News

Letter: ‘We Don’t Want Our Back Roads To Look Like the Merritt Parkway’

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New Canaan’s picturesque back roads are being ravaged by Eversource, aided and abetted by our own Tree Warden. [Town officials] need to intervene to stop the clear cutting of our trees and protect our property values. Eversource is currently making Laurel Road into a wide-open freeway, instead of the shaded and peaceful lane that it has historically been. Protests to the Tree Warden go unheeded. New Canaan has long been sought after for its lovely back roads and shady lots.

Business

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

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

Government

‘We Don’t Reward Stupidity’: Parking Commission Sets Three-Mistake Limit for Wrong Space Entries on App

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Prompted by a local man’s honest though repeated mistake in punching in the wrong space number on his smartphone in paying for parking, town officials last week developed a new policy that applies only to use of a mobile app. Because the app generates proof of payment even when a user enters the wrong number, members of the Parking Commission decided by a 3-2 vote on Thursday that someone who makes that mistake with it may be given a pass three times per year as opposed to one, as is the case—with a receipt and at enforcement officers’ discretion—with those who pay for parking with cash. “You don’t want people throwing numbers down without even trying to get right number,” Chairman Keith Richey said at the meeting, by way of explaining why he opposed unlimited free passes for subpar typists. The commission’s discussion revolved around the case of Joe Bussichella, who appeared at the meeting to request that his $20 ticket for an unpaid space in the Railroad Lot in November be voided. Bussichella explained to the commission that the violation occurred in the dark of 6:20 a.m. and “there is a little groove in the pavement there, so I couldn’t tell” what the correct space was.

Around Town

Ticket Upheld: No Relief for Woman Who Parks Illegally on Main Street To Run into the Bank

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Officials on Thursday upheld a $30 ticket issued to a woman who had pulled into a no-parking area when faced with construction traffic downtown in order to run into a bank. The woman appealed her ticket in person before the Parking Commission during a special meeting in the Town Meeting Room. At 1:44 p.m. on Sept. 2, the woman said during her appeal hearing, she came to a stop while traveling west on Main Street, opposite New Canaan Library. Three construction laborers working around the corner on Cherry Street had walked into the road, holding up traffic and preventing the woman from turning right onto Cherry and into the parking lot of Wells Fargo Bank—her destination, she said.

Government

‘Be Kinder to the Little Man’: Parking Officials Weigh New Permit Fees

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One year after deciding to keep rates flat during what was an especially difficult period for rail commuters, parking officials on Friday night discussed the prospect of raising permit fees for next fiscal year. A central question facing the Parking Commission is whether to raise rates at Center School—a parking lot where a significantly lower rate (now $120 per year) had been introduced to serve hourly wage earners in downtown New Canaan. The strategy worked, bringing many retail and other workers’ vehicles off of Main and Elm Streets, freeing up some 90-minute spaces for shoppers and diners, commissioners said at their regular meeting. Yet some members of the Parking Commission are looking to raise Center School lot fees by a larger percentage, given its low overall rate—a philosophy that newly re-elected Secretary Rick Franco questioned. “I cannot say I am in sync with the popular thought on the Center School lot,” Franco said at the meeting, held in the Art Room at Lapham Community Center.