Parking officials last week upheld a $150 ticket issued to a delivery driver using a disabled space in a private lot on Pine Street.
The Parking Commission during its regular meeting April 7 voted 4-0 to uphold the ticket, given to a driver in the heavily used Pine Street Concessions lot.
Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg said at the meeting that disabled spaces fall under state statutes, including those in private lots “so we are allowed to go in there and ticket anybody who dos not have a handicapped permit and is parked in a handicapped space in a private lot.”
“And in addition, that particular area we get several complaints that people just utilize that spot as a regular spot and do not leave it open for people who need it, so it’s monitored on a regular basis,” Miltenberg said at the meeting, held via videoconference.
Chair Laura Budd and Commissioners Nancy Bemis, Drew Magratten and Marley Thackray voted to uphold the ticket.
The driver himself did not appear at the hearing. He said in a written appeal that he’d only been in the space for five minutes, the Commission said.
Bemis said that delivery people may have a hard time paying the fine associated with illegally using a disabled space.
“I wonder—for instance, if they are working for somebody else—whether or not they are personally liable for the $150,” she said. “I imagine in most cases these would be people who it would be a hardship for them to pay the $150.”
Budd said she agreed that it’s “a very frustrating situation.”
“It’s hard to know what the other options were at the time,” she said.
Asked whether the town has the ability to reduce the amount of the fines associated with parking tickets in specific cases, Miltenberg said New Canaan has never done that, though towns such as Greenwich offer an option for paying less money on the same day a ticket is issued. She added that the town does sometimes received checks covering parking ticket from delivery companies rather than individual drivers.
Thackray said the town should work on educating delivery drivers that it’s better to remain in the street with flashers on for quick deliveries than to using a disabled space illegally or pull into a no-parking zone.
Magratten asked whether a “cheat sheet” might be handed out with tickets in such cases that instruct drivers on how to park for deliveries. The sheet could have Spanish on one side, he said.
The commissioners also said that business owners should be educated on how their delivery people should park in order to avoid tickets, and that they bear some responsibility for the illegal parking, too.
Budd noted that during the first two weeks after parking enforcement came back into effect after the height of the pandemic, instead of issuing tickets the town posted flyers letting motorists know that they had parked illegally and soon would be ticketed for such violations. Budd said that before putting together such an educational “cheat sheet” for motorists, she would consult with New Canaan’s two parking enforcement officers regarding the things they say most often to motorists who violate the parking rules.