By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — Eliminating the Parker Harding Plaza access road would be a wrong turn for downtown improvements, critics told a packed meeting of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee on Thursday morning.
Opponents of the DPIC plan to renovate the downtown parking lot, which also would remove nearly 50 parking spaces, focused primarily on traffic chaos they said would be caused by shutting down the cut-through road that connects Main Street with Post Road East.
“I’m petrified about the removal of that road,” said Nancy Kail, a Representative Town Meeting representative from District 9, which encompasses downtown.
She and about 30 other residents and merchants came to the Town Hall meeting to express their concerns about the downtown committee’s plans to redesign the plaza and eliminate the access road.
Ratkiewich: Parker Harding “in disrepair”
Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich told the group that a plan to update the parking lot has been in the works, off and on, since 2015 when a Downtown Master Plan was drawn up. The town’s parking lots are in bad condition and have been neglected since at least that time, he said.
“Parking Harding is the worst,” he said. “It’s in disrepair.”
The lot does not meet safety standards for Fire Department access because roads within the lot are too narrow; parking spaces do not meet the required width for each space and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for the proper number of handicapped spaces and handicapped access to neighboring businesses have not been met, the DPW director said.
The goal of the downtown redesign project, as initially conceived, was to connect Main Street to the Saugatuck River waterfront, providing an area where people could walk and enjoy the view, he said.
But as an engineer and head of the Department of Public Works, Ratkiewich said he has other concerns. “The main thing here is public safety for pedestrians, cars and bicycle safety,” he said.
“I need to be able to sleep at night … it’s not a safe situation … It’s a liability for the town. It’s a liability for me. It’s a liability for the designer [of the plan].”
Randy Herbertson, the DPIC chairman, also told the meeting that preparing the downtown plan has been “a very public process,” including meetings with stakeholders, a survey and easy access to the design plans posted on the committee website.
Herbertson agreed with Ratkiewich that safety is a major consideration in the redesign plans. “The aesthetic is not the primary goal,” he said. “The primary objectives are accessibility and safety.”
Would closing access road pose a greater safety risk?
But safety issues and questions about how public the design process has really been sparked disagreement between the merchants and residents who attended the meeting and the committee.
Several people in the audience said they have not seen or known about accidents in the parking lot, and that many residents — merchants, in particular — knew nothing about the downtown project until recently.
Removing the access road would be “like squeezing a balloon,” according to Louis Mall, an RTM District 2 member, describing the impact of forcing traffic onto other downtown routes. The closure would increase traffic volume at the Imperial/Myrtle intersection with Post Road East; at the already dangerous intersection at Riverside Avenue and Post Road West, and into neighborhoods off the northern stretch of Main Street and Myrtle Avenue.
DPIC survey questioned
There is no need for a downtown riverfront greenway, as is proposed, Mall added, because the town “just added seven acres of [riverfront] at Riverside Park,” along the Saugatuck River on Riverside Avenue.
Others, including Gina Porcello, an owner of GG & Joe in Parker Harding Plaza, said the plan fails to consider the needs of merchants, such as loading zones for stores and restaurants. The plan calls for loading zones to be used only early in the morning, with that area reverting to parking spaces after that.
“Amazon, UPS, food suppliers, linen deliveries, are not going to come before 10:30 every day,” she said. “This is not reality.”
Porcello questioned the accuracy of the committee’s traffic study, which she said monitored traffic only on one day.
She also faulted the survey questions, which among other things asked people how they felt about more access to the riverfront. Most people would favor waterfront access, Porcello said, but the respondents probably didn’t realize that would necessitate reducing parking spaces at Parker Harding.
“I don’t think that it was clear what the price of that would cost,” she said of the survey’s waterfront access question.
Another redesign option suggested
Several speakers suggested the committee should consider other options for Parker Harding’s redesign, calling for an “Option 4.” Herbertson had said that three options were considered when discussion of the lot’s design started two years ago.
Option 4, they said, should include keeping the access road.
After the meeting, however, Herbertson said he would not respond at that time when asked by the Westport Journal if the committee would consider another option for the project.
The committee is expected to review the discussion from Thursday’s meeting at its next meeting, scheduled for July 13.
Herbertson also assured the audience that once the committee completes its recommendations for the Parker Harding redesign, the plan will face review by several town boards and commissions — where public comments would be heard — before it receives final approval.
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.
Thanks for this excellent overview of an important meeting. I would take exception, however, to the use of the word “unload” in the headline. While opposition to the plan was made very clear to the committee, the overall tone of those who spoke in opposition was respectful and cooperative.
The committee did a good job of explaining how they got to the plan. And the citizens and merchants made clear why they thought the removal of the collector/cut-through road and the very large reduction in parking spaces would be harmful to public safety and the livelihood of downtown merchants.
Overall, a good exchange of information, I just wish it had happened 6 months ago. Now we need to see what the committee does next.
