New downtown parking rules will limit residents from parking longer than three hours from 6 a.m. – 8 p.m.
This change will affect 500 parking spaces, mostly in the Parker Harding Plaza parking lot. However, another 800 public spots will not have limits, including those at Imperial and Baldwin lots. The change was supposed to come this fall, but, according to CT Insider, there were delays regarding ordering the signs. Merchants prefer this regulation instead of a one to two hour parking limit that existed before Covid.
“When COVID hit, we suspended parking limits, that was always going to be a temporary suspension,” Town Hall operations director, Tom Kiely said, “And when we brought it back, they [ the merchants] were not happy with the fact that some of the spots were either one or two hour parking. So they asked that we, if we would consider, increasing the time limits.”
The Westport Police will use TickeTrak, an app that tracks how long a car is parked and reads license plates, according to the Hour. The deal is still subject to review by the Town Attorney, Ira Bloom
“This system will essentially be a license plate reader (LPR) attached to a marked parking enforcement vehicle and it will automatically capture the time a vehicle is parked and will alert when they are over the time limit,” Administrative Lieutenant of the Westport Police Department Eric Woods said.
The new parking limits are also designed to help local businesses, as it will increase turnover in the spaces, leading to more people being able to park and visit the downtown businesses.
“There’s a lot of retail space in that area,” Kiely said, “and we want to encourage turnover, so that everyone can come in and hopefully access available parking.”
