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A Stamford woman who said she had not visited downtown New Canaan since the town installed parking meters had her $60 ticket voided unanimously by the Parking Commission at its most recent meeting, after raising a pointed question about the visibility of the signs on Elm Street.
Catherine Galvin received a ticket at 2:49 p.m. on March 30 on Elm Street. The base ticket amount of $30 had since escalated to $60 due to nonpayment. In a written appeal submitted to the Commission prior to its July 8 meeting, she said she had come to town to shop and walked directly into the store in front of her without noticing any signage.
“I had not been to downtown New Canaan since the installation of the parking meters,” she said in a written appeal. “There was no signage in front of my car and I walked into a store directly in front of me. I have been coming to New Canaan for years and never before had to pay.”
Galvin appeared before the Commission via Zoom and told commissioners she had parked in front of More and More on Elm Street, gone directly inside, and only discovered the ticket when she returned to her car.
“I grew up in North Stamford, so I’ve been coming to New Canaan all my life to park and hadn’t been there for a little while, maybe like a year or so,” she said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “I just got out of the car, went right into the store in front of me, didn’t know that you had changed the rules, and then when I came out and saw the ticket, I did just take a video to my left and right because there were no signs or meters right near me that I would see. So that’s why I decided to appeal.”
Her comments prompted an exchange among commissioners about the placement of the parking signs. When she asked whether signs needed to be on every spot, Parking Manager Kevin O’Connor explained that signs are mounted on every lamppost at a height that allows drivers to see them as they pull in.
But she pushed further: Were the signs visible from both directions?
“They’re only facing the street, in the direction that traffic is flowing,” O’Connor confirmed. “They’re not on both sides.”
Commission Chair Nancy Bemis said she found the point worth examining further.
“I foresee signage discussions on future agendas,” Bemis said.
Bemis said she was inclined to void the ticket, noting that Galvin had specifically said she hadn’t been to downtown New Canaan in about a year, and that someone returning after that long shouldn’t necessarily be expected to know the rules had changed.
“A person from New Jersey, if this is the first time they’re coming to New Canaan, should be able to say, ‘Okay, this is paid parking on the street,’ ” she said. “And a person from New Jersey might be more inclined to look than somebody who’s been coming here for 10 years, one or two times a year, and has never had a prior ticket.”
The commission voted 3-0 to void the ticket. Commissioner John Clarke, who had dissented on a prior Elm Street appeal that evening, did not object. Commissioner Marley Thackray was absent.
Galvin closed her written appeal with a simple comment: “Now I know there are meters and will make certain to pay for my spot.”