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.

Commission Upholds Parking Tickets at Appeals Hearing

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Several motorists appealed parking violations during last week’s meeting of the New Canaan Parking Commission. Mariann Funch said she came to New Canaan to shop on a Monday and parked on Elm Street. The Stamford resident told the Commission during her appeal hearing that she “put the space number into the machine and paid with three quarters, slowly, one at a time.” Funch went into the store for about 45 minutes and when she came back she had a ticket, she said during the hearing, held Nov. 7 in Town Hall. Funch said after she discovered the ticket on her vehicle she went back to check the parking kiosk and noticed that there was three quarters in the refund slot, indicating that her transaction never went through.