“Shared Parking” Plan Approved For Audubon Mini-City

The garage for the Audubon Square Project rising on the old Frontier Communications surface lot will have 649 physical parking spaces/

The developer is committed to providing parking for a larger number of folks, 735 or so in total, including tenants and employees of nearby Frontier Communications.

Will enough residents be away during the day and enough Frontier staffers working from home or be sick or on vacation, so the deficit of 80 or so spots is never a problem?

That’s the hope of the ​“shared parking plan” for the Audubon ​“mini-city” of apartments and stories rising on the entire Orange-State-Grove-Audubon block. The Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously approved that parking plan Tuesday night at its monthly meeting at the Hall of Records.

As part of the original deal to create 269 apartments along with 5,000 square feet of street level retail on that block, the developer, Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, entered into a long-term lease to provide Frontier employees 525 spaces during weekday business hours.

Tuesday night, Spinnaker attorney Carolyn Kone asked Board of Zoning Appeals commissioners for a special exception to share 81 parking spaces between Frontier and people based at the new development.

If you do the math, this is the result: 135 agreed-upon spaces for residents of the first phase of construction; 75 for the next phase; and the ongoing obligation to supply parking in the finished garage for 525 Frontier employees.

Although the precise numbers are still fluid, that adds up to 735 in a garage that will have 649 spaces, which falls approximately 81 spaces short.

The City Plan staff report to the BZA commissioners noted that ​“during business hours it is anticipated that many residents of Phases I and II of Audubon Square Project will remove their cars from the garage in order to commute to work or school or to run errands, etc. It is further anticipated that not all of the Frontier employees will use the 525 spaces allotted to Frontier during business hours due to employee absences for vacations, sick time, or personal time or because employees are working remotely from home.”

The report concluded that only 12 percent of the spaces in the garage would be shared during business hours, and that this is adequate.

Kone underscored that ​“shared parking” is part of the city’s long-term aspiration to reduce the number of vehicles in town. City economic development officials also endorsed the concept, she noted.

However, City Plan chief Mike Piscitelli offered a cautionary comment/ ​“The staff issued a very favorable report, but please go over the math with us,” he requested of Kone and Spinnaker Vice-President for Development Frank Caico, who also testified before the commissioners.

Caico was asked how how his company has been providing for the Frontier employees over the last months during the construction of the garage.

“We’ve been managing Frontier parking needs” for 480 Frontier parkers at ten or 11 locations around the city, he responded. ​“It’s rare 100 percent of those spaces are being used” because of workers telecommuting or away on vacation, illness, leave.

“We’re comfortable the 525 spaces will not be needed at a given time. There will be excess capacity,” he concluded.

“We’re seeing a lot of this in the city,” Piscitelli responded. ​“We’re seeing pressure from the Board of Alders to reduce parking, so the math has to work.”

BZA Chair Pat King praised the presentation, noted the endorsement of the city and the staff recommendation. She led the way with a motion, which was passed unanimously, to approve the shared parking plan.

Because the special exception requested pertains to shared parking, not reducing the number of mandated spaces, the matter ended at the BZA with no need for referral back to the City Plan Commission.