[Jack Buckley]: Good evening, everybody. December 13 2022 Welcome to the city of Medford traffic commission meeting a the time is 503pm. The meeting will now come to order. Albert, you can please call the roll call for the commissioners mission and we given President Commissioner hunt present.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Pesetoro? Present. Commissioner Brzezinski? I can't see him.
[Jack Buckley]: Maybe he can unmute. Did you make him a call? Yeah, he's a call as well.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: I'm here. Oh, thank you. Chief Buckley presents five commissioners present. We have a quorum also present this evening, the secretary of the traffic, Erickson, who's a great help to us every week. I have my two traffic sergeants, Rogers and Kadava, director of traffic engineer Todd Blake is online and see. else I think I need to do. So, uh, has the commissioners had a chance to review, uh, receive in review the November, um, the minutes of the November traffic commission meeting they were sent out. And if each commissioner has seen them and reviewed them, I will take a motion to accept the minutes.
[Tim McGivern]: Yes. Yep. I'll motion to approve the minutes from November.
[Jack Buckley]: The motion of commissioner McGiven. Do I have a second?
[MCM00001177_SPEAKER_30]: I'll second.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Pesetoro. I'll roll call.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Pesetoro? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes. On a vote of five to nothing, the minutes are accepted and approved. New business, 2022-61 from the mayor's office. Three hour parking, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Permit only, 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. Sunday and holiday excluded on Morton Ave. North side along Tufts Park. To present this, I believe, Director Blake.
[Todd Blake]: Yep, I'm just gonna share my screen. So this is the area that we're discussing or referencing This area of Morton Ave on the opposite, the houses side, so along Tufts Park itself. So from Medford Street to the parking lot that's labeled on Google as Granville Ave. So that side, the park side of the street, the house side is already permanent parking, so the park side is not currently restricted by anything and the proposal is to have three-hour parking, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and then from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. be permit only and excluding Sundays and holidays. So that's the proposal for this particular item. The thought being that with the Green Line open and it's in the area that was already approved in August for permit, that this remaining area would soon be found out by folks that might be commuting or doing other things that may wish to park this enables turnover for the park use, and then it enables the residents of the area to use it as well.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you director Blake comments and questions by the commissioners, Mr. Blake.
[Alicia Hunt]: Todd, can you just confirm? I know you talked to the recreation department and they thought that the three hours was a good length of time.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, that is correct. Yeah, we reached out to whomever we could that might have experience with the parks, whether it be recreation or others, and that's the direction we've received at this time. So I think it is a good length of time personally and if it doesn't end up being a good length of time we could always revisit the traffic commission at a later date.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Other questions commissioners?
[Jack Buckley]: Seeing none, does anyone from the public wish to speak in favor of this petition?
[Alicia Hunt]: If you wish to speak in favor, you should either use the raise hand icon or you can turn on your video and physically raise your hand, or if you're not able to do those, you could type into the chat that you wish to speak. Don't put your comment in the chat because we can't, that won't be on the record, but you could say, I'd like to speak and then we'll unmute you.
[Unidentified]: I see Mr. Driscoll.
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome, Mr. Driscoll. Thank you for having me. I have a quick question or comment. At one point, there was some discussion about the parking lot becoming hourly parking with a permit. Is that still the case? That will be the next order of business. That's the next agenda item. Okay, I can wait and then comment on that if you'd prefer.
[Jack Buckley]: Please, we'll get through this one and we'll pick that up right after this one.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Any of us who wish to speak in favor of the petition?
[Unidentified]: Seeing none, anyone wish to speak against the petition? And seeing none, I defer back to the commissioners for questions, thoughts or a motion. Yeah.
[Bob Dickinson]: Commissioner Brzezinski. She mentions the permit parking. Who, would it be the Morton Street homeowners that would get permit parking?
[Todd Blake]: So on this particular, the on-street portion next to the park here, it would be, yeah, whoever is on Morton Ave itself, or if there's some corner house or corner Street that the commission granted variance to so for this particular stretch.
[Bob Dickinson]: Yes, that's the case. Okay. And have we, it's only been what two days now that the extension has been open, this is more of an anticipation of what's to come.
