Government

Parking Commission Votes 3-1 To Uphold Ticket for Man Who Overstayed at Morse Court During Eye Doctor Visit

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Parking Commission members at their most recent meeting voted 3-1 to uphold a $20 ticket for a man who claimed to have been held up unexpectedly at the eye doctor. The split decision came after Yong Sung Kim made his case at the commission’s Nov. 9 meeting. Kim said he paid for about one hour at the Morse Court parking lot to visit a Main Street optometrist, but that when he got to the doctor’s office, “there were two or three people ahead of me and basically I was just waiting.”

He asked the receptionist how long he’d have to wait to see the eye doctor and was told “soon,” Kim recalled. Then, the staff there put some eye drops into Kim’s eyes and when he said that he had to, told him that it was “too dangerous to go downstairs” until his vision cleared, he told the commissioners at the meeting, held in Town Hall.

Government

‘It’s Like Being a Little Bit Pregnant’: Officials Uphold $75 Ticket for Woman Who Parked ‘A Little Bit’ in Crosswalk

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Officials are upholding a $75 fine for a woman who parked her car such that it obstructed a pedestrian crosswalk at Main Street and East Avenue while she ran into the now-closed Turkish coffee shop there for a cup of joe. Though the motorist, Ying Emma Zhang, told members of the Parking Commission that her car was just “a little bit” into the crosswalk, that claim alone has no bearing on the violation committed, officials said. “Unfortunately, in the parking world, it’s like being a little bit pregnant,” Chairman Keith Richey said during Zhang’s appeal hearing, held Nov. 9 at Town Hall. Zhang said she incurred the ticket more than one month prior to the hearing.

Government

Officials To Renew $10 Fee for Commuters Seeking Parking Permits To Remain on Waitlists

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Town officials last week voted to institute again a $10 fee for commuters seeking to retain their places on waitlists for coveted municipal parking permits in New Canaan. Following approval from the selectmen, the New Canaan Parking Bureau last fall sent out 1,281 letters to those on any of three waiting lists for the Richmond Hill, Talmadge Hill and Lumberyard Lots, according to Parking Superintendent Stacy Miltenberg. The idea was to “clean up” the lists by dropping anyone who had moved out of town or otherwise had no reason to remain on them, and it worked, Miltenberg said. “This year, 636 [letters] are going out,” she told members of the Parking Commission at their Nov. 9 meeting, held at Town Hall.

Government

Officials Uphold Three Tickets for Downtown Worker Who Parked Outside Shop All Day

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Parking officials last week voted unanimously to uphold three tickets totaling $105 for a downtown retail shop worker who said she inadvertently had parked all day outside the Main Street business. During an exchange that became testy at times, Jamie Friend told members of the Parking Commission at their most recent meeting that she parked in front of Wave on Main Street on a Saturday morning “because I had a bunch of things to bring into the store where I work, and once I got into work it was crazy.”

“It was busy and I completely forgot that my car was parked there,” she said while appealing her tickets at the commission’s Nov. 9 meeting, held in Town Hall. “So I didn’t leave until the end of the day at 6 o’clock and I had three tickets on my car so I was pretty upset because that is pretty much my whole day’s wages.”

Commissioners Keith Richey, the body’s chairman, Pam Crum and Peter Ogilvie voted to uphold the tickets—$25 for the initial overtime parking violation and then $40 each for two subsequent violations. Parking on Main and Elm, and other downtown streets, is 90 minutes though it will change to two hours once new signs are installed, following a recent decision.

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.