Community Corner
Will the CDOT Sell Out Commuters to Private Developers?
If you haven't heard about any of these plans, you're not alone.
Don’t look now, but the 1,500 commuters who park everyday and ride Metro-North from Stamford are in for a rude surprise. Not only are they facing years of dust and construction chaos as the old parking garage is demolished, but there’s a good chance the garage will not be rebuilt in place, but moved up to a quarter mile away.
The CDOT, which owns the garage, is asking private developers if they’d like to acquire the land and build offices, stores or apartments on the site. The problem is that replacement parking for the lost spaces at the station could be moved up to a quarter mile away.
Stamford is the second-busiest station on Metro-North (after Grand Central) largely because it offers the most parking, closest to the station. Move those spaces further away and Stamford becomes less of an option for commuters, hurting the station and the local economy.
If you haven’t heard about any of these plans, you’re not alone. Commuters, the largest and most important stakeholders in this decision, are not being asked for their input until after a developer is found and their plans are approved.
Now is the time for the CDOT to include in its RFP the criteria to give commuters’ needs a priority. The Commuter Council passed a resolution at its March meeting requesting that CDOT tell developers they have a better chance of getting their plans approved if they include parking at or very near the rail
station.
If developers want to build apartments, offices or a mall on the site of the garage, 100 feet from the station, no problem… as long as they build on top of a parking garage. The train station should serve commuters, not offices or renters who have dozens of other sites to chose among.
The Commuter Council is urging commuters to contact their local, state and federal elected officials and get them to tell CDOT to keep parking at the Stamford train station.