[Unidentified]: Correct. Yes. Anything else from the commissioners? I would move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve 2022-61 three-hour parking, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and permanent only parking 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., do I have a second?
[Unidentified]: I'll second. I'll second.
[Jack Buckley]: seconded by Commissioner Pesetoro.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Pesetoro?
[MCM00001177_SPEAKER_30]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On a vote of five to nothing, the motion is approved. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, Harmon Zuckerman.
[Todd Blake]: And then no overnight restriction, the Sunday holidays are excluded as well. The reason being is because this lot may be used by other streets other than more than say Granville or Winchester Street or some of the other streets. So we didn't want to necessarily get into, if it's permit only, who will have rights in which streets. So for now, it's an incremental process to get turnover for during the daytime events for people who use the park to do that. 8am to 10pm three hour, but then in the evening. We'll see how it plays out but we want it. The idea being we want that lot available to whomever may be using already which is a number of streets, not just necessarily one street like GP is correct.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: The paperwork from the mayor's office does not have criminal the 10pm to 8am, it is just three hour parking 8am to 10pm.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so the petition item will be modified three hour parking at 8am to 10pm and no overnight restrictions based on the type of Okay, thank you, Director Blake, you want to just talk about it briefly, rather than that.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah. And just so the community knows that we're also the city is looking into striping this to make it a little more. understood where people should be parking and try to maximize the amount of spaces in there so it's better utilized. So there were some draft markings on there but they're still visible to some. But basically it would be striped as it's used here as it's seen used here with perpendicular up against the fence and trying to maximize the back area and the side area as well. And also in future anticipation of an electric charging station probably in this vicinity as well. So But the idea is to basically still have this lot be available to people that are using it now, but also to allow turnover for the recreational uses during the daytime. And then we'll monitor the situation for the overnight if it needs to be refined further. But at this time, you know, it's kept the way it is as proposed again, because multiple streets use this overnight, not necessarily just Morton, but just Grant.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, thank you. Before I open up for public comment, any questions from the commissioners for Director Blake?
[Alicia Hunt]: I don't have any. Chief, this is Alicia Hunt. I don't have any questions, but I just wanted to offer the information that we have in fact received grant funding to put an electric vehicle charging station into that lot at that location that Todd had indicated, and that would be signed for, you know, for electric vehicles only for those two spots that will put a charging station in.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. Okay, thank you. Any other questions or comments from the Commission's Director Blake.
[Tim McGivern]: Yes, Chief, I have a question to be given. Just a clarifying question, and I don't know if we have an answer tonight, but I was digging around today trying to find out an answer for our parking department on a pass by this commission to have all the municipal lots for three hour parking. I know we have some that are signed for two hour meter parking. So I just want to see if we're being consistent here on this lot. understanding we may not have that answer tonight. I sent out an email earlier today too just to get it.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, yeah, I would just acknowledge you have received an email. Yeah, I think we do, I think we've talked about this a number of times too about trying to be, deal with parking issues in the city on a holistic basis and being more consistent. So that is, I think, something we should take a look at. As a matter of fact, the traffic side, I would say, could probably start working in conjunction with your team, Tim, and going through all the lots and just see, let's do a survey and see what we have out there before we address them straight forward.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, and Fay, the director of parking, is telling me that this body passed something in the past to make them all three-hour parking. So other than that, I'm in support of this. OK, thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: We'll look into that. I don't remember that, do you, Alba?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I do remember, but I want to check it. I'm not sure if there were some exemptions.
[Jack Buckley]: OK. All right, we'll do that research. Thanks for actually bringing it up and noting it. Okay, commissioners, any other questions, comments? Seeing none, I'll open up. Anyone from the public wishing to speak in favor of the petition? Mr. Driscoll, now's the time to speak. No, I think he's- That's okay, you're open, I'm not confused.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm actually, I guess, against the three-hour parking in this lot. If you have a moment, I can explain my situation.
