Park and Rec Votes to Put Irwin Parking by Road

The Park and Recreation Commission and the neighbors ended up in agreement Monday on where in Irwin Park to put a parking lot. Public Works will be presenting a proposal to the Planning and Zoning Commission tonight to build the lot to the right of the driveway just inside the entrance off Weed Street.

That's the spot originally slated for parking in the master plan for the park drafted in 2006, but the lot would be about half the size of what was drawn then. The new gravel lot would have 35 spaces, adding to the existing 22 on the horseshoe drive and six in front of the main house.
 
When Assistant Public Works Director Tiger Mann presented the plan to the Town Council at their November meeting, several members asked for an alternative. Council members Chris Hussey and Paul Foley expressed concerns about developing Irwin Park piecemeal and moving forward with a parking lot without consulting the public.

So Mann brought a second option to the Park and Recreation Commission Monday that would instead add parking on the upper section of the park north of the horseshoe drive and adjacent to the baseball fields. The resulting main lot would have 44 spaces, there would be 16 along the drive and five in front of the house.

The neighbors were not happy. They had already accepted the first option.

"[We are] wondering why things are being changed at this point," said Elizabeth Vigano, who lives beside the park on Wahackme Road. "You are going to put a big gravel field in the middle of the neighborhood," she said, describing the perceived impact of putting the parking lot in the upper section of Irwin.

Assistant Recreation Director Bill Kapp was the only member of the audience Monday to argue in favor of the second option, suggesting that it would be more consistent with the instincts of parents heading to the baseball fields or visitors to the Gores Pavilion to park as close to their destinations as possible.

"People will not park and take the long walk. One just need to go into Waveny Park to see how the parents park," he said, describing how the grass lots adjacent to the soccer fields there are filled to the gills on weekends.

"I think people can be trained," countered commission member Liz Livingston, who also objected to the Waveny comparison. "Waveny is just a tide of activity, this is something different."

"I don't want cars in the park," added commission member Joe Paladino. "The second plan's well laid out, but I just don't think it's the right thing for this park," he said, noting that keeping the parking along the perimeter would preserve more of the upper part of the park.

By siting the parking lot in the lower part, the lot could also be expanded without disturbing another section of Irwin.

The commission voted 8 to 1 in favor of the first option, requiring that the construction of the parking lot have even more screening and wider islands for planting than what is drawn in the plan Mann presented (reducing the number of spaces by two); Sally Campbell, who agreed with Kapp's argument, was the dissenting vote.

Park and Rec did appropriate one idea from the second option—the addition of a sidewalk from the lot along the existing horseshoe drive to the house for safety and better handicapped access will go forward as a separate recommendation.