Government

‘This Is Not the Year’: Parking Commission Divided on Whether To Raise Rates of Commuter Lot Permits

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As New Canaan faces threats of reduced service on its rail line and the likelihood of devalued real property and increased taxes, it should reduce the fees for permits to park in commuter lots this year, according to one member of the Parking Commission. According to Chris Hering, if New Canaan looks considers its “optics” relative to comparable towns—at “our competitive towns, arguably,” he told fellow commissioners at their regular meeting March 14—then it makes sense to help commuters. Told that doing so would deprive the town of a ready source of revenue, Hering said: “You are basically telling everyone that earns money in this town, that goes and pays for parking, you are going to tell them, ‘Hey, why don’t you move to Darien? It’s another $400 cheaper.’ ”

He proposed a 20 percent reduction to the rates, but found no support from fellow commissioners. Ultimately, the four commissioners who attended the meeting at Town Hall—Hering, Chairman Keith Richey, Pam Crum and Peter Ogilvie (Stuart Stringfellow was absent)—could reach no consensus on whether to reduce or raise the rates, or keep them flat.

Government

Officials Void $25 Ticket for Woman Confused about Parking Limits on Elm Street

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Changes to parking rules on Elm Street caused some confusion recently for a local worker. DesignDot employee and Stamford resident Suzette Schepps told members of the Parking Commission at their most recent meeting that she had received a $25 ticket for parking on Elm for more than 90 minutes one weekday morning last month. Under a change made formal with the installation of new signs, the legal parking time for most on-street spots downtown increased from 90 minutes to two hours. Schepps said during her appeal hearing before the commission that though the town had voted to make the change prior to her being ticketed, the physical signs were not yet in place. She was running late for her first team meeting at the New Canaan location, parked in a diagonal spot on Elm at 10:10 a.m. and rushed inside, Schepps said.

Government

Divided Parking Commission Votes 2-1 To Void New Canaan Man’s $25 Ticket

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A New Canaan man last week got out of a $25 parking ticket after telling officials that he had been mistakenly targeted by enforcement officers downtown. Peter McAleer told members of the Parking Commission during their regular meeting that he pays tickets when he’s in the wrong. Yet on the day in question, according to McAleer, he parked in his accustomed spot on Pine Street, where he works, at about 7 a.m. and stayed until 11 a.m., when he went to Stamford for a haircut and lunch. He returned at 12 p.m. and was parked back on Pine Street for about 10 minutes when he was issued a ticket for overtime parking. According to McAleer, the enforcement officer assumed, wrongly, that he’d been parked continuously in the same spot for the entire morning and into the afternoon.

Government

Parking Commission Upholds $50 Ticket for Darien Woman Who Parked the Wrong Way on Elm Street

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Parking officials last week voted unanimously to uphold a $50 ticket issued to a Darien woman who had parked the wrong way on Elm Street. The appellant, Janet Cling, told members of the Parking Commission at their regular meeting that she was in New Canaan with a newborn in the car on Dec. 11 (a Monday) when she pulled off of Park Street into the Starbucks lot and then continued into the last row of diagonal spaces on Elm Street. “We were just really quickly running into the Whitney Shop to pick up an ornament that my mother-in-law had ordered for her [the baby], personalized,” Cling told commissioners at their Jan. 11 meeting, held at Town Hall.

Government

Officials Deny Appeal of $30 Ticket from Commuter Who Parked on the Grass at Talmadge Hill Train Station

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Town officials voted 3-1 to uphold a $30 ticket incurred by a New Canaan man who parked on the grass at Talmadge Hill Train Station one morning when he was running late. The ticketed man told members of the Parking Commission at their most recent meeting that the train was already approaching when he parked west of (below) the tracks at Talmadge Hill to catch the 7:16 a.m. train. “I could hear the train,” the man recalled at the meeting, held Nov. 9 at Town Hall. “I could not drive to the other side.