Government

Town To Bring ‘PayByPhone’ Parking App to Short-Term Municipal Lots

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Those parking in short-term lots in downtown New Canaan soon will be able to purchase and extend their time through a smartphone app. 

Members of the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously during their regular meeting Tuesday for New Canaan to enter a five-year contract with PayByPhone. 

As it is, those paying to park in lots such as Morse Court and Park Street must physically return to meter machines to add time. With the PayByPhone app, which already is in use at New Canaan Train Station lots, motorists can buy their tickets at the meter machine as usual (or using the app) and then extend their time remotely, officials said at the selectmen meeting. “I expect very high usage,” Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg said at the meeting, held via videoconference. 

“It was something that a lot of people, even pre-COVID, were asking for. Because a lot of the surrounding towns have this option available to park there. So it has been something that I have been requesting for a while, and I think that the usage will be extremely high, as it was at the train station.

Government

Town Upholds $30 Ticket Issued to Uber Eats Driver

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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.

Government

‘They Probably Eyeballed It’: Parking Commission Voids Police-Issued Ticket

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Saying police hadn’t taken a formal measurement, town officials last week voided a ticket issued to a Village Drive resident for parking too close to a fire hydrant. On receiving the ticket around midday on June 10, Adam Shooshan said he went to the New Canaan Police Department to discuss the matter. By law, no one may park within 10 feet of a hydrant, a violation that carries a $75 fine. Shooshan said he’d been warned already about parking near the hydrant out front of his house (it appeared there after he bought it last spring) so he created a groove in the street to ensure his family wasn’t in violation. Shooshan in making his July 8 appeal to the Parking Commission brought photographic evidence showing he was about 12 feet away from the hydrant.

Government

Parking Enforcement Ramps Up As Downtown Activity Increases

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As New Canaan businesses continue to reopen and draw more visitors downtown, motorists who violate serious parking regulations such as parking in crosswalks, in front of fire hydrants and in designated disabled spaces will receive tickets, officials say. Yet parking in municipal lots remains free, and those overstaying time limits will receive a “courtesy ticket” that amounts to a warning, according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. The system is designed to get shoppers, diners and downtown workers accustomed to the reintroduction of parking enforcement, which officials said had been suspended last month. “Nobody should be parking illegally—we are going to do our best to move people along—but if a car is illegally parked and we can’t get it to move, we will be ticketing,” Miltenberg said. The question of when to start enforcing the two-hour time limits on streets such as Main and Elm is fluid, and will depend largely on how quickly downtown re-fills with visitors.

COVID-19 New Canaan

Town To Annual Parking Permit-Holders: Don’t Worry About Renewing Them Yet

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Those holding annual permits for New Canaan’s municipal parking lots need not worry just now about renewing them, officials said Monday. Typically, the Parking Bureau sends renewal notifications each May to permit-holders for lots such as the Lumberyard, Talmadge Hill and Park Street Lots. They expire June 30, just before the fiscal year begins. Yet this year, “[g]iven the current circumstances with regard to the COVID-19 virus, the Board of Selectman and Parking Commission are planning to extend the current permit year for the time period covering the state’s stay-at-home order and pro-rating next year’s permit fees,” according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. “For this reason, permit renewal applications will not be mailed out in May as they have been in the past,” Miltenberg said in a bulletin posted to the town’s website.