s a disaster with cars backed all the way to town hall.
One of the hugest problems with the justifications from this committee is that they are using the imperial lot in their calculations.
Imperial is not a downtown parking lot.
It is a full brisk 20 minute walk from imperial to J Crew. I know this because I walked it last week.
That is not a walk any customer will take.
Factor in walking disabled, and a stroller, and rain.
Forget it. You might as well suggest parking at the train station, or the next down over.
What will start happening is shoppers parking at the library, if their destination is that end of town.
Parking at town hall, although it is still not very close.
Imperial is a non starter.
So all calculations need to happen without it in the mix.
Next someone needs to sit on a Friday or Saturday at the traffic light exiting Parker Harding plaza and look at how many hundreds of cars exit from there every day, and not just the cars that park there.
It is a well known “short cut” especially now ( with church lane closed) to avoid traffic, which has become so horrendous. If all the cars that exit from there now, have to exit around by Myrtle then the traffic within town is going to be in dire straights.
I use this road every day several times a day, and I am always behind a good 10 plus cars doing the same thing, and there will always be another 10 cars behind me.it is in constant use .
I understand that the committee is claiming this does not get used. That is simply not correct.
People who don’t use it don’t know about it. Yet!
It is becoming increasingly more popular as a way out of downtown.
So in a nut shell unless we build a parking structure which I understand has been suggested more than once, then we are already in trouble for parking, never mind adding green space.
Try and pick up a coffee at GG and joes, or a sandwich at the rye ridge deli, Starbucks, eat at the new pancake house. There’s no parking after about 11am. Now suggest to those cars that they should head for imperial and walk 40 minutes round trip back in the rain to go shopping.
No chance.
We have lovely parks in town and nobody really uses them.
We need more parking not less. Or it won’t be only high rents that drive merchants away.
Anyone who claims the cut-through “doesn’t get used” should be laughed out of office or off the committee.
These are really serious proposed changes that are being decided upon behind closed doors by a small group of people who seem to be confident of their success. We’ve seen that before. Doesn’t always end the way people prophesize.
Thank you Fred for helping bring attention to this important issue.
What we found when we interviewed all of the merchants along the water on Main Street, and the employees, was that every parking spot was of the upmost importance. We conducted active interviews rather than a passive survey, to get a more clear picture of the dynamics surrounding Parker Harding.
My boss, Drew Friedman had founded the DMA in 1970. His wife Bobbie co founded the art shiw on Main Street.
The stories we uncovered were cemented in a theme. We weren’t making it up. Frustration with parking.
As an aside, everyday, for decades, as I am into my 50s now myself, not quite as old as fred, I pull my sports car, yanking a right hand turn into the lot. I pull to the left as i survey the full bredth and scope as i slowly drive along the Saugtuck river. The reflections off the wavelets spark memories of my good friends like Sigrid Schultz and Drew Friedman and Lee P.. I pull up to starbucks, once again looking out over the water, i breath deeply. How beautiful is Westport, i ask myself or any passerby really. And start my day. Usually very early.
Ok so as a last comment I think I have a good example and point of why losing parking does not work.
And before I get accused of being a hater of live music which I am not, or a hater of outdoor seating, I am not.
But this morning the downtown association announces its 35, Friday and Saturday night, live music performances, from 6-9, beside spotted horse ( for the whole town to enjoy) tho clearly nobody is going to sit on the blacktop and watch a concert so the music on church lane is aimed at attracting people to the restaurants on church lane.
The parking is indicated on the email as the Baldwin and elm street lot, with the concert in mind. Which makes sense.
So let’s look at this.
The stores are closing at 6 and the church lane music starts at 6.
But we now have 1500 restaurant seats ( 200 outdoor extra seats on church lane) who all pull spots from the Baldwin/elm lots because they are closest to them. And we have at least 600 staff between all those restaurants.
So 2100 people many of whom drive in a car on their own, some take Uber, and some drive maximum 2 to a car. So for arguments sake between 6-9 on those Friday and Saturday nights, in fact many other nights, 1100 cars come to Westport to work or eat and the vast majority are looking for parking in the same parking lot.
Also bear in mind I have not included other surrounding restaurants which use the other parking lots in town. And of course anybody is free to use any parking lot but naturally if you are going to mrs London’s, you are not looking for parking in Jesup green.
There is simply not enough parking if the businesses are successful. And right now everywhere is very buzzy on any night of the week.
If anybody would care to drive around town on a sunny Friday or Saturday evening there is no extra parking to be found.
Now add to that daytime as the vast majority of these restaurants with very few exceptions are open for lunch as well as the merchants and their staff… now Westport with 200 businesses needs 4,000 parking spots.
I’m not quite sure why the folks on committees suggesting this change of use , do not just do the numbers. They speak for themselves.
Again I have yet to speak to a merchant and be told they love the idea of losing parking.
Not a single one has said it.
If 45 children walk into a classroom with 30 chairs, where are the last 15 going to sit ?
I rest my case. I really do.
You would think this committee might have sought input from the Westport Police Department’s point person on traffic. Nope.
Oh alas Morley, I believe they claim they did.
The traffic study showed no issues in town ! No parking problems, and that “ the pass through road” at Parker Harding was utilized by almost nobody.
This reminds me of the hamlet c jerk.
They can claim whatever they wish. But they 100% didn’t consult with him. As a semi-related aside, the DPIC’s own Downtown Plan recommend NOT closing Church Lane based upon traffic studies which indicated traffic would be diverted to Myrtle, etc – thus harming traffic flow, quality of life, etc. And yet here we are; going up the down elevator.