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Property Owners Association Responds to Parking Study

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The following was submitted by the Greenwich Property Owners Association’s executive board, consisting of John Lucarelli, Rick Kral, Alyssa Keleshian Bonomo, Julie Fareri, Paul Pugliese, Tom Torelli and Joe Pecora.

Under the supervision of Katie DeLuca, the town’s director of Planning and Zoning and zoning enforcement coordinator, the P&Z staff recently undertook a study of the downtown parking load generated by the employees of downtown Greenwich businesses. It has long been suspected that employees are utilizing much of the downtown parking that should be available to customers and shoppers.

In fact, the study found that of the roughly 1,700 spaces, employees used approximately 1,300, leaving 400 or so downtown spaces after employee demand has been satisfied. This, however, does not necessarily represent an even distribution of spaces along the entire Avenue. Portions of the Avenue where there are the highest concentration of restaurants and personal service businesses have the least amount of nearby parking. The next step would be to generate a parking demand scenario based on the current occupancy as well as the potential zoned occupancy along with a parking distribution matrix.

It has been known since the 1940’s that Greenwich Avenue does not have adequate parking or parking distribution. The efforts of Rita Azrelyant, Greenwich’s parking director, to automate and make our available parking as managed and efficient as possible, is a laudable first step. She is also designating long-term parking areas for employees. The ultimate long-term plan needs to include the utilization of Town owned land in close proximity to Greenwich Avenue to create more parking where it is needed. This should include studying the Soundview Lot and Havemeyer Field for layered parking (with restoration of green area on top).

The Greenwich Property Owners Association (GPOA), was established to identify and activate key town issues like this one and has been part of an effort, with Rita Azrelyant, to educate employees of the downtown businesses about the importance of parking in locations off Greenwich Avenue. The GPOA will continue to advocate for this long-term solution and for the development of financial models that will create more parking without more coverage. This would not only decrease the shopper’s carbon footprint by eliminating the congestion, but would greatly relieve their frustration as well.

While it may still be frustrating on a daily basis, the expectation is to meet the average parking demand that would allow the full range of business uses and keep Greenwich Avenue a vibrant and unique shopping experience.

Visit www.greewnichpropertyowners.com to see the business and employee distribution as well as other data generated by this study.

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