Town officials want to install a 6-foot wide, processed stone pedestrian walkway alongside the bustling access road that runs down to the Lapham Community Center at Waveny.
Plenty of Waveny visitors end up walking along this access road down toward Lapham Community Center, which can get very busy with motor vehicle traffic. Part of the Rec Department’s FY 2016 capital requests includes $50,000 for Waveny trail resurfacing—a proposal to install a dedicated pedestrian footpath off of this road among them. Credit: Michael Dinan
As it is, pedestrians circling the park are walking in the road—often in groups, pushing baby strollers or with leashed dogs in tow—and it’s an “accident waiting to happen,” according to New Canaan’s recreation director.
“It’s getting kind of dangerous, because you’ve got people wearing headsets and they don’t hear cars coming,” Steve Benko said.
What’s more, the access road itself gets plenty of use not just from residents visiting the community center, but also from youth sports parents dropping off or collecting their kids from the turf field over by the water tower.
The proposed new trail would need to come from capital funds for the Recreation Department following this upcoming budget season. The department has put in for $50,000 for fiscal year 2016 for “Waveny Trail Resurfacing.”
The office of the first selectman has asked department heads to submit draft capital requests going five years out in order to get as much information to town officials as soon as possible and prepare for the budget process. The Rec and other departments’ plans are found in the “Preliminary Town of New Canaan 5-Year Capital Improvement Plan,” which you can find starting on page 20 of this PDF.
You can see the “deer trail”-like pathway worn by pedestrians visiting Waveny Park. Recreation Director Steve Benko would like to create an official path off of the road here, running from the West parking lot (right beside Waveny House) down toward Lapham Road. Credit: Michael Dinan
Another portion of the $50,000 request, Benko said, encompasses creating a processed stone trail that would run from the parking lot west of Waveny House down toward Lapham Road, parallel to the south side of the main road through the park. So many people walk along that stretch of Waveny Park, looping down along Lapham Road toward the woods by the Merritt Parkway, that there’s already a footpath worn in the grass.
Benko said he envisions starting the trail right off of the parking lot there, and possibly installing a crosswalk across the Waveny road that would connect it to the athletic fields (and so to the proposed 6-foot wide trail running along the access road to the community center).
“We want to make it a lot safer for everybody,” Benko said.