Town officials last week upheld a $30 ticket issued to a New Canaan woman who parked on the grass near Mill Pond.
This is the parking job that got ticketed. Photo courtesy of Parking Bureau
During an appeal hearing before the Parking Commission at its Sept. 3 meeting, Millport Avenue resident Daphney Legrand said she’s lived in town for 10 years and has parked her car in the grassy area in the past.
“Second of all, I still see people parking there and they don’t have a ticket,” Legrand said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
Legrand added that there’s no signage specifically prohibiting a motorist from parking on the grass.
“This is so ridiculous because there are no signs,” she said.
Even so, members of the Commission said that the curb and sidewalk that a motorist would need to mount and traverse in order to park on the grass should be enough to make it clear that parking isn’t allowed.
“I’d like to point out that there is a curb there I don’t think I would driver over that with my car,” Commissioner Katie O’Neill said. “There shouldn’t need to be a ‘no parking’ sign. That would mean putting ‘no parking signs’ everywhere then. The curb is an implicit indication that this is not an entryway onto the grass.”
Commission Chair Nancy Bemis noted that a driver could pop a tire mounting the 90-degree granite curb.
O’Neill, Bemis, Commission Secretary Kevin Karl and members John Clarke and Marley Thackray voted 5-0 to uphold.
Karl initially said he would void the ticket because it appeared that the management company for the Millport Apartments hadn’t notified its tenants about a new town-drive push to make sure the grass is clear of cars, but later changed his mind.
Town Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg said that the first selectman has received “several complaints from people who go to Millport and see people parking on the grass all the time.”
“So she brought it to my attention and to the Police Department because it’s happening at all times of the day and sometimes we’re not around when it happens in the evening,” Miltenberg said. “But since that complaint came to us, the officers are going out in the morning and whoever is parked on the grass—again illegal parking, you’re not supposed to be there because you are actually jumping a curb to get into that parking spot, so you know it is not a parking spot—will be getting ticketed. What is happening now is we are patrolling the area a little more frequently, so if you have not gotten tickets in the past, you have gotten very lucky. It was a good thing you didn’t in the past, but unfortunately this time you did get caught.”
The Commission agreed to have the Parking Bureau follow up with the town so that there is some sort of notification to Millport Avenue residents regarding the increased enforcement through the Housing Authority or property manager.
It’s True, people park on the grass in that location, they have for the past decade or so. There is a shortage of parking in that area. Of all the places people park on the grass (Saxe middle school, New Canaan High School, and Waveny) (parents for evening events and meetings) this is a place where residents need parking. They do run the risk of popping a tire. Imagine knowing that risk every single day that you come home from work, have circled looking for a spot and only have the grass to park on, and a curb to drive over.
Imagine that two of the vehicles in the parking area at Mill Pond/Waveny have been there – abandoned – since it snowed last winter- right next to the grass where cars park (one now at 8:10am Wed.). Doesn’t seem right. Two parking spaces are a big deal anywhere.
Millport- oops – not Waveny.