New Parking Permit Fees, Fines for Late Renewals Proposed

Parking officials are proposing modest increases to parking permit fees at municipal lots.

The Parking Commission’s following set of proposed rates, supported unanimously at its March 12 meeting, requires approval from the Board of Selectmen:

Proposed Parking Permit Rates

The commissioners compared New Canaan’s rates to nearby towns.

Chairman Keith Richey said he was uneasy about upping the cost of a permit more than the rate of inflation unless the town does something to “add value to the lot,” such as putting in lights or resurfacing.

“I do think that we should always have an increase to reflect inflation, because there’s always inflation, and we didn’t have an increase last year because of the economy,” Richey said.

Commissioner Pam Crum said she appreciated that Center School lot was increased by 10 percent, but said there’s still too large a gap between Center and the others.

“There is a huge disparity and if you want people to be parking eventually in Locust for that purpose [of downtown shopping and dining], then we would want it to be closer between the two,” she said.

Richey said that Locust Avenue lot was held at a zero increase because it’s not completely clear yet, for example, whether Town Hall employees moving back into the renovated and expanded Main Street building will require dedicated spaces.

Commissioner Rick Franco said he was “a little uncomfortable” with the singularly large percentage increase facing Center School “because there is a segment of the populace who is being paid an hourly wage.”

“And while I know we cannot assign the pricing according to someone’s income, perhaps we could define the Center School lot as having one price for the spaces where you immediately pull in, another for spaces in the center and a third price for the back corner of the lot,” Franco said.

The suggestion was not immediately taken up by the commission.

During the meeting, commissioners also decided to impose a new fee in cases where permit-holders are late in renewing.

“Every year there are a number of people who somehow will send in their parking permit response late,” Richey said. “And this creates a terrible burden for the parking department, because they need to know how many people are accepting the permits and how many new permits can be sold.”

The commissioners decided to impose a $50 fee in cases where a permit-holder is up to 30 days late in renewing, $100 for the next 30 days, and that the motorist loses the permit after that.