Business

‘This Is Ridiculous’: Town Officials Urge Auto Shop Owner To Be Reasonable in Parking Vehicles Along Main Street

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Members of the volunteer group that oversees on-street parking in New Canaan are urging the owner of a downtown business to work with them or risk exacerbating an emotionally charged dispute and potentially dangerous situation. The Police Commission already has spent more time on traffic and safety concerns near AC Auto Body than it has on hiring issues, according to commissioner Paul Foley. “This is ridiculous and it is still not solved,” Foley said at the start of the commission’s regular meeting, held Wednesday in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. “It would be resolved if this individual would perform in a neighborhood way.”

Turning to members of NCPD that are working with both AC Auto Body owner Anthony Ceraso and neighbors who say the way he parks customers and shop vehicles blocks sight lines, Foley added: “You want to convey that to [Ceraso]? That we are concerned again about this action that he continues to do and if there isn’t any cleanup, especially now that snow coming and all the other stuff, that we will go to [Planning & Zoning].

Government

‘We Are Angry, Sick of It’: Silvermine Road Residents Seek 25 MPH Speed Limit, Single Yellow Line

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The speed limit along the mile-long stretch of Silvermine Road that runs down from Route 106 to the market and arts center should be reduced by 5 mph and it should have a single yellow centerline, rather than a double, homeowners told town officials last week. The existing 30 mph speed limit is out-of-step with other, similar roads in town that have 25 mph limits, and Silvermine Road has become “is a speedway for contractors racing back and forth between Norwalk and New Canaan,” Mark Thorsheim told members of the Police Commission at their regular meeting on Wednesday. Silvermine is very much a “walking community” and “pedestrian neighborhood” with “pedestrian activities” at the Silvermine Arts Center and with the market and eventual tavern re-opening, Thorsheim said at the meeting, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. “We are angry, sick of it,” he said of the 30 mph speed limit. With that request, Thorsheim and other residents of Silvermine Road asked whether the newly repaved street surface could go back to a single yellow centerline.

Business

‘No Repeat’ Parking Signs Coming To Main and Elm

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Seeking to address a longstanding problem where those who work downtown take up free parking spaces meant to serve shoppers and diners, officials on Wednesday night approved new signage designed to help keep coveted spots on Main and Elm turning over. The Police Commission unanimously approved the installation of two “no repeats within one hour” signs—in other words, an instruction to those who use the 90-minute spots in the “magic circle” that after their time is up, they cannot simply move to a new spot on the block. It’s a rule that’s been on the books for years, though it’s been difficult to enforce and, according to Stacy Miltenberg, interim superintendent of the Parking Bureau, to convey to drivers. “There has to be a way to get it out, and I do believe that signage is wonderful and education also is wonderful,” Miltenberg said during the meeting, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. Currently, parking enforcement officers chalk the tires of cars parked in the 90-minute zones of Main and Elm, and may ticket those vehicles they come upon again on those streets after 90 minutes has expired.

Government

Police Commission Weighs Request from St. A’s for Handicapped Parking Designation on Maple Street

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Town officials are weighing a request from St. Aloysius Church to designate one or two parking spaces along Maple Street as handicapped for use by those using its main office. Monsignor William Scheyd told members of the Police Commission at their most recent meeting that the request—unconnected to the ongoing Merritt Village application across the street—is designed to serve those coming and going from Stapleton Hall, the prominent brick structure that starts near the corner of Maple at South Avenue. For many of the older motorists seeking to enter the office, Scheyd said, it’s similar to finding a parking spot on Forest Street when headed out to a restaurant there. “I used to take a friend of mine out, who would say, ‘Now say a quick prayer that there is a parking space—more often than not, it worked,’ ” he said during the Sept.

Government

‘That Is My Property’: Business Owner Pushes Back On East Maple Street Traffic Study’s Recommendations

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The business owner involved in an ongoing dispute with residential neighbors on East Maple Street on Wednesday night pushed back on a traffic consultant’s suggestion to change the way he uses his own parking lot in order to improve traffic and safety. Instead of asking him to alter a stone wall (if not remove it) at AC Auto Body and no longer park cars in the northwest corner of the lot, the sight line problem at the corner of Main Street would go away if traffic on East Maple Street is made one-way toward Hoyt Street, according to the business’s owner, Anthony Ceraso. The wall “is on my property that we did have the approval to have erected when we did renovation, as well as the fence,” Ceraso told members of the Police Commission at their regular meeting, held in the training room in the New Canaan Police Department. “So my concern is and my original observation was the easiest way to rectify this was a one-way street. We don’t have to put up any stop signs, any traffic lights, we don’t have to worry about monitoring traffic going in or out of there with the police department giving tickets or warnings, because now it [would be] changed to a one-way street.