The New Canaan Parking Commission decided at its March 12 meeting that motorists who want to fight parking tickets must attend an appeals hearing in person. What follows are excerpts from appeals letters received since Feb. 19, the last time we reviewed them, with a note on when, where, why and in what amount the ticket had been issued.
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I attempted to pay with my credit card and was unsuccessful. Therefore, I paid cash for the appropriate amount of time to see a movie which was to start at 2 p.m. Unfortunately, the movie did not start on time as there was technical difficulty. Spoke to the manager regarding the delay of the movie. I was assured it would start “any minute,” however it did not. Upon returning to my car after the delayed movie, I found a ticket on my windshield reporting 9 minutes over the allotted time. I spoke with the parking officer who gave me the ticket and he said there was nothing he could do, but I could appeal.
—3:54 p.m. on Feb. 27, $20 for expired meter at the Park Street lot
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I visited New Canaan on Friday 2/27/15 to work a makeup event at [a Main Street beauty shop]. I was told by the store manager to park at the library lot, as I wouldn’t be able to move my car every 90 minutes on the street due to a very busy event at the store. When I tried paying at the machine for the Center School lot, the machine kept saying error. I tried for about 15 minutes, but I had to return to the event. I received a ticket for an expired meter. I request to please have this ticket dropped, as I had attempted to pay but wasn’t able to due to a machine error.
—12:19 p.m. on Feb. 27, $20 for expired meter at Center School lot
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New to town. Parked in a 90-minute only street. I did not see the sign because it was on the other corner of the street. I was parked there for 2 hours. Now I know that street is only 90 mins.
—1:49 p.m. on Feb. 24, $20 for overtime parking on Forest Street
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I arrived at the lot and parked in day parking at 6:10 a.m. I attempted repeatedly to use the meter, which would not accept any entry of the space number. I needed to make the 6:20 train, could not drive to an alternative lot, and so gave up and got on the train. The meter was opposite the platform, nearer to Starbucks. I have been parking daily at Railroad Lot for more than a year and have faithfully paid the daily rate at the meters, without any tickets. Perhaps the problem this day was the extreme cold. I request that this ticket be nullified under these circumstances. If required, I would be happy to pay the $5 that the meter would not permit me to pay. I would prefer not to lose a day of work in order to contest in person.
—9:53 a.m. on Feb. 26, $30 for unpaid space at Railroad lot
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I had an appointment with a New Canaan interior designer on Thursday, February 19th, 2015. It was my first time in New Canaan. I tried parking at the Locust St. parking lot but there were only a few (two or three) spaces left but I had couldn’t read the space numbers (80, 60 rows). So I had no choice but to park at the Main Street lot for 2 hours. My meeting ended half an hour longer than I expected and went over 2 hours.
—4:06 p.m. on Feb. 19, $20 for expired meter at Morse Court
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I have allowed parking in that place.
—11:08 a.m. on Feb. 18, $20 for unpaid space at Park Street lot
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I parked car in early morning (backed in), very dark, next to car next to me. I used the blue car as my guide to park. I see from the photo blue car was over because the snow bank took up ½ a space. I could not park in space 90 because could not get out of my car. Did not realize I took two spaces. From photo I see no car could have fit in space 90 if I parked correctly in space 89.
—3:48 p.m. on Feb. 26, $30 for obstructing two spaces in Center School lot
One photo submitted from the Cross Street motorist ticketed twice on Feb. 25.
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Yesterday, I returned a car rental to Enterprise Car Rental on Cross Street, to find that my car (left there since the morning) had been ticketed. Not just with one ticket, but with a 2nd parking ticket as well. I am writing to ask for consideration of dismissal of the two tickets I received on Feb. 25. I’m not denying that I parked on Cross Street—I certainly did! But given the residential nature of where I parked, and the signage where I parked, I did not know that this was zoned for 2-hour parking—I would never have parked there if I had!
I’m attaching photos of where I parked, in between a red van (by the way, BOTH CARS that I parked in between were there this morning when I went back to look why I received a ticket, and were also there both in the morning and afternoon the day I received tickets—they are BOTH still on the street, and BOTH seem to be ticket free … Perhaps they have a special permit?) In any case, yesterday I had driven past the Enterprise, turned around and parked.
As you can see, the sign behind the station wagon might indeed indicate 2-hour parking but I never saw that sign, and you can see in the photos that my view forward did not show any sign, and it was not until I walked to the front of the van (and in between the tree branches) where I saw the sign this morning, the day after I received tickets.
It truly was an honest oversight, and given the location, signage and situation, I ask for re-consideration of the two parking tickets when you review this request.
—Feb. 25 on Cross Street, $20 and $40 fines for overtime parking.