New London — Jordan Edwards said his focus is on resolution, not punishment.   

One of three, new part-time "parking ambassadors" in the city, Edwards explained his approach to his job on a blistering cold Wednesday morning while walking along South Water and Bank streets, checking on parked vehicles.

"If I can find the driver in violation, I'll say, 'Excuse me, sir, you can't park here,' and nine times out of 10, they'll move," said Edwards, who said he has followed vehicle operators into a shop or restaurant to warn them and give them the option to move before he writes a ticket and puts it on the car.

Parking in New London has its challenges: In the downtown business district there are divergent opinions on what the rules should be and how they should be enforced; in the area around Fort Trumbull, Electric Boat employees park on the streets after their garage is full, to the consternation of residents and business owners who believe they should have priority parking in front of their homes and shops. 

And there are issues in other parts of the city, too, like Riozzi Court, the location of a public housing complex built at a time before people had as many cars as they do today. 

To work toward resolution of these parking issues, late last spring the City Council passed an ordinance that morphed the city's former Parking Commission into a Parking Authority, and added citywide responsibility for on-street parking and enforcement of parking policies to the job of managing the city's off-street parking assets, the downtown Water Street Parking Garage and surface lots off Eugene O'Neill Drive and Pequot Avenue.

The Parking Authority and its enhanced responsibilities were the result of a study committee created about two years ago by the administration of then-Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio.

The committee was charged with getting a handle on citywide parking assets, rules and enforcement, and with addressing parking problems.

"It was all a mish-mash," said Tammy Daugherty, director of the city's Office of Development and Planning. 

She explained that in the past the old Parking Commission was responsible for off-street parking policy and management, city police were writing the traffic tickets and the finance department was collecting the fines. 

"We wanted to knit together the responsibility of parking," Daugherty said. "The off-street, on-street and the enforcement. ... We want modern, appropriate parking policies throughout the city."

Much of the planning is being done with an eye toward two projects that would bring more cars into the city: the eventual location of the National Coast Guard Museum on the river and the development of a magnet high school downtown. 

"We want people to have a good experience during their time in New London, and parking is a major part of that," said Mayor Michael Passero, who served on the council that adopted the new ordinance and is now keeping abreast of the work the new authority is doing to marry together the responsibilities for citywide parking.

'A lot of empty spaces'

Among its challenges, the authority is looking at on-street parking in the downtown, where free two-hour parking has been allowed for years.

Some merchants have complained that two hours is insufficient, and others that some downtown employees take advantage of on-street parking by tying up spaces all day long.

"Enforcement has to follow good policy, and right now, we don't have good policy," Daugherty said. "When you enforce bad policy, it infuriates people, and rightly so. ... But there is also an acknowledgment that our parking policies downtown are not serving the whole, and we're looking to address that."

Ric Waterhouse of Waterhouse Salon, 136 Bank St., said some of his customers require longer than two hours for an appointment, and it is upsetting when they are ticketed while there are empty parking spaces up and down the street.

Many of his competitors are located in suburban areas or strip malls, where parking isn't a problem, he said. 

"When parking is in demand, OK," he said to limited or metered parking in the downtown. "But it's not in demand now. There's a lot of empty spaces."

Antonio Suarez, owner of Northern Light Gems, 60 State St., has been at his current location for five years, but worked on State Street decades ago, too, and said downtown parking always has been a problem.

"I was here when we had meters, and with the two-hour limit," he said. "The problem is that everyone wants to have parking right outside their front door."

Suarez said his biggest complaint is downtown employees who park on the street for their entire shift, rather than in a lot or the garage, taking spaces that should be left for customers or visitors.

Those employees sometimes go out every two hours and move their cars a short distance to avoid getting tickets.

But the parking ambassadors said their focus these days is on serious violations and safety issues, at least until the new Parking Authority settles on the best plan for downtown parking.

Edwards, the ambassador patrolling downtown, said he typically writes six to eight tickets in a four-hour shift, mostly for things like illegally parking in a handicapped spot, blocking a fire hydrant or parking too close to an intersection.

One common violation, he said, is parking too far away from the curb.

The rule is no more than 12 inches, and while Edwards said he can forgive a gap of 14 inches or 15 inches, when a driver is parked two feet off the curb and impeding passing traffic, it's a safety hazard that he can't ignore.

Updates to 1953 ordinance

The city's downtown lots, off Eugene O'Neill Drive between Pearl and Tilley streets, are being redesigned and reconfigured. 

The lots do not meet pedestrian safety and striping codes, lack proper handicapped-designated spaces and are overdue for resurfacing.

As part of the work, utilities will be relocated and updated, sidewalks will be widened and traffic patterns within the lots will be improved. 

Thought is also being given to the municipal lot opposite Fred's Shanty off Pequot Avenue.

The ordinance adopted by the council eight months ago was first written in 1953 and needed to be updated, Daugherty said.

"New London is an urban center, and it has the same challenges as bigger cities, the same elements, and we wanted to have the same tools," she said.

If there is a decision to go to metered parking downtown, or anywhere else in the city, the technology today is far advanced from what it was a few decades ago, she said.

Drivers could use their phones to pay the fee, and add time from remote locations if they decide to stay in a spot longer than they anticipated.

Even the enforcement system uses advanced technology compared to the days when an enforcement officer striped tires with chalk to gauge how long a vehicle stayed in the same spot.

The hand-held devices used by the city's parking ambassadors allow them to record the time and location, the plate number and state, the position of a vehicle's wheels and even take photographs of alleged infractions. 

Daugherty said balancing the needs of businesses, residents and visitors, and recognizing that different neighborhoods — or even different streets within a neighborhood — may require different parking options, will be important. 

All of that needs to be determined after hearing from all parties involved, she said.

Consultant on board

The Parking Authority has hired Pro Park, the contractor that runs its Water Street Garage, to retain and manage the parking ambassadors and handle payments and disputes of parking tickets.

Eventually, the authority will hire a manager, someone who will be a city employee, to oversee the entire operation — similar to the way the city's Water Pollution Control Authority contracts out water services to Veolia Water North America, Daugherty said.

In October, the authority signed an agreement with Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, which specializes in transportation systems and parking management, for help on a case-by-case basis to resolve parking problems.

Nelson/Nygaard is working with the authority to implement a new registered parking program in residential areas around the Electric Boat facility off Pequot Avenue at Fort Trumbull.

Through the registered plate program, nearby residents and their guests are registering for a virtual system that will identify license plates of permit holders electronically to ensure that they have convenient neighborhood on-street parking.

Kip Bochain, a downtown property owner and the longtime chairman of the former Parking Commission, and now of the Parking Authority, said no decisions will be made hastily.

"We will not have a meeting one day and decide to do it. We are going to get out and talk to people," he said, adding the authority is finding its own way with its added responsibilities and oversight.

"This is a slow process, and we are learning," he said, explaining some members have visited similar-sized municipalities in the state to see how they handle parking and enforcement.

"We can't make everybody happy, and each neighborhood has different issues," said Mayor Passero, who added that when there is snow on the ground, parking problems are exacerbated.

But the city is working on an overall plan to improve parking across the city, and to make it equitable for those who need to use it.

"We need a parking management system, no doubt about it," Passero said.

a.baldelli@theday.com

Twitter: @annbaldelli