Business

‘It’s Going To Hurt Merchants’: Parking Commission Pushes Back on Elimination of 15-Minute Spots on Elm Street

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Members of the appointed body that oversees New Canaan’s parking department this month pushed back on part of a larger plan that will see the one-way stretch of Elm Street converted to paid spots. Specifically, members of the Parking Commission during their May 7 meeting objected to plans to eliminate—rather than increase—the number of free 15-minute parking spaces on Elm Street while the town converts those free spots to paid. “If we are not interested in revenue, what is the argument against short-term parking?” Commissioner Katie O’Neill said during the regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “Because as I see it, we are adding a surcharge on coffee shops, on sandwich shops. All the sudden now if you are picking up a $15 sandwich it’s going to be $15.50 or whatever.

Amy Murphy Carroll

ARPA: Selectmen Vote to Transfer Remaining $750,000 to Town’s General Fund

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to transfer all remaining funds from the American Rescue Plan Act or “ARPA” to New Canaan’s General Fund. First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll during their regular meeting voted 3-0 to return the $747,634 to the fund so that the town can spend however it wants, rather than along ARPA-specific guidelines. Murphy Carroll, who served on a joint Board of Finance and Town Council subcommittee that made recommendations about ARPA allocations, said the federal dollars can be used to reimburse communities that lost revenue due to the pandemic. “We did lose approximately $3 million in revenue, and I was always a fan personally of pulling it in, because once you pull it into the town, you can use it for whatever purpose,” she said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference “If you allocate it directly this way, you have to really align with ARPA requirements. So I think it makes all the sense in the world for us to pull this in and then just allocate it out of our General Fund.

Christa Kenin

Town Clerk: Absentee Balloting ‘Steady’ for Nov. 7 Election

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Local officials said Tuesday that they’ve issued 516 total absentee ballots for the Nov. 7 municipal election, and have received back 305 to count. The overall figures appear to be rising as a result of COVID-19, when larger numbers of residents availed themselves of absentee voting. Even so, data indicate that absentee voting will be down from the midst of the pandemic two years ago, according to Town Clerk Claudia Weber. While the town counted just 158 absentee ballots for the local election in 2019—a year that saw a contested first selectman race—the total jumped to 453 in 2021, Weber said.

Government

Town To Increase Parking Meter Rates Downtown

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Town officials say they plan to increase parking meter rates in downtown New Canaan, as well as the amount of money that motorists will pay for eight types of violations. 

The meter rate increases follow from a state sales tax of 6.35% that “the town has been eating” since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. The town has not increased the meter rates in many years, she told members of the Parking Commission at their March 1 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. The rates will change as follows, she said: 15 minutes (25 to 30 cents), 30 minutes (50 to 55 cents), 45 minutes (75 to 80 cents) and one hour ($1 to $1.25). The six-hour flat rates for parking in three business lots—Playhouse, Park Street and Morse Court—will increase from $3 to $3.50, while two lots on the edge of the downtown, at Center School and Locust, will go from 50 cents to 55 cents per hour, she said. The increased rates will go into effect April 1, Miltenberg said.

Government

Parking Commission Voids $25 Ticket Issued to Elm Street Motorist

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Saying it had been a long time since parking enforcement officers issued their last verbal warning to her, town officials last week voided a $25 ticket issued to a woman who overstayed her time on Elm Street. 

Under New Canaan’s parking regulations, motorists approaching what is now a 2-hour time limit for the free spaces downtown cannot simply move their vehicle to a different area of the same street to reset that timer. If someone is not aware of the rule, “we try to educate them, usually the first ticket around, because it is not posted anywhere other than in the town ordinance,” according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. Yet in the case of Lara Tiramani of Bridgeport, she was made aware of that when she similarly overstayed a space in 2016, Miltenberg said during the Dec. 8 regular meeting of the Parking Commissioner. Tucker Murphy, administrative officer for the town and a guest at the meeting, said the purpose of the rule is to ensure the free spaces serve those who wish to patronize downtown business and restaurants rather than those who work in those places.