Changes would target beachgoers who skirt lot fees, park on streets
STAMFORD – Measures designed to deter people from parking all over the city’s beach neighborhoods are set for a public hearing later this month.
If the proposals are approved, people who live within a third of a mile of the water may more easily take part in a program that allows them to designate their streets for permitonly parking. Anyone caught parking on those streets without the permit could pay a $120 fine.
The Board of Representatives is considering
the proposals after an outcry from Shippan and Cove residents who say people who don’t want to pay to park in the lots at West, Cummings and Cove Island beaches are leaving their cars on the streets, creating congestion, causing accidents, dropping trash and sometimes driving drunk.
It’s been a complaint for years but came to a head this season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Representatives in May became concerned that Stamford beaches would be overcrowded because surrounding towns were charging non-residents more to park, or banning non-residents altogether, in an effort to ensure social distancing.
So Stamford lawmakers increased the beach parking fee for out-of-towners from $25 a day to $40 on weekdays and $65 on weekends.
It looks like that drove more people to park on Shippan and Cove streets.
Beachgoers seeking to evade the increased parking lot fees have a harder time of it in the Cove, where there are several residential permit parking zones.
To create such a zone, a survey must demonstrate that at least 75 percent of the parking spaces in a given area are occupied during peak times. If so, 65 percent of households must agree to the program. They then purchase $15 annual permits that they hang from their rear-view mirror while parked on the street. Cars parked in those zones without the permit are ticketed.
The fine was $90. If the Board of Representatives passes the proposed measures at its Aug. 3 meeting, the fine will be $120.
And Shippan, which has few residential permit parking zones, will have an easier time establishing them.
Under the proposal, residents who want the program will not have to meet the 75 percent parking criteria – they just have to live within one-third of a mile of the water. Such a program would apply only from May to September.
Representatives established other proposals that citizens may speak on during the public hearing.
One would increase the fine for motorists who park in one of the zones without a permit, and and impose the same from $90 to $120 increase on those who loan, rent or sell such a permit, try to duplicate it or otherwise use it fraudulently.
Another proposed ordinance would increase the penalty for parking within 25 feet of a crosswalk, whether at an intersection or mid-block. The fine would rise from $50 to $80. Shoreline residents have said curbs clogged with parked cars create accident dangers.
Safety was the reason Transportation Bureau Chief Jim Travers suggested increasing the fine for parking too close to a crosswalk, Rep. David Watkins, R-1, who chairs the Transportation Committee and represents Shippan, told the board.
“People assume there’s a measure of safety in a crosswalk and the way you give that safety is to provide a buffer so drivers can see pedestrians,” Watkins said.
Not just pedestrians, but other drivers, as illustrated by a June 7 accident in which a Shippan man driving north on Shippan Avenue collided with a car driven by a Cos Cob woman pulling out of Rippowam Road. The woman told police she was trying to turn left on Shippan Avenue but a parked car blocked her line of sight.
Traffic engineers studying the shoreline parking problem found that about 80 percent of ticketed cars had Connecticut plates. Watkins said a Shippan Point Association survey found that 60 percent of cars parking on neighborhood streets – legally, for now – had New York plates.
“New Yorkers are no more likely to break the law than anyone else,” Watkins told the board. “The issue is that we have no laws preventing people from parking freely in our district.”
Residential permit parking programs are a remedy, but not easy, Watkins said. Residents must pay an annual fee and receive a limited number of passes, often not enough for all family members or guests to park on their street.
“Only a neighborhood truly beset with parking issues would ever consider volunteering for such a program,” Watkins said.
Rep. Megan Cottrell, D-4, agreed.
“It’s not a program you want to have,” Cottrell said. “It’s something made available in the worst-case scenario.”
And it may need tweaking, even if the proposed ordinances become law, representatives said. One reason is that they affect parking in other neighborhoods, which have different difficulties.
Rep. Denis Patterson, D-8, said motorists headed to bars and restaurants tie up the streets of his downtown district, and Rep. J.R. McMullen, R-18, said the same goes for the Springdale train station in his district.
It’s why McMullen opposed eliminating the parking study for shoreline residential permit parking zones.
“A part of town that has a problem for a third of the year gets a special carve-out and the parts of town near the train stations do not get a carve-out,” McMullen said. “It’s not fair.”
The public hearings will take place during the next meeting of the board’s Transportation Committee.