Business

‘It’s Going To Hurt Merchants’: Parking Commission Pushes Back on Elimination of 15-Minute Spots on Elm Street

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Members of the appointed body that oversees New Canaan’s parking department this month pushed back on part of a larger plan that will see the one-way stretch of Elm Street converted to paid spots. Specifically, members of the Parking Commission during their May 7 meeting objected to plans to eliminate—rather than increase—the number of free 15-minute parking spaces on Elm Street while the town converts those free spots to paid. “If we are not interested in revenue, what is the argument against short-term parking?” Commissioner Katie O’Neill said during the regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “Because as I see it, we are adding a surcharge on coffee shops, on sandwich shops. All the sudden now if you are picking up a $15 sandwich it’s going to be $15.50 or whatever.

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Town Upholds $50 Ticket Issued To Woman Who Parked on Sidewalk

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Town officials on Wednesday night upheld a $50 ticket issued to a Ridgefield woman for parking on a sidewalk alongside the Locust Avenue Lot. 

Allison Butash told members of the Parking Commission during an appeal hearing that she didn’t know she’d hopped the granite curb and parked on the brick sidewalk near the Post Office. “I apparently went over the curb and it’s a very small curb so I didn’t even know I had gone over it, and apparently in doing so the back of my car was mostly on the sidewalk,” Butash said during the hearing, held via videoconference. “But I was more concerned with the front part of my car, because I didn’t want it to block the turn-in to the parking lot and the fire hydrant that was there. So I completely had no idea I was on the curb when I left my car. I didn’t turn around, I didn’t look.

Government

Commission Discusses Proposed Striping, Disabled Space on Morse Court

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The New Canaanite 2024 Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Karp Associates. Members of the appointed body that oversees municipal parking lots in New Canaan are asking town officials to carefully balance the number of disabled spaces needed downtown with sorely needed 15-minute spaces. Parking Manager Stacey Miltenberg told members of the Parking Commission during their July 10 meeting that disabled spots would be delineated along with the 15-minute parking spaces along the northern edge of Morse Court, as part of a new striping plan for the lot. (Currently, the parallel-parking 15-minute spaces are not lined out.)

Commissioner Nancy Bemis noted that the block of parking may be more useful if left unpainted — for example, because smaller cars wouldn’t take up a full space — and also raised a question about a plan to add a disabled space to the row. “My concern is that by adding the handicapped spot, is it going to lead to any confusion?” Bemis said at the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Drew Magratten

Town Forgives $150 Ticket Issued to Woman Who Parked in Disabled Space at Starbucks

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Saying that the disabled space in the Starbucks lot is misplaced and poorly marked, officials this month voided a $150 ticket issued to a woman who’d parked there. The Parking Commission during its Jan. 3 meeting voted 4-0 to void the ticket that Ashley Gonzalez received on Nov. 6 (a Monday). Gonzalez told members of the appointed body that she pulled into the lot in a panic because her mother fainted in the passenger seat.

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Town Upholds $150 Ticket Issued to Woman Who Parked in Disabled Space [UPDATE]

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Town officials this month upheld a $150 ticket issued to a Bedford, N.Y. woman who parked in a disabled space while running into a store downtown. During her Aug. 2 appeal hearing before the Parking Commission, [the woman] said she’d circled for about 25 minutes before finally pulling into a disabled space on Elm Street in order to return an item to the WAVE store on behalf of her daughter. “The only spot that was there was right in front of the store and it was a handicapped parking spot,” [the woman] said during the hearing, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “I pulled in, turned my hazards on, left my car on and told my daughter to wait for me as I ran in.