See Liberty on A4 Paid parking plan has local business owners concerned By Robert Koch Liberty Square upheaval
NORWALK — Paid parking is coming to Liberty Square, and some business owners in the East Norwalk retail complex aren’t pleased.
Jim Blair, tenant owner of Rowlinson Insurance Agency at 215 Liberty Square, said “some sort of management” is needed for the parking lot, but he predicted adding pay stations will drive businesses, customers and tenants out.
“It’s working today, but nobody’s paying,” Blair said of the city-owned parking lot across the street from Veterans Memorial Park. “If you’ve got to start paying, where people are going to get fined,
the tenants are going to move out of the apartments and the store owners are going to lose because if they (customers) get a ticket, they’re not coming back.”
Blair was among nearly two dozen people who came to the Walk Bridge Welcome Center on Marshall Street in SoNo on Wednesday evening for an update on the state Department of Transportation’s ongoing drainage-improvement work at Goldstein Place and the Norwalk Parking Authority’s upcoming improvements to the Liberty Square parking lots, which flank the roadway.
The drainage work is slated for completion by Oct. 1. Immediately afterward, the Parking Authority will repave and restripe the approximately 60-space lot and add curbing, lighting and landscaping. The new lot will retain the same configuration and have 58 regular and three handicapped parking spaces.
When that work is complete, LAZ Parking Ltd., the company contracted by the Parking Authority to manage municipal parking in Norwalk, will operate the lot under a management plan.
Parking Authority Director Kathryn Hebert said Liberty Square tenants for years have called for better management of the parking lot. Current problems include Veterans Park visitors parking at Liberty Square all day and others leaving their vehicles there for weeks or even months, according to Hebert and at least one business owner at Wednesday evening’s meeting.
“With the Walk Bridge project and Eversource (project) coming up, it’s critical that we better manage this parking lot,” Hebert said. “So it will be managed through transient parking, monthly and 15minute (parking) provided through … pay stations, pay by cell and monthly permits and a shared parking method.”
Hebert said fees have yet to be developed by the Parking Authority as part of the management plan for Liberty Square.
The parking lot and drainage improvements are being driven by the DOT’s upcoming replacement of the nearby Walk Bridge over the Norwalk River. The end of Goldstein Place has become a major staging area for the estimated $1 billion project, which is slated to start in fall 2019.
In a related project, Eversource Energy plans to reroute its electric cables — now atop the rail bridge — beneath Norwalk Harbor and the Norwalk Visitors Docks and up Fort Point Street.
Vanessa Valadares, senior civil engineer in the Norwalk Department of Public Works, said some parking spaces at Liberty Square are being blocked to accommodate the drainage project.
“What we’re blocking is just the area that they need to get their work done for the day, so that’s why we have some parking being blocked there,” Valadares said. “Eventually, when we’re going to really repave the lot, we’re going to shut down completely both lots, and we’re going to arrange for parking across the street at Vets Park.”
The Liberty Square parking lots will be closed for two to three weeks, day and night, with free parking provided across the street at Veterans Memorial Park, according to Valadares.
Dre Towey, founder/ creative director of Junior Art & Music, Inc., which hosts art and music classes for children at 203 Liberty Square, asked for additional police to ensure safety for pedestrians crossing from Veterans Memorial Park.
“Specifically at the crosswalks though, additional police,” Towey said. “Additional police, not just in the parking area.”