Government

Town Officials Appropriate $13,650 for Traffic Study in Advance of Locust Avenue Parking Deck Construction

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Town officials on Tuesday appropriated funds for a traffic study that’s expected to kickstart in earnest the creation of a widely anticipated parking deck at the Locust Avenue Lot. On a backburner for more than two years during the renovation and expansion of Town Hall, plans call for a parking tier accessible from Heritage Hill Road with a non-connected lower level that feeds onto Locust Avenue—a project that would add 89 overall spaces to the lot. There would be no connecting ramp between the two levels—installing one would cost the structure about 20 spaces—and the upper deck would meet a need for permitted parking for town employees and commuters, with the lower level serving downtown visitors, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works. The $13,650 appropriated this week—to Cheshire-based consulting firm Milone & MacBroom—will pay for an updated traffic study, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said during the Board of Selectmen’s meeting, held at Town Hall. “One of the things we had heard was that the traffic study we had done in 2005-2006 was done at a certain time of the year” that did not capture downtown New Canaan during a realistically active time, Mallozzi said.

Government

New Canaan Seeks $2 Million in State-Administered Funds For Locust Avenue Parking Deck

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Town officials on Tuesday voted to put in for $2 million in funds administered on the state level that would go toward the widely anticipated and much-needed parking deck in the Locust Avenue Lot. Created under a 2013 state law (see Section 74 of this bill), the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s “Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program” or “LOTCIP” is designed to make it easier for municipalities to make capital improvements. The funds that could be made available under LOTCIP in New Canaan’s region in the state could total about $17 million for road improvements, bridges and sidewalks, according to Town Planner Steve Kleppin. “There is no guarantee, but $2 million would pay for half the deck,” Kleppin told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall. Few disagree that New Canaan needs more parking.

Government

Town Officials Lean Toward New Parking Deck Design on Locust

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Town officials said Wednesday that they’ve narrowed down the design for the eagerly anticipated Locust Avenue parking deck to three candidates, and appear to be leaning toward a model that would add 89 new spaces overall. Each design includes two levels, but an originally conceived model with a “donut” in the center would create problems with snow removal and, because it would need to be built right up against a property line, concerns for neighbors seeking screening, according to Michael Pastore, director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works. Another possibility is a design that includes a ramp between two levels, though because of that space-hogging ramp, it would yield only 61 new spaces overall—a concern given the parking crunch on that side of town, Pastore told the Board of Selectmen during a presentation of DPW’s capital budget request for next fiscal year. The best possibility—and the three “finalists” emerged from a field of eight, working with a Norwalk firm—is a standard model that includes a buffer around it to screen the parking deck from neighbors and would yield 89 new spaces, though it would not offer a connection between the on-grade and upper levels of the deck, Pastore said. “The disadvantage as some people would see—and this came up from the Parking Commission—is there is no connection between the deck and on-grade parking,” Pastore said during the meeting, held at Town Hall.

Government

Heritage Hill Road Residents Concerned About Traffic Flow in Early Locust Avenue Parking Deck Design

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Heritage Hill Road residents say they’re concerned about an early mock-up of the Locust Avenue Lot parking deck that would have traffic exiting onto their street dangerously close to a busy intersection at the end of a curve. It’s the mostly heavily trafficked area in the vicinity of the Locust Avenue Lot “and the offset from the intersection does not allow a lot of time for people to enter and exit onto Heritage Hill,” Jim Stevens, representing the Oenoke Association on Heritage Hill Road, told members of the Parking Commission at their most recent meeting. “I think it would be problematic having traffic make a left out of the proposed lot,” Stevens said at the Nov. 5 meeting, held at Town Hall. “And if you are going to force everybody to go right, you have everybody who is trying to get back to town or back to over to the Merritt or other towns who are going to be making U-Turns onto Heritage Hill Road.”

Parking Commission Chairman Keith Richey responded that the mockup of a Locust Avenue parking deck that features two levels with no ramp between them and access to the top level from Heritage Hill Road in fact was a high-level rendering offered up by a local person “without checking on elevations or anything.”

“It was a pretty cute plan but it was by no means a fully laid out or potentially final plan,” Richey said.

Government

Decorative Lampposts, Hanging Baskets Extending to Locust Avenue Between Main and Cherry

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The decorative lampposts that adorn much of the “magic circle” downtown soon will grace both sides of Locust Avenue from Main to Cherry Street, following allocation of a state grant. The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a $59,440 contract with Danbury-based F&M Electrical Supply Company to purchase 16 of the lampposts. The lampposts take 10 to 12 weeks for delivery, so town officials “need to jump on this now,” Tiger Mann, downtown captain and assistant director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works, said during the selectmen’s meeting, held at Town Hall. Funds for the project will be drawn from a $215,000 state grant—New Canaan is one of 14 Connecticut towns that received a grant in 2013 from the Main Street Investment Fund. The five lampposts installed on Morse Court last week by well-established local New Canaan business Santella Electric, and new stretch of connecting sidewalk along the south side of Heritage Hill Road, both had been funded by the grant.