Members of the Parking Commission at their most recent meeting voted 3-2 to uphold a $30 ticket for a New Canaan woman cited for obstructing two spaces in a municipal lot downtown.
Malia Frame during an appeal hearing before the Commission said she typically backs up her GMC Yukon “a few times before I pull into a space.”
“And then I always check the line on my side but I haven’t been on the opposite side,” Frame said during the hearing, held at Town Hall. “So ever since I got this ticket, I have been checking on the other side and I just realized that I have to be more careful when I straighten up. I’m not saying it didn’t happen—I’m happy to pay the fine. It was just an honest mistake.”
The ticket had been issued at 1:03 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2, records show.
Seeing a photo of her vehicle for the first time on the night of the hearing, Frame conceded that the Yukon was “ definitely askew.”
“But my problem that day is that I got—I mean I have huge car, I have a Yukon, and it’s every big,” she said.
Richey responded, “They’re great aren’t they?”
The chairman told Frame that a common defense for someone parking over a line is that a car next to them was already over a line, forcing the driver into an adjacent space to avoid hitting the other vehicle.
“I could say that was the case and there was a car next to me when I got ou,t but I don’t in all honestly remember, I don’t want say they were were super close,” she said.
Richey thanked Frame for her honestly.
“We’ll see what it gets you,” he said.
During brief deliberations, the Commissioners debated whether a photo of the vehicle showed that Frame’s right-rear tire was on or over the line.
Crum said, “She is clearly over the line,” adding that “the inside of the tire is on the outside edge of the line.”
Hering disagreed. “That tire is on the line,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s the inside or outside edge. It’s a tire on the line.”