Chris Hering

Commission Votes 4-1 To Recommend Holding Parking Permit Fees Flat

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Noting that a new sales tax from the state will drive the rates up substantially, municipal officials voted last week to recommend keeping the town’s parking permit fees flat next fiscal year. The Parking Commission voted 4-1 to leave the fees for permits at eight municipal lots flat, though motorists should expect to see a 6.35% sales tax broken out on their annual bills. The state tax “is a sizable increase, much bigger than any increase we have done in my entire term on the Parking Commission,” Chair Keith Richey said at the March 4 meeting, held at Town Hall. “And obviously this huge increase that would go along even if we didn’t increase the rates but just passed along the sales tax,” he added. “That will not add to our permit revenue.

Chris Hering

Parking Commission Votes 4-1 To Recommend Widening Spaces in Morse Court, Playhouse Lots

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The Parking Commission voted last week to recommend re-striping in two municipal parking lots so that the width of stalls is in line with New Canaan’s own zoning regulations. 

The appointed body’s 4-1 vote recommends widening spaces at Morse Court and one area of the Playhouse Lot to nine feet. Commission Secretary Pam Crum said the parking spaces in the middle area of the Playhouse Lot currently are just 7.5 feet wide. “I have been stuck three times in there where I have been wedged between two vehicles,” she said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “I’ve had to wait until cars showed up. One time I climbed from the passenger said—barely snuck in the passenger side, and crawled over the center console to the driver’s side.”

In addition to Crum, those voting in favor of the recommendation included Chair Keith Richey and Commissioners Peter Ogilvie and Chris Hering. 

The change likely would result in the loss of about eight parking spaces, commissioners said.

Commission Upholds Parking Tickets at Appeals Hearing

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Several motorists appealed parking violations during last week’s meeting of the New Canaan Parking Commission. Mariann Funch said she came to New Canaan to shop on a Monday and parked on Elm Street. The Stamford resident told the Commission during her appeal hearing that she “put the space number into the machine and paid with three quarters, slowly, one at a time.” Funch went into the store for about 45 minutes and when she came back she had a ticket, she said during the hearing, held Nov. 7 in Town Hall. Funch said after she discovered the ticket on her vehicle she went back to check the parking kiosk and noticed that there was three quarters in the refund slot, indicating that her transaction never went through.

Government

Business Owner Asks for ‘Consideration’ from Parking Enforcement, Not Tickets

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A longtime Main Street business owner is asking town officials for some leniency when it comes to commercial vehicles that remain parked on the street for more than two hours. Anthony Ceraso told members of the Parking Commission at their most recent meeting that he’s not disputing the two $25 tickets he received in June for overtime parking out front of his business on the corner of East Maple Street. “They’re already paid, I’m here to vent,” Ceraso told the Commission at its Sept. 4 meeting at Town Hall. Ceraso, owner of AC Auto Body, said he’s been in business in New Canaan for 22 years and located at 182 Main St.

Government

Commission: Don’t Give Parking Enforcement Officers Ability to Void Tickets Once They’re Written

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The volunteers who help oversee New Canaan’s Parking Bureau said this month pushed back on the idea of empowering enforcement officers to void tickets once they’ve been written. 

Parking Commission Chairman Keith Richey broached the idea during the appointed body’s Sept. 4 meeting, saying that in certain cases—for example, where someone happened to be in a double-parked or otherwise mis-parked vehicle, or was unaware of a loading zone rule—it could make sense to empower the enforcement officer to retract a ticket. 

Yet doing so would bring new risks, the commissioners said. 

“It puts the officer on the street in an awkward position when the townsperson says look I lived in New Canaan for 39 yrs and I am a senior citizen and I am really important in New Canaan and I think you ought to waive this ticket,” Commissioner Peter Ogilvie said during the special meeting, held at Town Hall. 

“Well, if the officer has the legal ability to waive right then and there on the street, the officer is going to feel pretty intimidated by some of these people. I don’t think you want to give that right to the officer on the street.”

According to appeals filed by motorists cited for violating New Canaan’s parking rules, enforcement officers often say on the street that they cannot retract a ticket once it’s printed. 

Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg said that the officers already give motorists an opportunity to move or urge a driver to correct the violation prior to issuing a ticket. “They will tell somebody to please move,” Miltenberg said. Commissioner Chris Hering said that changing the Bureau’s practice would just expose the department. 

“What we try to do in our role here is to be fair and consistent and I think that we expose ourselves with further leniency,” Hering said.