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Town Upholds $30 Ticket for New Canaan Woman Who Said Truck Obstructed View of ‘Loading Zone’ Sign

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Town officials recently upheld a $30 ticket for a New Canaan woman who parked in a loading zone on Main Street. Mary McCauley told members of the Parking Commission during her appeal hearing that she’s accustomed to parking on Main Street between East and Locust Avenues for morning sessions at a business that helps people with stretching. On the morning of March 21, a Thursday, McCauley pulled in near the corner in front of Organika Kitchen and didn’t read signs saying the area was reserved as a loading zone from 7 to 11 a.m. “because I know it’s two-hour parking,” she told Commissioners during their most recent meeting. “I had no idea it’s a loading zone and could not have known that it was a loading zone, because the truck in front of me was obstructing the sign view,” McCauley said during the May 2 hearing, held in Town Hall. “So when I came out and I had a ticket, I was absolutely shocked because I think I’ve had just one other ticket in the 27 years I have been here.”

Ultimately, saying McCauley should’ve seen a sign posting the loading zone hours at the near side of the area, even if a truck obstructed her view of the one on the far side, Commissioners voted 4-1 to uphold the ticket.

Chris Hering

Parking Commission Votes 3-2 in Favor of Extending Main Street Loading Zone from Half-Day to Full-Day

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Saying the change will ease traffic and send a clearer message to non-commercial drivers, officials are recommending that an area on Main Street that serves as a loading zone for half of the day become a full-day loading zone. In addition to extending the time of the loading zone at Main Street and East Avenue, members of the Parking Commission are recommending that the area out front of Organika be striped as a clear signal to motorists, who often are ticketed there. The proposal originated with the Parking Bureau and was supported by a 3-2 vote on the Commission at the appointed body’s May 2 meeting. 

As it is now, because the loading zone operates from 7 to 11 a.m. and then coverts to regular two-hour parking, the town can’t indicate beyond signage—for example, by painting the curb or street—that it’s a designated area for trucks, commissioners said. But if the loading zone extends to 3 p.m., more can be done to make it clearer to motorists that they can’t park there during the day. In the afternoon, because the loading zone is not in effect and regular cars park there, “the trucks get there, they are blocking in the cars, they are parking on East Avenue and blocking the traffic going down East Avenue,” Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg told commissioners at the meeting, held in Town Hall.

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Officials Void $150 Ticket Issued To Man Who Parked in Disabled Space on Elm Street 

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In a break with precedent, members of the Parking Commission voted unanimously at their most recent meeting to void a ticket issued to a motorist who parked in a disabled space on Elm Street. Scott Lee told the commissioners during an appeal hearing held May 2 at Town Hall that he was driving his elderly father to breakfast on the morning of April 4 and parked in a disabled space out front of Dunkin Donuts. 

Lee said his father is 75, recovering from a stroke and disabled, and that although he had applied for a permit and placard, he didn’t yet have those items to display in his car. “We were in the process of getting it and didn’t have it that day,” Lee told the Commission. Lee said he and his father had been headed to Le Pain Quotidien on Elm Street for breakfast. Records show that the $150 ticket was issued at 8:56 a.m.

During deliberations, Commissioner Pam Crum noted that the ticket was issued April 4 and that the permit was issued in the same month.

Commission Votes 3-2 To Recommend Metered Parking on Main and Elm

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Saying it didn’t make sense for downtown New Canaan’s best parking spaces to be free, town officials this month voted to recommend installing meters on Main and Elm Streets. The Parking Commission as part of its 3-2 vote at the May 2 meeting also is recommending that the spaces running along the northern edge of Morse Court, which now offer free 15-minute parking, also be metered. “By giving away free parking on the main streets, we create a perverse incentive for people to not use parking in the peripheral lots that are designed to take the load off [Elm and Main Streets],” Commissioner Chris Hering said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. Hering voted in favor of the change, along with Commissioners Stuart Stringfellow and Peter Ogilvie (who long advocacy for this idea was recorded in a recent 0684-Radi0 podcast). Chairman Keith Richey and Commissioner Pam Crum voted against the recommendation.

Chris Hering

‘We Are Being Reasonable’: Facing Rebuke from Commission Chairman, Parking Manager Defends Enforcement 

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During a tense meeting last week that included menacing language from an appointed official, the head of New Canaan’s Parking Bureau defended the town’s enforcement officers against accusations that they’re aggressive and sneaky about issuing tickets. 

Not only do enforcement officers ask motorists to move prior to ticketing them, but many tickets are voided by the Parking Bureau before they ever come before the appointed body that oversees the town department, Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg said Thursday night. “We give leniency,” Miltenberg said during the Parking Commission’s regular meeting, held in Town Hall. 

“If somebody is sitting in the car and in a no parking zone, we ask them to move. Let me tell you what the staff and I am encountering by these people out on they street: They don’t want to move. Excuse me for being like this, but we are taking such crap from these people that you don’t see the other side and I have to defend the department. We are not out there—we’re short-staffed to begin with and we are not out there watching people and sneaking up on people.