Parking Changes At Sound View

If you're headed to Sound View Beach in Old Lyme this weekend, be prepared to see a few changes. In an effort to bring order to the chaos that was parking on Hartford Avenue last year, the town has redesigned the street parking and installed parking kiosks. 

Visitors will now pay for street parking using the kiosks, where the rates are set for $5 for two hours on weekdays, $7 weekends and holidays. As of this weekend, paid parking is in effect between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.. (originally the Board of Selectmen had set the hours at 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. but they changed that after being advised that people don't tend to arrive until about 10:30 a.m.) 

Residents with beach passes, as always, can park for free and 10 spaces are reserved for people patronizing local businesses, which are free for a limited amount of time. Parking before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m. is also free. 

Some Businesses Remain Concerned About Parking
 
Even before the lines on the road were painted, a number of business owners on Hartford Avenue went to the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen with concerns about the new layout. By far the biggest sticking point for business owners is that there will now be fewer parking spaces—and parking wasn't exactly abundant before. 

The new design included 54 parking spaces with three handicapped spots. The number of regular spaces, however, decreased by one this week when it turned out that one of the new spaces was actually blocking a driveway. Frank Maratta, owner of The Pavilion, said he felt the new design was intended to limit the number of people coming to the beach—and he's not the only one who feels that way. 

Dino DiNino, who owns about half a dozen buildings on Hartford Avenue, including the Cool Moose and the Video Arcade, was also not keen on having diagonal parking on one side of the street instead of parallel parking on both sides of the road as before. 

Both of them said they worried that there would be more accidents as people backed out of spaces into oncoming traffic. They also pointed out that the new layout was not designed for deliveries, and large delivery trucks arrive frequently at their businesses. 

"There's some very important stuff that you guys haven't considered," said DiNino.

The Board of Selectmen said they would be paying close attention to how well this new system works and emphasized that they are open to suggestions if changes are needed. 

"We will keep these things in mind," said Old Lyme First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder. 

A Fresh Start 

Still, most people agree it's better than the system in place last summer when paid street parking was first instituted. Then the only option was to pay $20 for a full day and Old Lyme Park Rangers were patrolling Hartford Avenue trying to collect the fees.  

"We're anxious to see how it goes," said Dee Vowles, who is one of many business owners who said that the town's decision to institute paid street parking  last year hurt their business because it deterred visitors and decreased pedestrian traffic. 

"We're hoping this will create pedestrian traffic," said Vowles. "So we're very hopeful."