It’s not a figment of anyone’s imagination that it’s harder to escape a parking ticket downtown than it was a couple of years ago.
A report from the Ridgefield Parking Authority shows that parking ticket violations have increased since the 2011-2012 year, when a total of 3,118 $15 tickets raised $33,936 for the town compared with 3,497 tickets raising $49,997 in 2013-2014.
The change is most noticeable in the back-to-school month of September, when there were 42 tickets totaling $775 in 2011-2012 and a dramatic increase of 307 tickets totaling $4,002 in 2013-2014.
The reason for the uptick in tickets is not so much that people are overstaying in the one-, two- and three-hour parking spaces more often, at the municipal parking lots on Bailey Avenue and Governor’s Lane. What’s actually happened is that the number of parking enforcement workers has increased, said Laurie Fernandez, the town’s human resources director, who manages the Parking Authority accounts.
The parking ticket totals include both the downtown and Branchville parking lots, she said.
“It looks like it’s a little higher this year, but that’s because we’ve had two consistent employees,” Fernandez said.
There are currently two part-time parking enforcement workers, providing full coverage Monday through Friday. There is no enforcement on weekends.
In 2011-2012, there was mostly just one part-time worker assigned to enforce the regulations.
There was no particular reason why the department was short one worker. “It was just regular turnover,” Fernandez said.
There’s free, all-day parking in the Governor Street lot between the Boys and Girls Club and the new RVNA construction site. —Jake Kara photo
One factoid not shown in the data is that the busiest day of the week, downtown parking-wise, is Tuesday, Fernandez said. That’s when municipal parking lots are most crowded with shoppers and people doing business at the banks downtown.
Why that is, she doesn’t know.
“Obviously on a snow day it’s slow but Tuesday year-round is consistent,” Fernandez said.
That is a mystery to longtime downtown business owner Deborah Ann Backes, owner of Deborah Ann’s Sweet Shoppe on Main Street.
“I have not noticed that. It does surprise me,” Backes said.
She said parking has always been an issue for her customers downtown, even years ago when she was located in the CVS shopping center, also on Main Street, with a large parking lot.
“I’m sure people drive by without stopping when they can’t find a parking space,” Backes said.
In the long term, though, the downtown parking hasn’t hurt her business. She’s been open 17 years.
That says a lot because the slowest months for downtown parking are July and August, the peak of summer, according to Fernandez.
“It slows down in the summer because everyone is away,” Fernandez said.
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