[Jack Buckley]: Can I just, Mr. Driscoll, just hold on one second. Is there anyone here, just so I can get through this, because there may not be anyone here wishing to speak in favor of this before we get to Mr. Driscoll, just so I can keep it order here. I don't see any. OK, so now I'll open up to anyone wishing to speak against the commission. Mr. Driscoll, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thanks for your patience.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, thank you. I own several properties in South Medford. both on New Bern Ave and Morton Ave. I own a two unit building on New Bern Ave and a three on Morton and have no parking issues whatsoever. My issue is a building that I own at 83 New Bern Ave and another building at 86 Morton Ave. I run an electrical contracting business out of those two buildings. I currently have 17 commercial vehicles registered to at that location and pay excise tax for them. With the exception of one space that was, I guess, signed and permitted when New Bernav became resident parking only, my employees don't have the ability to park on any of the streets in that area. when we do have employees that come to the office to perhaps meet each other and jump in a work van, they are parking in that lot currently. So I guess I'm not necessarily against permit parking in that lot, but I would like to talk to the commission about perhaps coming up with a solution that would allow, again, some parking in that area for my employees.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, this is an interesting one. How many vehicles are we talking? I think, did you say the number 17 approximately? Or what do you restate?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I have 17 vehicles that are registered at that location. Not all of the vehicles stay there. Some of them go home with employees. Some of them are parked inside at both of those buildings. But again, my employees have nowhere to park.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, how many employees do you think? What's the number of vehicles we're talking? Less than 10.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's different every day. And again, we do our best to either park them inside or park them in that one spot that's in front of the 83 New Bern location.
[Unidentified]: We've been there for 25 years. Yep. All right.
[Jack Buckley]: Well, I think any commissioner here have a question or thought or remark from Mr. Driscoll. And this may not be something we can resolve tonight, but at least we still understood. Yeah, I'm happy that you attended. So we can stop thinking about this. I'm looking at it separate. Any commissioner have any questions or input?
[Tim McGivern]: I do chief. This is Tim. I think in the Yale street lot, we have business permit parking as an option. So I'm not sure if that could be an option here too.
[Jack Buckley]: Yep, I thought about it a little bit myself too and just whether or not we go. Director Blake, you have a hand up.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I was going to mention that too. Thank you, Tim. Even though it's not mentioned tonight because the lot, we're just speaking about the three hour for turnover, not permit. But if it did go to permit, or even if it didn't, I guess this lot could be expanded to be part of the business permit program and possibly the tough square triangle lot as well. So there are some lots that are available that currently are unrestricted that could potentially be folded into that process. And there may even be other ways to accommodate businesses like yourselves that it's not, the proposal is not meant to harm businesses like yourself, existing businesses that have been mentored for a long time. And so I hope that's understood. And whatever programs go in place to try to help the residents, we have to then follow up to make sure they're not hurting the local businesses as well. But we're trying to strike that balance. So I think there is opportunity there. It's just not on the current proposal. And I do want to take the opportunity, Mr. Chichester, to say I'm sure you're glad GLX is wrapping up because engineering department has been out to your site a number of times when they were doing construction trying to help you out as well. lessen the impacts as much as we could anyways.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so we certainly appreciate that. We've lived that for the past six years on a daily basis. Thank you, Commissioner Hutt.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I'm wondering if we actually amended this to be three-hour parking or business permit from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and then Mr. Driscoll's business, all his employees are eligible to get business permits. that that could be a solution and whether that would just make sense to, if he thought that would be a solution. I don't know if you're familiar with the business permit program. I believe that at this time it is $100 per vehicle and you have to register each individual vehicle, but they don't have to be registered in the city of Medford. that that whether that would actually solve this. And then if there were other businesses with employees in the area, that could be an option for them as well.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, if if we're like that, you could do the same proposed sign and then with the addition of except by permit in a permit wouldn't necessarily have to specify business or resident in case it the sign were allowed to be flexible in the park department would know. There are some lots that have segregated like one whole side business permanently but in this case it. I probably recommend that except by permit and then if they have this permit they would the 3 hour would not apply to them like the commission say.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, I think that would go. I think that would be inherent in the end also so I'm OK with the modification and if If you thought about making that a motion, we could make a motion and then open up for other discussions for a second and then move on, because I don't think anyone else is here to speak in favor or against it.
