The town last week approved a $13,000 contract for an Avon-based company to design a newly configured parking lot that sits alongside the water towers at Waveny.
This is the parking lot we are talking about. Credit: Michael Dinan
The rough, milled lot located between softball diamonds and new turf fields at the edge of the high school—above to the Summer Theatre of New Canaan area—is to be upgraded so that there’s a newly paved drive into it from the main road through Waveny and a larger parking area, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
“It’s always been a mess,” Mann told the Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting, held Aug. 21 at Town Hall. “People park haphazardly, on the grass, wherever they want.”
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of a contract with Richter & Cegan, an urban planning firm, to design and provide cost estimates for the project. Funding for the actual work would come after the study.
Richter & Cegan had done initial work for a parking extension in the area, so the firm is “intimately aware” of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline that runs through the area and other details, Mann said.
The selectmen asked how many vehicles can park there now (30 to 40, more if the lot can be expanded west) and whether formal approval would be required to expand in that direction (yes, six weeks review process, minimum).
Williams said it’s “worth it to maximize the spots up there” because it would increase access to “the new beautiful fields we have.”
“People have been very generous in contributing to upgrade the fields,” he said.
Mann said the lot in question would be configured to tie in with the walkway that runs from the southern end of the New Canaan High School lot.
Moynihan said the town is still negotiating with Aquarion about acquiring the land around the smaller, disused water tank at Waveny, which the water company has said it intends to demolish.