Regulating vehicles (of all sorts) on town roads

NORTH CANAAN — The ways in which drivers and others use local streets has come up in more ways than one recently.

Downtown parking has long been an issue here. The town plans to complete a large parking lot behind Railroad Street businesses this summer. It will be a place for people to park all day while they are at work and a place to park for those who live in apartments here and need a place to park overnight.

The trick, as the Board of Selectmen discussed at a recent meeting, will be to entice people to use the lot and walk to their destination. Designated walkways and lighting are part of the plan.

Letters went out recently to property owners and residents, reminding them that parking is limited to one or two hours on-street and in the town’s smaller lot on Railroad Street.

The letter didn’t seem to change anyone’s habits, so Canaan Chamber of Commerce President John Lannen and other chamber members made copies of it and stuck them on the windshields of cars parked there too long.

“It took a week, but the overnight parking stopped,� Lannen told the Board of Selectmen at its June 7 meeting.

There are many sides to the issue, depending in part on whom one asks and when.

First Selectman Douglas Humes said business owners have been asking that parking regulations be enforced. On-street parking is on state roads.

A state trooper recently issued tickets to a number of offending drivers who were attending an event at the theater on a Sunday afternoon. There were complaints about that, Humes said.

He also took the opportunity to respond publicly to a concern by a resident who was ticketed for driving a golf cart on North Elm Street; the cart did not meet legal requirements.

Humes said the local resident wanted to know what authority state police have to enforce the law on town roads.

Board members and members of the public in attendance were taken aback by the notion. It was noted that the only law enforcement here is the state police, and that it is desired and expected that their jurisdiction should extend everywhere.

That said, Humes read a letter from the town attorney who quoted Public Act 09-187 that says in essence that golf carts are considered motor vehicles and are subject to the same requirements, including registration.

The only exception is when carts are used to cross a public road to get from one part of a golf course to another.