What follows are excerpts from parking ticket appeals letters filed recently with the New Canaan Parking Bureau. Where available, we’ve included information on the violation for which these people were cited, in what amount, and where and when the violation occurred. For context, we’ve also added town of residence for the ticketed motorist. We preserve spelling, capital letters and punctuation as written by the appellant.
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“I am appealing this ticket only because I was parked very briefly in front of the new location of Organika Kitchen 96 Main Street to unload some tiles. Snow was everywhere do to the snow storm and it was very difficult to find parking and carry heavy tiles. The hazard lights were on, and my trunk was open indicating I was unloading. As a responsible citizen I always fellow driving rules and when at fault I pay parking tickets. Please considering waiving this ticket.”
—$75 for parking in crosswalk on Main Street (Norwalk resident)
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“We are on tow for the Town of New Canaan and we had our flatbed parked in front of our building for quick access.”
—$25 for overtime parking on Cross Street at 12:59 p.m. on Jan. 9 (New Canaan resident)
This motorist created a new space number ’34’ at Morse Court. BT photo
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“I request an appeal to the Parking Commission of the ticket referenced above. Within a few minutes of the issuing of this ticket, I was able to speak with the person who tries to enforce these regulations. There is no mark on the tires that would indicate that this car was parked longer than two hours, which reflects the fact that I arrived shortly after 9:30 am at this location. If you would leave at least two weeks between the time the announcement of the scheduled date is mailed and the actual hearing date, so it is less likely I will be out of town as it is received at the postal address below.”
—$25 for overtime parking on Elm Street, at 11:26 a.m. on Jan. 23 (Greenwich resident)
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“I am writing in reference to a parking ticket that I received on January 5, 2018 in the lumberyard parking lot. I parked in what I believe is a combination permit and daily purchase permit parking lot. I purchased a daily ticket (see copy of it attached to this email, with copy of the parking ticket) to park in the lot. If you will remember, January 5th was an extremely cold day, and on that morning, most of the lot was covered in snow and ice. I looked for a parking space number where I parked, or on spaces near me, and could not find one under the snow & ice. So, rather than not pay, since I could not find a spot number, and since the daily parking permit requires a space number to purchase a parking permit, my son entered a random number (#101) into the machine. We purchased that ticket at 9:32 am on January 5th, 2018, just after we parked. We were ticketed at 12:23pm on January 5th, 2018. The daily parking permit says on it, to keep for my record; perhaps I should have left it in the windshield. I wasn’t sure what to do. But, I did pay to park that day, and still, I got a parking ticket.”
—New Canaan resident
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“I am a store owner. I was unloading my car in the loading zone w/my flashers on, going in out of my shop. The parking people know my car. They should have seen me. I don’t carry a sign in my car. But there is in one now.”
—$30 for no parking zone, at 10:41 a.m. on Jan. 13
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“PARKED IN FRONT OF PAPYRUS (15 MIN SPOT). RAN IN TO BUY A CARD AND NOTEBOOK AT 11:10 AM. LESS THAN 15 MINUTES. CAME BACK AND HAD A TICKET.”
—$25 for overtime parking at Morse Court, at 11:23 a.m. on Jan. 11 (New Canaan resident)
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“I stopped for a moment in front of J. Crew outlet in New Canaan CT to drop my wife, while my wife just shut the car door as she left and I bent from driving seat towards passenger seat to empty some of the space filled with shopping bags and look for a permanent parking. The inspector did not ask for my name and did not even hand over me the ticket while I was behind the wheel. On Nov 18th 2017 at 14:20 me and my wife were out to return some stuff on New Canaan’s J. Crew outlet, we dove together and I was driving my Honda Accord when at 14:35 I reached in front of J. Crew Outlet where there were no vacant curbside parking space at that hour and it was too cold to park and walk too far for my pregnant wife. So I asked [my wife] I’ll drop you in front of the outlet and you can start the return of stuff that we had while I look for permanent parking, my wife just left from the passenger seat and started to walk towards the outlet. At that moment, a TEA came around the car, walked past me (who was sitting in the driver seat) and placed the ticket under the windshield wiper. According to the guide – It is legal to double park with stopping temporarily to drop off a passenger and leave. That’s what exactly we did. The rules required a TEA to personally serve a driver wit the parking ticket, if the driver is present, when the parking ticket was issued. I was sitting behind the wheel when the ticket was issued. But TEA failed to ask my name and hand over me the ticket.”
—$50 for double parking on Elm Street, at 2:36 p.m. on Nov. 18
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“I am attaching my receipt and the ticket I received on Monday in the lot behind the Teen Center. When I entered in what I thought was 2 hours, enough to cover my errands in town, I did not have my glasses on and see it registered only 1 hour of payment. This is my fault, but I am hoping you might waive the ticket for my error. Next time I will be sure to wear my glasses when entering information into the parking machine!”
—$25 ticket (New Canaan resident)