Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct erroneous cost figures initially reported for the consultant’s estimate to build a parking structure.

By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — The Downtown Plan Implementation Committee on Thursday came to three conclusions about persistent downtown parking issues: 

• Cost of building a downtown parking garage could be as high as $63,000 to $87,500 per space.
• Three-hour limits on parking approved last last spring are working.
• Downtown merchants, including several who attended DPIC’s meeting, strongly oppose changing the parking limits from three to two hours, as recommended in January by BFJ Planning, the town’s parking consultants.

Garage recommendation scrutinized

Committee Chair Randy Herbertson and Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich described in more detail the parking consultant’s report that also addressed whether there is a need for a parking structure downtown.

The report concluded the town should try using better parking-management techniques, such as paid permits instead of all-day parking spots and shortening limits on parking to two hours, before taking on the expense of building a parking structure. 

The only suitable location for a parking structure to be built, the study said, is the Baldwin parking lot off Elm Street, Herbertson reported.  

Ratkiewich explained that construction costs of parking structures vary depending on how customized they must be for a particular location and what materials are used. He added that parking structures also have maintenance costs that are higher than open parking lots.

Church’s lot an option for more parking?

The goal is not necessarily to create hundreds of new parking spaces, but to replace approximately 40 spaces that must be removed from the Parker Harding Plaza lot when it is refurbished and re-striped to accommodate larger spaces, making it safer as well as to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.

Herbertson said that a possible solution to make up for those lost spaces might be to use the parking lot on Elm Street belonging to Christ & Holy Trinity Church. The town has had an agreement with the church in the past for the town to provide snow plowing in exchange for use of the church lot for municipal parking when there are no events at the church. 

Herbertson said he is currently discussing a new, more formal agreement with church officials. The church lot might be a good site for more all-day employee parking spaces, he added.

Merchants: Don’t cut three-hour limits

When the meeting was opened for public comments, several merchants had suggestions and complaints. 

In particular, they disliked the idea of having employees pay for parking permits, and for what Gina Porcello, of the GG & Joe coffee shop, called “an over complicated” plan with both two- and three-hour spaces as well as permit spaces and all-day spaces. 

BFJ Planning’s analysis of downtown parking reported that two-hour spaces create more turnover for businesses. “They are assuming that we need more turnover,” Porcello said.

When customers park in a two-hour space, that will not give them enough time to go shopping after dining. “They’re not going to move their car to another space” after they finish with a meal, she said. Instead, they will leave.

Patrick Jean, co-owner of Nômade restaurant on Main Street, agreed. “Everyone is happy with three-hour parking,” he said. “There’s a big difference between two and three hours. We need to find 40 more spaces first before we do anything else.”

When Herbertson said that the BFJ Planning study was based on a lot of research by a firm that has studied parking across the country and built many parking structures, the merchants said that that might be true, but that the consultants did not necessarily understand the personality of downtown Westport. 

Westporters need three hours to dine and peruse the stores in the downtown area, they said.

RTM members have concerns

Two Representative Town Meeting members from District 9, which encompasses downtown, also had questions and comments about the study.

Jennifer Johnson said that, above all, parking should be available during peak shopping and dining times. “Peak time is when merchants make money,” she said. “Since this committee has been meeting, we have lost many businesses.”

And Sal Liccione said that two requests that were made long ago have not been addressed. One is for a survey to determine how many employees work in the downtown area. 

He also wanted to know why a handicapped-access ramp has not been built to travel from the Imperial Avenue parking lot to the Westport Library lot, an issue brought up a year ago.

Ratkiewich said the only way to make the crossing handicapped accessible is to build a ramp and not use any structure that requires a lift, gate or keys. The ramp project is under study right now, he said, but there are related issues that have to be considered, including funding and design. Also, the ramp cannot be built while the Westport Farmers Market uses the Westport Woman’s Club lot or when the Levitt Pavilion is an operation during the spring and summer months, he said.

Herbertson said the committee will now focus on gathering public opinion about the parking structure survey. A public review of the study will be held within the next month “before going to the expense of building a parking structure.”

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.