Thomas Breen photo
Mayor Elicker at Wednesday’s snowstorm presser.
A citywide parking ban during the coming snowstorm goes into effect Wednesday at 9 p.m. Wednesday — with tow trucks at the ready to pull away violating vehicles, including on narrow streets.
Mayor Justin Elicker detailed the parking ban a city email blast sent out Tuesday night as well as during a press conference held Wednesday morning at public works headquarters at 34 Middletown Ave.
The city is expecting to be hit by a “mega-storm” starting at around 5 p.m. Wednesday which should drop around 12 to 16 inches of snow on city streets.
Plows fill up with a salt-sand mix.
The parking ban, which starts at 9 p.m., includes:
• No parking on either side of any downtown streets.
• No parking on either sides of the city’s designated snow emergency routes, which include Whalley Avenue, Whitney Avenue, Grand Avenue, and Dixwell Avenue. Click here to find a map showing all snow emergency routes (in red).
• No parking on the odd side of the street in residential parking areas of city neighborhoods. “Don’t be the odd person out,” Elicker said Wednesday. “Don’t park on the odd side of the street.” Residents can park on the even side of the street in their neighborhoods.
• Elicker said that every city school parking lot is available for residents to move their cars to during the storm. Usually the city opens up only 14 school lots, but this time, it’s opened all 40-plus. “Some schools have signs saying where to park” in the lot during a storm, Elicker said. If you park at one of those lots, please follow the signs and park in the designated areas.
• The Crown Street, Temple Street, and Granite Square publicly-owned parking garages downtown have a special $3‑per-day parking rate during the storm.
After the presser, when asked about the city’s towing policy during the storm and subsequent parking ban, Elicker said, “We want to avoid towing people, but we will tow people if necessary, even on narrow streets.”
If your car gets towed, go to this link to find out where it is and how to retrieve it. You can also call (203) 946‑6316.
The city has long struggled with how best to handle vehicles parked on narrow streets during storms. Neighbors have complained of the inconvenience of having to move their vehicles away from their homes when there is so little space to park nearby. Elicker said Wednesday that a car left in the path of a snow plow on a narrow street could prevent the street from being cleared and safe to use.
He recalled that, when he was an alder representing East Rock and Cedar Hill, he would receive “a lot of complaints about the city not clearing residential streets.
“The ideal is that everyone movies their cars. There are a lot of options for people, especially at schools. People can park in any school parking lot,” ideally in the designated areas of those lots.
Starting at 9 .m., the city will start towing vehicles still parked on snow emergency routes. Tow trucks will then go downtown, and then out to residential streets.
See below for the mayor’s email alert about the parking ban sent out Tuesday night.
Hi everyone,
This is Mayor Justin Elicker with an important message regarding tomorrow’s winter storm. We are anticipating 8 to 16 inches of snow forecasted to hit New Haven in the early evening Wednesday into Thursday. Most of the snowfall will occur starting around 9PM tomorrow night.
The City will implement a City-wide parking ban starting at 9PM tomorrow. Three main zones for parking will be affected by a parking ban: Zone A is downtown, where parking will be banned on both sides of the street, Zone B is snow emergency routes, where parking will be banned on both sides of the street, and Zone C is residential areas, where parking will be banned only on the side of the street with odd-number addresses. When parking on a residential street, it is only allowed on the even side of the street — so don’t be the odd one out!
Use off-street parking when possible. If you need to find additional parking during a parking ban, there are designated school parking lots and Yale University parking lots located throughout the City. For more information on current parking bans during a snow emergency, call the snow line at (203) 946-SNOW, that’s (203) 946‑7669, or view City’s snow brochure on the City’s website.
The Department of Public Works will be picking up trash tomorrow morning. However, Thursday trash pickup might be impacted by the storm. DPW will make a determination on this and let you know tomorrow morning. Please note DPW will not remove trash and recycling from your bins until they are cleared of snow. For more information on snow emergencies and removal, visit the City website.
Here are the following designated school parking lots:
1. Betsy Ross
2. Conte
3. Cross
4. Career
5. Clinton Ave.
6. Columbus
7. Davis
8. Lincoln-Bassett
9. King Robinson
10. Hill Central
11. Beecher
12. Barnard
13. Mauro Sheridan
14. John Daniels
Here are designated Yale University parking lots:
1. 344 Winchester
2. Lot 11 (Divinity School)
3. Lots 16 & 22 (Pierson Sage Garage – all enter at Whitney/Humphrey)
4. Lot 41 (221 Whitney)
5. Lot 199 (199 Whitney)
6. Lot 78W (Lake Place)
7. Lot 81 (Crown Street)
8. Amistad Garage
9. Lot 99 (Lafayette St)
10. Lot 47 (Washington Ave)
On a positive note, today also marks an important day for COVID-19: the first New Haven health care worker received a COVID-19 vaccine. Cases continue to be very high, and we all must be cautious. But today was a small sign of hope for the future. Please be safe, stay warm, and be prepared for the incoming winter storm.
Always serving you,
Mayor Justin Elicker
(203) 500‑2969
See below to watch Wednesday’s full presser.
