Big Shop Lane, the alley on the left, is a one-way road that leads to lower Bailey Avenue via the municipal parking lot.
The alleyway off Main Street — actually part of Big Shop Lane, an old road — is narrow, home to a busy restaurant, and well traveled by people on foot, and driving cars. Should it be closed to cars and trucks, and made into a pedestrian walkway?
The idea of forbidding vehicles from using the alley between 426 and 440 Main Street has come up lately at Board of Selectmen’s meetings.
It first came up at the Nov. 18 selectmen’s meeting, when First Selectman Rudy Marconi was describing a state project to improve traffic flow on Main Street through the village, expected to go out to bid in 2017. The project would involve things like turning lanes at Governor Street and Bailey Avenue, and possibly moving the driveway to the CVS parking lot to be directly across from Prospect Street, now that preservation of the elm tree by Ballard Park is no longer an issue — since it’s gone, Marconi said.
“Are they looking at the turn into Big Shop Lane? That creates a bottleneck,” said Selectwoman Maureen Kozlark.
“That’s dangerous,” Selectman Steve Zemo agreed.
“How about Big Shop Lane?” Kozlark said later. “Could you make that just a pedestrian right-of-way?”
“We could ask the Police Commission,” mused Marconi. (The commission is Ridgefield’s official traffic authority.)
Closing the alley to cars was discussed again briefly at the selectmen’s special afternoon meeting Monday, Dec. 7.
Marconi said ownership of the two alleys from Main Street to the rear lot was shared by Barry Finch, owner of 426 Main Street, and Wilette Properties, owner of 440 Main Street.
But closing the alleys to cars might depend on removal of the huge cement blocks at the top of the ramp between the upper lots and the lower Yankee Ridge lot,” Marconi said.
“Barry said if we were able to take the blocks off the ramp, he’d close his off,” Marconi said.
He wasn’t optimistic about that, however.
“I thought I had a deal with them,” he said of Wilette. “They pulled out.”
First Selectman Marconi was skeptical that making a pedestrian walkway of Big Shop Lane was anything that could be easily or quickly accomplished. “We will need the property owners’ cooperation,” he said.
SIDEBAR HERE
Although the alley is called and widely recognized as part of Big Shop Lane — which extends through the parking lots down to Bailey Avenue — historian Jack Sanders’ research for his Ridgefield Names, which ran in The Press for years, found that the right-of-way is not an official town road.
“An old road, only the end of which is readily distinguishable today, Big Shop Lane extends from Main Street between the Finch building and The Gap at 440 Main Street eastward to lower Bailey Avenue,” Sanders wrote.
“While it does not appear on 1856, 1867, 1893, or 1900 maps of the village, an engraving called ‘View from East Ridge,’ drawn by someone named Kelsey in 1853, seems to show a path extending from Main Street to East Ridge in this vicinity.
“In 1948, a developer asked town officials about putting up commercial buildings along Big Shop Lane. He maintained that it was a town-owned road and as such would have to be improved and maintained by the town if he went ahead with development plans. What the town told him is not clear, but his plans never came to fruition anyway.
“Responding to several inquiries over the years, First Selectman Joseph J. McLinden commissioned a 1972 investigation into whether the town owned any of Big Shop Lane. The study concluded that the town held no title whatsoever and that several parties privately own the lane.”
Sanders said the road’s name came from a nearby building: “It passed by the Big Shop, the large 2 ½-story building at the north end of the Bailey Avenue municipal parking lot,” he wrote. “This structure, built around 1830 on the site of the present First Congregational Church, housed a carriage factory and other small industries in the 19th Century.
“It was also a community meeting place, and Hannibal Hamlin, vice president under Lincoln, once spoke there. The shop was moved around 1888 to make way for the church. It continued to house businesses until fairly modern times, when it was converted into apartments. The building was condemned as a dwelling around 1971 and remained vacant and deteriorating until 1977 when Bartholomew T. Salerno purchased it. … Much to the relief of historical preservationists, Mr. Salerno renovated and restored the building as a location for restaurants, shops and offices.”
And that remains the Big Shop’s use today, though it is now owned by Selectman Steve Zemo.
The post Town talks about making alley pedestrian-only appeared first on The Ridgefield Press.