‘This Is a Paradigmatic Shift’: Selectman Williams Calls on Parking Officials To Assess Post-COVID Demand for Commuter Permits

Saying demand for commuter lot permits likely will decline post-COVID, Selectman Nick Williams this week called for parking officials to assess the “new normal” for New Canaan. During Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, Williams called on the Parking Commission to “take a look at the Lumberyard, say, and determine that hey, for the foreseeable future and maybe forever, we are going to see a 20%, 30%, 40% reduction in usage.”

“Because folks just aren’t going into the city as much. I know that if you do go in twice a week or three times a week or once a week, the tendency will be to keep your commuter pass, just so you have the opportunity to use it and not face the hassle of having to find a spot. But this is a paradigmatic shift, I think, for all of us —and when I say ‘us’ I mean commuters. I myself foresee probably going into the office maybe 2.5 times per week.

Parking Officials Vote 4-0 To Recommend Keeping Permit Fees Flat

Parking officials last week voted unanimously to recommend holding fees for both commuter and commercial lots flat for next fiscal year. If approved by the selectmen, the Parking Commission’s recommendations would see permit rates for the Lumberyard, Richmond Hill, Talmadge Hill, Park Street, Morse Court and Telephone Lots remain as follows:

 

Commission Chair Keith Richey and members Peter Ogilvie, Laura Budd and Jennifer Donovan voted 4-0 in favor of the recommendations. The Commission has one open seat. Regarding fees at the commuter lots, Richey said the town should “leave it alone in view of the recovery from the COVID crisis.”

As it is, the town has already extended the parking permits for those lots—Lumberyard, Richmond Hill and Talmadge Hill—through March 31 and also suspended metered parking in those lots through month’s end. (The selectmen are expected to take up the question of whether to continue those extensions through June 30.)

The Commission voted separately to recommend holding the fees for the “commercial” lots flat.

‘She Was Never Notified’: Longtime Parking Commissioner Out

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan has unceremoniously cast off a longtime volunteer from the municipal body that oversees off-street parking in New Canaan, according to one of its members. Moynihan never notified Parking Commissioner Pam Crum that she hadn’t been reappointed to the panel, according to Commissioner Peter Ogilvie. During the Commission’s regular meeting Jan. 7, Ogilvie said he was “disappointed in the Parking Commission and town government for not having any conversations whatsoever with Pam Crum.”

“This clearly has been in the works for months and she was never notified, she was never told that she was no longer on the Parking Commission until she got email from you just a couple of days ago, Keith,” Ogilvie said during the meeting, held via videoconference. He addressed Chair Keith Richey.

Town Upholds $30 Ticket Issued to Uber Eats Driver

Town officials this month upheld a $30 ticket issued to an Uber Eats driver who pulled into a no-parking zone outside Town Hall to pick up food from Ching’s Table. Vikar Vahora told members of the Parking Commission during a Nov. 5 appeal hearing that he’d circled the block twice before parking in the space up against the Town Hall driveway. “That was probably my first or second ride and I went right across the street from where Ching’s Table is and I was charging on my credit card and I actually attached the receipt to my ticket and my appeal, too, that it was only two minutes that I went in and went out and that when I was coming out you were already writing the ticket,” Vahora said during the hearing, held via videoconference. “I explained to the person that I am an Uber driver, I am new in this area, if you can new please let me go for this time and I will make sure that this will not be happening again.”

The Norwalk Man added that the ticket—issued at 1:58 p.m. on Sept.