Members of the Parking Commission at their most recent meeting voided a $30 ticket issued to a local business owner who had parked in a loading zone on Elm Street.
Pam Alberino of New Canaan Ski & Sport told the Commission during an appeal hearing last month that she was using the loading zone properly at the time she received the ticket—a characterization that is at odds with the head of the Parking Bureau.
“I was unloading my truck and putting stuff into my truck because there is no places for me to load and my back parking lot was also filled,” Alberino said during gate Feb. 7 hearing, held via videoconference. “So I had to walk and unload it and when I came back out to put some stuff in the car, I had a ticket and it was like 9:59 or 9:58. It was like silly.”
Records show the ticket was issued at 9:57 a.m. on Dec. 10, a Friday. The loading zone on the north side of Elm Street, near the intersection at Park, is in effect from 7 to 10 a.m. daily.
During the hearing, Parking Manager Stacey Miltenberg said the enforcement officer who issued the ticket saw that Alberino’s car was just sitting in the space with no loading or unloading activity, and no note in the window saying that it was using the loading zone for the business. Those using loading zones are expected to move their vehicles once they’ve finished loading or unloading, so that others may use it for the same purpose, Miltenberg said.
Parking enforcement officers are familiar with the vehicle in question, and have told Ski & Sport owners in the past about the rules on using the loading zone, she said.
“It was observed that it was just sitting there with no note on the dash,” Miltenberg said. “We try very hard to help businesses out because we know that a lot of people use their personal cars to deliver and unload. We know that is becoming more common than not. So if they’re in a loading zone, all we require is to stick a note in the window. It’s not always the same people. All we need to know is that you are loading and unloading, and we need to see some movement. Usually it’s about a 20-minute time period. Most other people are very happy with this option, after they’re told. That’s all I can say. They do know to do that, and it was observed that the car was just sitting there for a lengthy amount of time, with no movement.”
Yet during deliberations, Commissioner Drew Magratten said that the town should have a more formal process for monitoring loading zones than circling the block and keeping track that way, since it could be that business owners are unloading or loading vehicles in the interim. Also, Magratten said, the Parking Bureau should issue a formal permit of some kind that the business owners can put onto the dash in order to indicate to a passing enforcement officer that they’re loading, rather than their own handwritten note.
“It seems like we should have some document that people can get from the from Commission that is not a random note,” he said. “I could park there and say I’m loading, and not be there and claim I am with one of the businesses. I should be semi-official.”
In the end, the Commission voted 5-0 to void the ticket. Those voting included Chair Laura Budd, Secretary Jennifer Donovan and Commissioners Magratten, Nancy Bemis and Marley Thackray.
When Miltenberg said during the meeting that she has instructed Ski & Sport in the past to put a note on the dashboard, Alberino responded that that was her mother, not her.
Bemis asked Budd (who works as executive director of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce) whether, when a new business comes to town, the organization educates the business not only on the free parking for employees that’s available in the Center School and Locust Avenue lots, but also about loading and unloading requirements. Budd said it’s possible to offer more education about the requirements.
Donovan said during deliberations, “Obviously there is a history here I don’t fully understand, but I would let this go.”