New Haven Building Official Issues Tweed Airport 2nd Cease-and-Desist for Unauthorized Parking
Dec. 7—NEW HAVEN — For the second time in just over two weeks, city Building Official Jim Turcio has issued a cease-and-desist order to Tweed New Haven Regional Airport for improperly parking vehicles in a location not approved as a parking lot.
"They were parking cars on the grass near the existing parking," Turcio said Wednesday.
The most recent cease-and-desist order was issued Dec. 2, 15 days after Turcio issued a cease-and-desist order related to 25 additional parking spaces being created in the lot farther away from the terminal of Tweed's two front parking lots.
The latest order, addressed to Tweed New Haven Airport Authority Executive Director Sean Scanlon, relates to cars parking on grass adjacent to Tweed's larger, more remote rear parking lot, located behind the terminal.
"An inspection of the above-mentioned premises by James Turcio on Dec. 2, 2022 revealed that you as owner and/or agent are in violation of the New Haven Zoning Ordinance," the order reads in part. "Said inspection revealed that you have created parking in unapproved parking areas and grass areas without City Plan Commission (CPC) approval."
Speaking on behalf of the airport, Michael A. Jones, the newly-hired CEO of The New HVN LLC, the subsidiary of Goldman Sachs-owned longtime Tweed contract operator Avports LLC that is overseeing the airport under a new 43-year lease, said, "Tweed airport is growing, and with that growth comes more jobs and economic activity for Southern Connecticut.
"It also means managing challenges like parking, which we are actively doing by working with city officials to address and comply with any issues that arise, keeping visitor and neighborhood safety at the forefront of each and every decision," Jones said in a statement.
"In this instance, the airport had already asked visitors not to park in the area in question and used cones to designate that parking wasn't allowed," Jones said. "Three vehicles were parked in the area and we are awaiting their owners to retrieve them. We will continue to coordinate with the city while we look for safe parking alternatives as HVN continues to grow, to the benefit of flyers and local residents."
The airport, which has been facing parking issues as Avelo Airlines, the fast-growing start-up airline that has made Tweed its first East Coast base,, continues to add flights, has since put up cones and a "No Parking" sign in the area where the second set of violations occurred to deter people from parking there, according to photos provided by Avports.
Regarding the first cease-and-desist order, Scanlon told the authority that "there was a miscommunication and some work was done in another parking lot" that was not among the approved work.
"We're working with the city" to rectify the issue, said Scanlon, also a Democratic state representative for Guilford and Branford. He will be leaving both positions shortly after being elected to the position of state comptroller.
"There will be no further work happening there and there will certainly be no cars parked there" while the situation is being rectified, Scanlon told the authority at the time.
The unauthorized work in the earlier cease-and-desist order originally was included in what Tweed asked City Plan to approve. It later was among the final 34 spaces that were removed from the application after it was scaled back first from 507 additional spaces to 237 because of wetlands issues, and then from 237 spaces to 203.
A member of the development team for Tweed and Avports said at the Oct. 26 City Plan Commission meeting that the 34 spaces in the farther of the two front lots were removed from the application for expediency. Raymond Paier, vice president of engineering for Westcott & Mapes, told the commission they were removed because of the need to move a security fence in order to add them to the existing lot.
The team still must apply to move the fence, Paier said at the time.
Turcio said Tweed has since submitted an application that is expected to be heard at the City Plan Commission's December meeting.
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