Town officials this month upheld a $150 ticket issued to a Norwalk woman who had blocked a disabled space on Main Street while picking up a large item purchased at a local store.
Clara Cohen told members of the Parking Commission that she didn’t realize she was blocking a space on the afternoon of Jan. 4 (a Tuesday) when she pulled up in front of the store near East Avenue for about two minutes with her flashers on.
Cohen had paid to park in a municipal lot while doing her shopping that day, she told the Commission during a Feb. 7 appeal hearing, held via videoconference.
“There was a mail truck right in front of the store and I don’t want to block that, so I pulled up a little more,” she said.
“I didn’t realize blocking a handicapped spot. I didn’t park, I didn’t really pull in. I just put on my flashers. I went to the store. I saw the person giving me my ticket. I didn’t have to go in. I opened the door and there was my box, and there was an employee right there, and I said oh great, here, my car is right here and he just picked it up and put it in my car and I saw the person [parking enforcement officer] leaving and said I’m right here, I’m right here but I was too late. I must confess I didn’t even know I was blocking a handicapped parking space and for that I am truly sorry. But I was not parked. And I couldn’t have been there longer than two minutes. I paid for parking. I did my parking in a municipal parking lot.”
Ultimately, members of the Commission voted 4-1 to uphold the ticket.
Chair Laura Budd said Cohen had made an honest mistake, and noted that the Commission’s priorities include public safety and accessibility.
“I understand—I hate to have anything punitive happen to someone who is shopping local—but there was a big blue sign there,” Budd said during the hearing.
She added, “You were blocking the space. You weren’t ‘parked,’ but that space, for whatever period of time you were there, was taken away from someone who might have needed it.”
Budd, Secretary Jennifer Donovan and Commissioners Drew Magratten and Marley Thackray voted to uphold. Commissioner Nancy Bemis voted to void.
Bemis said during deliberations that Cohen’s account likely would be corroborated by the local store.
“Maybe the mistake she made was to actually get out of the car and stick her flashers on instead of just calling them,” she said. “But I don’t know how long it took.”
Magratten said that although the ticket should be upheld because a disabled space was effectively taken, the painting on the roadway for such spots and generally in New Canaan “is just so pathetic and lame.”
“And I don’t know what our leadership is doing about it but it’s inexcusable,” he said. “You look at surrounding towns—Westport, Darien, Wilton—it’s like it was built in a whole other decade. So what are we doing to make these handicapped spots more visible?”
He added, “We are not doing what we can to make it easier.”
Budd noted that Main Street along that stretch is a state road, and that following infrastructure work this fall and winter, it is to be repaved and repainted in the spring.
Addressing Bemis, she said “it’s a slipper slope” to make special exceptions to the parking rules.
“Whatever we do, we are setting precedent,” Budd said. “It’s certainly an honest mistake.”