By Jarret Liotta
Paid parking in downtown Westport offering a “smart parking” capability was a topic of discussion today at a meeting of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee.
Dewey Loselle, chair of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee (l), and First Selectman Jim Marpe at today’s meeting. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
Randy Herbertson, president of the Downtown Merchants Association, cited the possible parking initiative as one reason to be hopeful for Westport’s commercial economic future as a large shopping mall is built in Norwalk at I-95 Exit 15. He said easier parking could help draw shoppers to Westport.
“Without paid parking it would be something that would be hard to get funded annually,” said committee chair Dewey Loselle of the app phone system that would make real-time inventory of parking spaces downtown available to shoppers.
“Most of our neighboring towns have it,” Herbertson said of paid parking. “If it helps to manage parking better … it’s a good thing.”
“Paid parking can generate a million bucks more a year,” said resident David Lapping, whose firm RBA of Connecticut, LLC, authored the Downtown Master Plan.
He said residents would be supportive if they understand the purpose. “We’re doing this parking fee to do capital improvements to the town to make it better,” he said.
“I think this is a great topic for discussion,” Loselle said, noting paid downtown parking has been “the third rail of parking discussions” for many years.
First Selectman Jim Marpe shared some details about a Feb. 28 meeting involving downtown merchants, landlords, various town officials and “interested parties,” organized by Chamber of Commerce president and Representative Town Meeting member Matthew Mandell.
Marpe, who described it as “just a listening session,” said the consensus centered on a hope that the town would continue moving forward “to make downtown an inviting, interesting place.”
“I appreciate the candor with which the feedback came to us,” he said. “Some of it had to do with the processes in Town Hall.”
“I like to think I’m business-friendly, (but) sometimes we don’t always deliver as cleanly as possible on that point,” he said.
Marpe also shared some pros and cons with regard to a proposed MGM casino in Bridgeport.
“I think there’s a certain amount of sympathy for the situation Bridgeport finds itself in,” he said, with the casino potentially bringing “a fair amount of entry-level jobs.”
“I don’t think there’s any particular benefit to Westport,” he said, however, noting that high-end shops and restaurants will probably be part of that project.
“So why would you leave the casino to drive 10 miles to come over to Westport,” he said, citing issues of gambling addiction and potential crime as other negatives to its construction.
Almost 15 years ago when another effort was made to establish a Bridgeport casino, former Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell led a Fairfield County coalition opposing the initiative.
