Aggressive steps to address parking difficulties in Ridgefield’s central business district — like building a parking garage, or putting in parking meters — might diminish positive public perception of the town’s charm and character, according to a survey conducted for the town and Chamber of Commerce.
“It is our opinion that the town character, perhaps defined by the less restrictive parking regulations, is more important to maintain than to take dramatic measures to ‘fix’ the parking issues,” said International Insights, a marketing research and consulting firm that did a survey.
“A new parking structure is not an option we would recommend be pursued. In fact we believe it would detract from the character and make the town less attractive to potential residents and to patrons.”
The Ridgefield Town Survey was conducted in November and early December of 2015, and got responses from 383 people, 82% of them Ridgefielders and the remainder people who work in town or live nearby and regularly come to Ridgefield.
“A definite thing that came across was people are more concerned with the character of the community,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said, discussing the consultants’ report with the Board of Selectmen Wednesday night, Feb. 3.
“Their feeling is people don’t want a parking garage,” Marconi told the selectmen.
“I think psychologically it means we’re moving to that next level.”
Marconi told the selectmen the consultants said the “383 to 400” responses to the 25-minute online survey were “a minimum” but considered an acceptable number to draw conclusions from.
“It was a difficult survey to take,” he said.
“It’s one and a half percent of the population,” noted Selectman Steve Zemo.
A meeting is being planned Feb. 29 at the library to discuss results of both the Ridgefield Town Survey and the retail survey done last year. The Economic Development Committee, the selectmen, the Planning and Zoning Commission, and members of the Chamber of Commerce are expected to be invited.
The town paid $13,000 toward the town survey, sharing the cost with the Chamber.
Difficult, yes
The survey compares parking in Ridgefield to parking in neighboring towns, including Danbury, Westport, New Canaan, and Katonah, N.Y.
“Overall, residents and non-residents believe the town of Ridgefield is more of a challenge in terms of parking than other towns,” the consultants said in an executive summary of their findings that Marconi distributed to fellow selectmen at their Feb. 3 meeting. “People do say it is difficult to find a space near where they need to go.
“However, relative to all the other perceptions about Ridgefield it appears that the parking system currently in place does not detract folks from patronizing Ridgefield, nor does it affect their feeling about the town in terms of the charm or character.
“Other towns where parking is much easier (e.g., Danbury) or metered (e.g., New Canaan) rate lower on charm and character, suggesting that these others towns’ solutions engender them to be seen as more ‘urban’ or city-like and busy.”
The consultants theorize a bit.
“There is likely a love-hate relationship between town character and some of the difficulties associated with a ‘small town,’ like acceptable parking ‘on demand.’ The smaller the town feel, the more appealing the character, and this reflects what town residents have chosen to call their own.
“This sometimes means circling for a parking spot or coming in during ‘non-peak hours’ or even parking further away than would be ideal. However, this is an ‘acceptable price to pay’ to retain the small-town feel of Ridgefield.
“That said, there are some other alternatives which might be worth exploring that were generated as part of the study,” the consultants say. “These include ‘fee parking passes,’ employee parking in specified areas freeing up more prime spots for patrons on Main Street and in the lots around CVS, and even sections with timed restrictions.
“These suggestions would be perceived as ‘nice to have’ without detracting from the character and may even reinforce the feeling of a friendly town that encourages downtown activities.”
Among the survey’s findings is that people found parking in Ridgefield more difficult if they were going to work or coming to town to “shop for non-food items” and less problematic for other purposes, such as “kid-focused activities” or attending cultural events.
Meters? Garage?
In looking at what the survey suggests about various parking solution ideas, the consultants got the worst results on parking meters.
They found 62% of respondents said they’d be “less likely” to use the town if there were “parking meters paid with coins” while 33% would be “just as likely” and 5% said they would be “more likely.”
People were slightly less averse to “parking kiosks where you put a debit/credit card in” to pay for parking, with 47% saying this would make them “less likely” to use the town, 38% “just as likely” and 15% saying it would make them “more likely” to patronize Ridgefield.
For a “high capacity parking garage” the results were that 43% said they would be “less likely” to come to town, 37% said they’d be “just as likely” and 20% said they would be “more likely” to visit Ridgefield if there were a garage.
Parts of the survey focused specifically on the parking garage, with the consultants asking about “a multi-level parking structure near the Boys & Girls Club.”
They found 50% answered they “probably/definitely would not use” such a garage, while just 8% of people said they “would definitely use” a garage, 16% said they “would probably use” it, and 25% said they “might or might not.”
Among the half of the people who said they “definitely” or “probably” or “might or might not” use a garage, enthusiasm diminished considerably when the scenario included paying a fee to park there. The survey found that among people open to the idea of using a garage, 68% say a fee would make them “less likely” to use it, while 30% said they’d be “just as likely” and 2% said they’d be “more likely to use it” with a fee.
First Selectman Marconi has been talking about the possibility of a parking garage for some time, but the survey results have diminished his enthusiasm for the idea — though he’s still interested in finding ways to address parking.
“It is a problem,” Marconi said he told the selectmen. “We’re going to try to solve it without a parking garage.”
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