New Canaan’s Parking Commission voided a $25 overtime parking ticket at its most recent meeting after a Stamford woman said she wasn’t aware of Elm Street’s 90-minute parking limit and that there was no visible sign in front of the space where she parked her vehicle.
Dr. Cheryl Gross provided a detailed account to the volunteer commission of how she parked her car on Elm Street on June 26 to attend a movie at The Playhouse with her parents and children.
“I drove down South [Avenue] and made a left-hand turn [onto Elm Street] and parked in the first parking spot on the left-hand side,” she said. “There was this huge concrete structure [in front] that I think had flowers in it…I just remember thinking that we might bump our doors on it while getting out. It was a very tight fit.”
Gross noted that while she did see the structure, which Parking Superintendent Stacey Miltenberg explained was used to block off the Pop-Up Park, she didn’t notice any parking signs.
“We got out of the car [to go to the movies] and at that point, we didn’t see any signs,” she said. “We go ahead and walk down the street, immediately [entered] into the crosswalk and made a left turn and I still didn’t see any signs at that point. We then went into the movie theater.”
Gross said that although she frequents the dog park in New Canaan, she doesn’t shop on Elm Street, so she wasn’t aware of the parking limit. If she were, she said, she would have “happily” paid. As evidence that the sign wasn’t in her view that day, she recreated her walk from where she parked on Elm Street to the theater on video, which was viewed by Miltenberg prior to the meeting.
“Whether it costs $5 to park or $10 to park, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care about the money, she said. “I always abide by the parking regulations whether it’s in New York or Connecticut.”
Gross also stressed that if she would have walked west on Elm Street towards the New Canaan train station, she would have seen the parking sign on the corner, but because her and her family walked directly across the street to the theater, they weren’t in view of any signs.
When commission member Stuart Stringfellow questioned whether it was even possible for Gross and her family to exit the theater in time to adhere to the 90-minute parking limit, Gross responded that her family saw the movie “Cars,” which has a 110-minute running time.
“It was 90-minute parking and you were over 90 minutes,” member Peter Ogilvie said.
In response, Miltenberg stated that she believes that Gross wouldn’t have seen the sign from the direction in which she walked, so it wouldn’t matter whether she was over the limit or not.
“In her defense, we know that there are signs up and down [Elm Street] but it’s not on every parking spot,” she said. “If she did do it that way and she walked across right from that corner spot, [through] the crosswalk, and then right into the movie theater, there wasn’t [a sign] right by her and she’s [wasn’t] going to pass one.”
A few minutes later, after Chairman Keith S. Richey jokingly questioned whether Gross was running for political office, the commission voted 2-1 to void Gross’s ticket.