By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — The results are in, and the vast majority of survey responses agree: Church Lane should be closed off during warm weather to create a pedestrian mall. 

Ninety-four percent of 2,200 responses to a recent Westport Downtown Association survey favor closing Church Lane for street dining and music during late spring and summer, according to Maxxwell Crowley, the group’s president.

“Everyone wants it closed,” Crowley said, noting that 74 percent of the survey responses favored closing Church Lane as long as possible, from May 1 to Oct.15. 

One of the five questions asked about shortening the season from Memorial Day to Labor Day, a schedule that Crowley said the association may consider asking the Board of Selectwomen to approve.

“There were about 24 percent that wanted to shorten the season,” Crowley said. “The WDA might do that.”

Waldman: “A wonderful atmosphere”

David Waldman, landlord of the Sconset Square commercial complex, where merchants have complained that traffic tie-ups caused by closing Church Lane hurt their businesses, agreed with the survey results favoring the seasonal Church Lane closure.

“I think that it is something that residents love and it certainly creates a wonderful atmosphere,” said Waldman, who not only owns Sconset Square, but also several properties lining Church Lane.

“I personally think it’s a good thing,” he added.

Sconset merchants: “Significant negative impact”

Four Sconset Square merchants were critical about the street’s closure in a letter to the Board of Selectwomen last week. 

“We want to highlight the significant negative impact past closures have had on our businesses,” owners of The Flat, The Tailored Home, Bungalow and Swoon, wrote in the letter.

The major concern of Sconset Square merchants is that when Church Lane is closed, access to their stores and parking lot is blocked by lengthy traffic backups along Myrtle Avenue as motorists wait to turn onto Post Road East, instead of avoiding the traffic light by traveling down Church Lane.

“The increased volume of vehicles on Myrtle Avenue often results in long backups, blocking access to our parking lot for multiple traffic light cycles,” the merchants’ letter states. “During previous closures we have received telephone calls from customers who ultimately abandoned their efforts to visit the square, directly affecting our businesses.”

Those merchants asked that Church Lane be closed on weekends only, limited to the summer months.

Selectwomen will be asked to decide

Crowley, a realtor, said he knows a popular restaurant in Fairfield hired a temporary traffic officer during busy times when backups caused problems for customers trying to access the restaurant’s parking area. That might be a solution for Sconset Square, he said, because its parking lot is privately owned and not a municipal lot.

Some merchants and Representative Town Meeting members have called on the town to assign a police officer to direct traffic near Sconset Square when Church Lane is closed.

Waldman said that he has hired a parking attendant at Sconset Square, “especially when there is a big event going on.” But a private parking attendant can’t direct traffic on public roads, he said.

When Myrtle Avenue was widened to create a left-turn-only lane, that has made a difference, Waldman said. “It certainly has helped,” especially when a school bus or large truck is turning onto Post Road East from Myrtle Avenue.

“I respect my tenants’ opinions, and we are part of the WDA,” Waldman said. “But we’re trying to make a vibrant community.” The seasonal closing of Church Lane “has really been a very nice thing.”

Church Lane was first closed to create a pedestrian mall during the pandemic, amid healthy and safety guidelines that restricted indoor gatherings, to encourage diners and customers to venture downtown. The seasonal pedestrian mall has been popular ever since, especially when musical performances take place on weekends.

The Westport Downtown Association request to close Church Lane will be sent to the selectwomen this week and assigned to a future meeting’s agenda, Crowley said.

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.