Oh, and the petition is now up to 697 signatures https://www.change.org/p/opposition-petition-to-parker-harding-plaza-access-road-parking-space-elimination-propos?redirect=false
Well said John. I think the overall tenure of the meeting was informative and impactful and it is early enough in the process to hone a 4th or 5th proposal that does not eliminate the access road and maintains a majority of the parking spaces to accommodate the merchant’s and those that utilize an already challenged parking problem.
Thank you Rep Kail for taking a stand and for expressing what so many of my neighbors have been privately saying. It’s greatly appreciated. Hopefully the appointees on DPIC will take to heart the valid concerns of all who have come forward.
Thank you to Gretchen and the journal for covering and highlighting the ongoing efforts to shed light on this plan.
I do agree with all commenters, although while we thank Nancy kail for “finally” seeing the light, it would be remiss not to mention that Sal Liccione is the only RTM9 rep who has been fighting this for 12 months.
He has sent foiable, emails to all concerned, has been completely ignored, I suppose the thought was it would not gather momentum.
Sal got to the point of begging his d9 rtm colleagues that residents and merchants were incredibly worried about this yet it fell on completely deaf ears.
He asked time and time again for support while he did his homework over “1 full year” and was basically told.. “go away and stop annoying us”
So it is great that finally 1 of his colleagues is listening to the residents and merchants, as he so diligently always does.
Not sure where the other 2 stand but likely straddling
Now we need to get to work.. no traffic survey conducted by anyone with town hall as the client is going to show anything except what the first inept survey showed.. all lies
So it may be time for us to conduct our own survey.
I’ll be happy for one to hire a new survey done by a non biased entity who will give us facts not back up this crazy plan.
Thank you Sal without whom we would not be here. You were the only rtm9 rep who listened to us until November looming is changing some minds.
I for one sent many emails all for FOIA to Sal and his district colleagues and all were ignored and not even answered except by Sal.
I just want to make that very very clear.
It’s never too late to join in the fight. But please no credit given to latecomers who feel their back is against the wall.
Totally agree, Sal has been super responsive to his D9 constituents and has been on this issue from the very beginning. As a general rule, the other three D9 RTMs are usually difficult to reach. You often have to email them repeatedly to even get a response. And then you often get some lecture-y thing about how busy they, that they don’t “have the bandwidth” to deal with your concern, etc. If they do finally, grudgingly, agree to help, you will 100% never hear another thing from them and will be left in the dark. Sal, on the other hand, ALWAYS responds to his constituents and ALWAYS follows up – even if the news isn’t good.
Let’s give credit where credit is due. Sal has been vocal about this issue and seems to stay current and is excellent at listening to his constituents concerns and sharing important information with them about the various opinions voiced.
Additionally, Nancy Kail, has addressed this issue, gathered her facts, formulated an opinion and has publicly voiced her opposition asked on her thoughtful conclusions.
It is however disappointing that we have heard absolute silence on this issue from Christin Schneeman and Lori Church. I know we all our busy with our work life balance but if you cannot even delve into such an important issue that impacts both the Residents and Merchants of RTM District 9….it might be time to reevaluate your commitment as elected officials.
Jaime, absolutely. It is so important to elect rtm representatives whose thought process aligns with our own and who will listen and take action.
The fence straddlers get nothing done.
It’s incredible to think that out of 4 representatives in district 9, a full year passed of Sal bringing this to everyone’s attention including Nancy monthly and it falling on deaf ears.
Emails, in person conversations. Just met with utter indifference UNTIL , it finally gained press and momentum. But Sal had done his homework on this a year ago.
We certainly appreciate that Nancy kail is not last out of her other colleagues to the finish line. It just would have been better months sooner.
Nobody can say they were not made aware by Sal.
He is very tenacious and persistent when he needs to be. Unfortunately sometimes that is misunderstood but it is the ONLY way to be taken seriously around here. He is an invaluable rtm representative. Always conscientious and thorough.
I am hopeful that sals other colleagues will ask of themselves, how do the folks who voted for me feel.
After all it is those folks they represent.
Residents AND merchants. Many merchants are also residents.
As an aside, it is with great amusement that suddenly the issue of safety has come up regarding the Parker Harding fiasco.
Hadn’t been even mentioned before but now that there’s opposition, it’s suddenly the “issue”
I will add here that if the pass through were to be eliminated then it’s not much good to the fire department anyway as it will no longer exist., except to keep it it might mean the fire dept in an emergency might have a sniff of getting to a fire in downtown because of less congestion.
Either way, the pass through safety is clearly suddenly being used as the stick to beat us with inspite of the fact that ladder trucks were not a hamlet consideration with height.
Safety when it suits the rhetoric. Hilarious !
So I’m starting to think the only solution to Parker Harding is a maintenance issue and repaving but it be left exactly as it is.
For sure if needs be the pass through can be made bigger even if we lose a few spots in doing so.
But although it’s not perfect. The one way system in there is better than ANYTHING else on offer,AND A PASS THROUGH A PARKING LOT, is a non starter.
Behind cars struggling to find a spot and trucks with no loading zones, I suggest the pass through must not be even entertained through the parking lot.
Keep the parking lot one way and whole not great it’s worked for years.
Ciara Webster