After Disputed Ticket, Parking Officials To Disallow Any Motorcycles in Yellow-Striped Area at Elm and South

Parking enforcement officers in New Canaan are under instructions to make sure motorcycles aren’t parking in a yellow-striped area at the intersection of Elm Street and South Avenue following a dispute regarding a similar practice up the block.

The yellow-striped area in question on Elm Street near Park. Credit: Michael Dinan

Karen and Andrew Zuckert, owners of a business on Elm Street, told members of the Parking Commission that they’d been allowed for two years to park their motorcycles in a yellow-striped area in front of the former Brotherhood & Higley building.

Yet, having been told by parking officials that it was OK to pull into that area, Andrew Zuckert then suddenly was ticketed for the practice, he told members of the commission at their regular monthly meeting in the course of appealing the ticket.

A motorcycle parked May 9 in the yellow-striped area in front of Pimlico at Elm and South. Credit: Michael Dinan

“I don’t understand why,” he said at the May 5 meeting, held at Town Hall. “That’s my only issue. I don’t want selective enforcement. I was consistent enforcement.”

Ultimately, the commission upheld the ticket and advised the Zuckerts to park in a designated area for motorbikes in the Railroad Lot nearby. Commissioner Pam Crum, who abstained from voting, noted during the group’s deliberation on the ticket that the Zuckerts “have had numerous tickets” for parking issues connected to their cars.

Commissioner Peter Ogilvie wondered whether the designated area in the Railroad Lot led perhaps to some confusion on the part of the Zuckerts about what was allowable.

Here is a motorcycle operator parking his vehicle in the area on May 9—a practice no longer allowed by parking enforcement officers. Credit: Michael Dinan

Karen Zuckert said: “No, we were told that we could park in front of the restaurant, in the yellow area.”

Her husband added: “Believe me, there is no confusion. I’m not a scofflaw. If I get a parking ticket, I pay it right away. I would gladly not park there if somebody told me, ‘You may not park there.’ but they told me, ‘You may park there.’ ”

Parking Commission Chairman Keith Richey said that, in any case, it is against the law to park in the yellow-striped areas, which are in place near intersections in order to facilitate sight lines and turning lanes for motorists seeking to make a turn.

“I think you should count yourself as very lucky” that parking officers allowed the practice for two years, Richey said.

That’s when Karen Zuckert asked whether the same rule would apply to the area in front of Pimlico, at South and Elm.

“There are scooters parked there and some bicycles—there is a rack for bicycles—so scooters are parked there as well,” Karen Zuckert said. “People park scooters there and I have never heard anyone say they have received tickets in that zone.”

Andrew Zuckert also called for increased enforcement of the loading zone installed two years ago near his business.

“I have never seen it enforced,” he said. “We have the trucks parking down the street. They cannot get up to deliver to us. Let’s just make it equitable. If we make it a loading zone, then enforce it until 10 a.m. like the sign says.”

Karen Miller, supervisor of the New Canaan Parking Bureau, responded that she could run a history of the ticketing at the Elm Street loading zone. Asked by Karen Zuckert when the parking enforcement patrols start in town, Miller said they typically wait until after a required daily meeting of the staff.

Andrew Zuckert told the commission: “I’m not here to fight, honestly. I will not park the motorcycle there any more. From the moment I got the ticket, I have not parked the motorcycle there again.”

Ogilvie during the commission’s deliberations noted that the parking bureau “will ticket motorcycles going forward, and nobody gets to park anything in those yellow crosshatch areas.”