Luckily for West Haven the Orange station is still a few years away because there are still a number of hurdles that need to be cleared for it to move forward. That’s only just about a mile from the West Haven station. details are forthcoming.” If there are active plans for the Armstrong site, I believe that the residents of West Haven have a right to know what they are.Īnother potential wrinkle in the success of West Haven’s train station is the news that the way has been cleared to fund a train station in Orange, potentially at the Dichello Distributors site. I tried to find out what was going on there from Michael Walsh, West Haven’s Public Information Officer, but he would only tell me that there are “active plans. There are hush hush plans in the works for that site. One thought I had would be that the mayor has a developer friend who could benefit by putting up a garage as part of the Armstrong project, across the street from the train station. He did not fight for the garage, even though the West Haven Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter in April 2010 to Jody Rell, the governor at the time, “beseeching” her to “do everything in your power to ensure that the Parking Garage becomes a reality for our citizens.” All the businesses in West Haven want the parking garage yet Mayor Picard has done nothing to help make that happen. So why in the world would West Haven agree to forgo the parking garage? Mayor Picard has not championed this train station even though it has the potential to give a shot in the arm to our city’s weak economic development. It’s a crap shoot because there are more commuters than there are parking spaces at those two stations. Trying to find parking in either Milford or New Haven is horrible depending on day of the week and time – and the New Haven station has a large parking garage. I have the occasion to take the train into the Big Apple every so often. The number of spaces has been cut in half. But in speaking with him, the thing I find most curious about the project is the fact that our train station originally had a 1,200 space parking garage to go along with it, and now it only has a surface parking lot with 660 spaces. He had an enormous amount of history to share with me. Mercuriano has been working to push this project forward for more than a decade. I also called our city’s public information office for an update, and I’ll get to that in a minute. So I called West Haven Train Station Committee Chairman Michael Mercuriano to see what I could find out. How exciting! I’ve been wondering what is going on with the train station and when it will be open for business. They also plan to cut down a line of sycamore trees on the sidewalk for the development. The objectors who spoke out Monday were mostly New Haven residents in favor of mass transit and more bike-friendly developments.I see the station building is finally going up on Railroad Avenue (how fitting) and Sawmill Road for our city’s new train station. The design team admits that the project will likely add to traffic congestion on Union Avenue, but said that could be mitigated by using traffic flow technology. Instead of future 50 years that prioritizes non-motorized transportation.” “But that’s the past 50 years of car-centric design. “You’re proposing millions for infrastructure to last 50 years,” said one objector from New Haven. A study by CT DOT reports that current parking between the existing garage and parking lot for Union Station are filled to capacity every weekday. The plans call for a new $60 million parking garage to be constructed on top of what’s now a surface parking lot that holds about 240 vehicles. “That’s not future oriented or sustainable.” “Planning for everybody driving in from suburbs to the train station is not going to work anymore,” said William Kurtz, who lives in Hamden. A public hearing was held Monday night, where several who aren’t happy with the plans lodged complaints. The Connecticut Department of Transportation is looking to build a seven story parking garage near New Haven’s Union Station. (WTNH)–There is a plan on the table tonight that would build a brand new parking garage near New Haven’s union station. The new building would mean up to 1,000 new parking spots. But some people against the plan say it’s the wrong thing for the city’s future.
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