Commuters who are used to parking at the New Canaan train station or the Park Street lot each morning may be in for more of a walk in a few months. Realignments to the bulk track will begin this August and run through October, and while the renovations are under way 63 permitted parking spaces will be unavailable. At their monthly meeting Thursday night, the Parking Commission decided on a plan to accommodate more full-day parkers in nearby lots.
Two lots will factor into the commissions plan: Locust Street and Talmadge Hill. The Parking Bureau will designate 20 to 30 spots in the Locust street lot to accommodate long-term parking. Instead of paying at meters, as they would in the rest of the area, commuters who park in the newly designated area will receive an envelope each day that has instructions for mailing daily parking fees to the town or for paying online. The envelopes will be numbered, so the town can track payments and so commuters will be able to pay multiple tickets at once.
This type of system is already used in towns that see similar amounts of commuter travel, such as Fairfield, Greenwich and Darien, with some success. Parking Bureau Supervisor Karen Miller said, for a short-term solution, it is the cheapest , most sensible way to handle it.
The remaining commuters would be encouraged to park in the Talmadge Hill parking lot, which Miller estimates has about 50 unused spots on a daily basis. Since Talmadge Hill is an eight-hour lot, there will be no special accommodations or ticketing for commuters in that lot. Those who park there will need to feed the meter each morning.
Some commission members were concerned that commuters would be upset about added walking distances to the Locust Street and Talmadge Hill Lots. But chair Keith Richey offered some perspective. Its a block away, he said, referring specifically to Locust Street. In Manhattan, youd be delighted to get parking that close.
The Parking Bureau will notify commuters of the changes through signs posted around the train station, and possibly through notices placed directly on windshields. This may take until the last few weeks of July, but Miller said she hopes to let people know much sooner. In my opinion, we should have signs up already, she said.
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