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07/12/2016 02:30 PMIt’s been five years since the Town of Westbrook first acquired one-half acre of land on which to build a new public parking lot for Town Center at Knothe and Boston Post roads. Now this month, the town will finally present a proposed final design to the Zoning Commission for consideration.
The plan for a promised Town Center parking project will be heard by the Zoning Commission at a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, July 28 at 7 p.m.
The future public parking lot is proposed for town-owned property in the Town Center. The initial half-acre parcel was purchased by the town in 2011 for $150,700. After contaminated soil was removed for the parcel, the property was graded and gravel added by the Department of Public Works to create a temporary public parking area. Since that time, the site has been used for that purpose.
The town has received two Small-Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grants from the state to buy the land, develop designs, and construct the improvements on the half-acre parcel. The first $250,000 STEAP grant was received in 2010 and offset the purchase price and site clean-up. In 2013, the town received a second STEAP grant, this time in the amount of $500,000, to support the design and construction phase of the project.
This spring, the town expanded the original parking project site by buying a small sliver of land from the abutting landowner, First Niagara Bank. Adding this piece to the project site, the design could include more public parking spaces than originally envisioned and add more extensive landscaping.
The proposed site plan and landscape design, as proposed by the town, includes 27 public parking spaces. Kathy Connolly, a landscape designer in Old Saybrook, developed the landscaping proposal. The design proposes using various native plants like sedum, ornamental grasses, and holly bushes as well as using porous asphalt on the parking area. This asphalt product has voids within it that allow stormwater to infiltrate downward into and across a special sub-base that caps the soil below. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection in its review praised the project’s stormwater management approach.
Another element of the parking lot project’s engineered design is installation of a culvert structure in the drainage channel that crosses under the site.
If the Zoning Commission rules favorably on the project proposal, Town Planner Meg Parulis said the plan is to release a request for construction bids by early fall.
With luck and favorable weather conditions, the new landscaped public parking area therefore could be finished sometime in the next construction season of 2017.