By Bill Slocum
Contributing Editor
For years the Greenwich Avenue parking situation was described as one where problems were apparent but data hard to find. Now there is a number: 912.
That is the number of employees parking in public spaces on and around the Avenue. That same exact number is also the total number of parking spaces at parking lots set along the town’s main commercial street.
That is the finding of a downtown study released last week by town Planning and Zoning Director Katie DeLuca.
“This three-week project grew out of a need for an inventory of Greenwich Avenue buildings as well as assessing where employees of Greenwich Avenue businesses are parking,” DeLuca wrote in a letter accompanying the study. “Each building was surveyed, including side streets, with a response rate of around 85 percent.”
The survey suggests a tight-fitting situation with obvious potential for spillover from the long-term surrounding lots to the short-term spaces on Greenwich Avenue itself, counted as 410 in the survey. In fact, that is exactly what Greenwich Avenue merchants say happens right now.
Terry Betteridge, owner of Betteridge, a jewelry store that has been on the Avenue since 1897, said he has a firm rule about the matter.
“I tell my employees you park on the Avenue, and you’re fired,” he said. “Most merchants I know here talk to their employees about it. You’re just shooting your foot off. But there’s no question that it happens.”
Betteridge ascribed it to “human nature.” The planning study suggests another factor as well: The use pattern of the surrounding 12-hour parking lots is not even. One block, running east of the Avenue along Mason Street between Lewis Street and East Elm Street, draws 375 employees. That is by far the highest concentration of any of the 11 blocks surveyed.
Just two blocks north, in a section along Mason Street delineated by the Post Road and Amogerone Crossway, the survey found only 65 employees parking, lowest of any of the 11 blocks.
Sophia Scarpelli is the owner of Sophia’s, a costume rental business that abuts the Lewis Street lot and has been on the Avenue since 1981. She said parking there is “horrific.”
“It’s hard for us little people to make it,” she said. “We’re all vying for the same spots.”
Scarpelli said she uses the Lewis Street lot, as does one of her two employees. (The other takes the train; according to the survey, 24 percent of Avenue employees use some form of public transit to and from work.) She said that makes sense given her store’s proximity to the lot. Parking elsewhere is not an option.
“I’m constantly schlepping stuff, like antique gowns and vintage costumes from the ’20s and ’30s,” she said. “I’m not going to park at the Town Hall lot.” The Town Hall lot is a multi-tiered structure a block away from Greenwich Avenue.
Convenience is a big issue for shoppers, merchants say. They want to park near stores they plan to visit, and don’t want to park in distant lots. Add to that a clientele accustomed to the best, and quite capable of finding it online. “The last thing someone in Prada boots wants to do is walk a mile to shop,” Betteridge said.
The question of building parking complexes around Greenwich Avenue is something Scarpelli remembers coming up years ago, early in her time on the Avenue. “They were going to have tiered parking, underground parking,” she said. “It would have totally alleviated our parking situation.”
Scott Mitchell, owner of Richards clothing store near the bottom of Greenwich Avenue, recalled the town had a parking fund some 20 years ago just for the issue, but that “it went to the General Fund and they blew right through it.” Now the only tiered parking close to the Avenue is Richards’ own underground lot, which it keeps for itself and a neighboring office building during business hours.
“The town doesn’t have enough parking,” Mitchell said. “Why not add a second level of parking at the Board of Education lot? They could have 100 more spaces there. The challenge is there is no parking fund anymore.”
A parking garage would face issues other than funding; many have said the Avenue’s unique character would be compromised by such a structure.
The DeLuca survey, which was conducted by two planning students, makes no recommendations about parking. Nor does it draw any conclusion about whether it represents a significant problem.
“The good news is Greenwich Avenue is a wonderful shopping experience,” Betteridge said. “The look and the merchandise are fabulous, and safety is unexcelled. But it needs tweaks.”
