New London — The city’s newly formed parking authority is instituting a pilot program aimed at curbing the number of Electric Boat employees parking on residential streets.

The authority is poised to implement a registered plate program that will allow homeowners and their visitors in the neighborhoods near Electric Boat’s offices off Pequot Avenue to register their vehicles with the city. Parking personnel, or so-called parking ambassadors, will subsequently start enforcement and issue tickets for vehicles whose license plates are not registered with the city.

Parking Authority Chairman Kip Bochain said the city will shortly be placing signs on streets between Montauk and Pequot avenues where historically EB employees have parked, sparking complaints from residents unable to park in front of their own homes.

Ann Street resident Sara Chaney said there are few available spaces in her neighborhood during the day, a problem for the caregivers visiting her 98-year-old mother. Chaney is a retired EB employee and said while working in Groton she knew better than to park in a residential neighborhood for fear of a ticket. 

"It's not only Ann Street. I see cars on Catherine Street, Willetts, Shaw. It's all around," she said. "You should be able to have a visitor park near your home. It isn't fair. I'm just so glad to know they are trying to do something." 

Complaints from annoyed homeowners were in abundance during the winter months, Bochain said, when every available spot cleared of snow was quickly taken by non-residents.

EB has needed more parking than what is available in its parking garage on Pequot Avenue ever since it moved into the former Pfizer Global Research and Development Headquarters in 2010. Electric Boat has about 3,400 employees now working in New London, hundreds more than Pfizer had.

EB employees use a mix of on-site parking, commuter vans, carpools, shuttles from available spaces in Groton, the Water Street parking garage, a private lot near Fort Trumbull and on-street parking.

“However, there are still challenges, and we’re continuing to seek remedies,” said EB spokesman Timothy Boulay.

Boulay said EB’s facilities and government relations staff have met with Mayor-elect Michael Passero and Office of Development and Planning Director Tammy Daugherty to discuss the new parking initiatives.

“EB employees are absolutely welcomed in the city. We want there to be parking options for them that are as convenient as we have resources to make it convenient,“ Daugherty said.

Daugherty said she plans to schedule a public hearing in the coming weeks to discuss the changes. A timeline for a start to the program has not yet been established.

“This is the first initiative of the parking authority because of the critical need to change the parking policy in and around Fort Trumbull because of the EB parking pressures,” Daugherty said. “People in those neighborhoods have been asking us to address their situation. This is sort of the first area of focus because there is a critical need.”

The idea for the enforcement comes from Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, hired by the authority last month to help address parking across the city.

Details of the system, such as how to register visitors, landlords or caregivers of neighborhood residents, are still being worked out. Homeowners will initially be able to register their plates with the city and enforcement personnel will be able to differentiate those vehicles using hand-held devices.

Daugherty said the overall effort is to make it as convenient as possible for residents, and tweaks to the system are expected once the program is under way.

The city is also considering a plan to start charging for parking along the streets outside Fort Trumbull. The city will paint lines and register vehicles of EB or Coast Guard employees with an undetermined fee. Line painting will help to steer drivers into “safe spaces,” and ensure they are not parked too closed to corners, Daugherty said.

“The parking authority was set up to develop modern day parking policies throughout the city,” Daugherty said.

It was established by an ordinance passed by the City Council earlier this year and takes the place of the parking commission with new powers established by state statute. Commission members are now authority members.

Daugherty said the commission was empowered to handle off-street parking at the city-owned lots and garages. On-street parking enforcement was overseen by the finance department, but in recent years no management was in place.

“The big change in going from a parking commission … to a parking authority is to have coordinated, intentional, best practices parking policy development, deployment and enforcement,” Daugherty said.

The authority has contracted with Propark, which operates the Water Street parking garage, to handle all enforcement. Propark recently added a third employee to help enforce parking regulations.

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay