Paper Beach Passes Going Away In Norwalk

NORWALK, CT — Residents entering Calf Pasture or Shady Beach this summer will have one less thing to worry about, namely remembering to bring their paper beach pass with them. On Wednesday, the city's Common Council approved an $180,000 contract with LAZ Parking to utilize a plate scanning system at both beaches, as well as Veterans Park, Taylor Farm and Cranbury Park.

According to Interim Director of Recreation & Parks Ken Hughes, vehicles with plate scanners mounted to them will begin patrolling the lots of those locations on May 15. The desired benefit from this change of system is to make parking at these locations more convenient for city residents. (To sign up for Norwalk breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

"Now a resident with a valid plate can just go into the park and park," Hughes said, "not having to worry about carrying their paper pass, and not having to stop at the gatehouse either."

The other desired outcome was to go cashless.

"We did over $400,000 in money at the beach last year," Hughes said. "Over 75 percent of that was cash.”

He also emphasized that paper passes are still going to exist, however residents will no longer need them to go to the beach. They will still be needed to enter the Transfer Station and Yard Waste Site.

Under this system, any nonresident plate the vehicles pick up that has not paid for parking will be issued a $60 ticket.

"If [the vehicles] pick up a resident plate that has an issue, meaning they might owe taxes or possibly it’s a new car and their plate didn’t go through, the first stop is going to be a courtesy ticket on the windshield," Hughes said, "which would basically be a note saying there is an issue with their registration, and to please call the Recreation & Parks department to get it settled. The second time it happens, there is going to be a ticket."

Non-residents will be required to either use the park mobile app or call the number posted at the sites to pay for parking, either via the app or over the phone with a credit or debit card.

Hughes said the department has been discussing the idea since July, however they did not make it public until all the wrinkles were ironed out.

"We did look at other options," Hughes said, "and we came up with what we thought would be the best option."

When asked about possible drawbacks regarding the system, Hughes said the only thing he wrestled with was losing the gate staff at those sites.

"We had 17 gate staff employees, and obviously I don’t want to see anybody lose their job, so that’s the only caveat of this system," Hughes said. "The money the city uses to pay the gate staff, they’re now using it for this contract, so that money doesn’t exist anymore for the employees. That’s the downside."

The department is going to start advertising the change Monday, and they will also do a couple weeks of trial on the system, probably starting around May 1.

"We’ll hit a few bumps the first couple weeks, but we’ll work it out," Hughes said. "I think overall it’s going to be a better system moving forward for the city of Norwalk."

Photo credit: RJ Scofield