[Alicia Hunt]: I would just want to hear from Mr. Driscoll that that would be like a reasonable solution for him, because I don't see any other businesses asking.
[SPEAKER_05]: Mr. Driscoll. Thank you. I think the business permit parking thing is great. The problem that I have is if I have 30 employees and they're not all coming to the office on any specific day, obviously. So if an employee came to work and the car wasn't registered, we have no options. I think one of the, again, we try to be respectful of people that park on the street and the residents, and I don't wanna take spaces up unnecessarily. I'm wondering if some visitor paths could be established that would be somewhat flexible between vehicles.
[Jack Buckley]: I don't think we've, I don't think we have anything like that in the city. I don't think it's ever been allowed. And I'm not saying it wouldn't be relevant.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Let me just think here. This is all just kind of, what are those?
[Alicia Hunt]: In order to do a business visitors permit, we would have to establish something new. And I feel that I would want us to just think about that and not establish that on the fly in the meeting tonight. I'd rather us sort of take that back to parking and traffic and transportation and make sure that we, because if we created it for one, then it would need to be available to others. And how do you use it to ensure that it's because you have 30 different employees and they might be one today and a different one tomorrow. versus somebody who's now giving one out to everyone, giving it to their customers constantly, right? And therefore trying to abuse the policy. I just would, I'd want to think through it, so.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Understood. It's $3,000. I agree.
[Tim McGivern]: Is there a current limit as to how many cars can have business permits for a business? Do we know that?
[Adam Hurtubise]: I don't believe there is.
[Tim McGivern]: And I'm just thinking out loud here for discussion purposes, but what if all the employees that could potentially use either one of those lots get permit parking?
[Unidentified]: Why does it need to be a visitor's pass if they're all working there?
[Jack Buckley]: Well, there's two different things that we can still we can continue to work on Mr. Driscoll's what what he's sort of posed to us as a problem to work through, but we can also still vote on the issue of businesses because there is a musical lot we're trying to keep them all the same. There's business permits allowed another one. It is a possible solution and one we can still address tonight while continuing to sort of think about Mr. Driscoll's situation and come up with some other options in the future, rather than debate this over and over again as a new problem, because we really have to think about what was talked about and what was proposed.
[Tim McGivern]: PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, David Ensign -- That makes sense. I think, and also too is that may not be probably if we allow business permit parking, there may be a way for Mr. Driscoll and his business to work with that. And if there's a problem that arises, then I mean, I'm comfortable enough to make a motion to approve with the change that Todd made about the typo. So no overnight restriction and then adding business permit parking.
[Jack Buckley]: Hey, on the motion of commission, I'm a given three hours. Real parking 8 AM to 10 PM and with no overnight restrictions and to allow business permit parking without restriction. Do I have a second?
[Alicia Hunt]: I'll second it.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Hunt.
[Alicia Hunt]: Todd has his hand up. Is that still up?
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I was just going to ask the question. I didn't want to interrupt the motion process, though. The accept by permit, even the signs that have recently gone up for the resident permit just say permit. They don't explicitly say resident or business. That gives us future flexibility to allow one or the other. So I don't know if that affected Tim's motion or not. Just throwing that out there.
[Alicia Hunt]: And how do people know when they need a resident permit versus when a business permit is good enough.
[Todd Blake]: So, in some systems that we may we may emulate. The permanent parking only is posted and it's understood to all this resident, but that enables the business permit program in some cases to also utilize those same spaces and. As long as you have a permit, the parking department knows who has a permit, who doesn't. I'm just specifying that we don't, we and other neighboring cities don't specify, except if the business permit space is solely restricted for that use. So like in the Governor's Ave lot, this one whole section that's business permit only, and it's business permit only all the time, it's not business or resident or meter, it's just one thing. But in other situations, Yeah, so I'll stop and let the commissioners do whatever they're motioning. Either way, it can be always readdressed, whichever way it shakes out.
[Jack Buckley]: We've always allowed some leeway on the wording on the sign anyway to fit with that, to be consistent throughout the city. Okay, so we saw the motion that's been seconded by Commissioner Hunt. I'll have a roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Mr. Turner, are you present?
[Unidentified]: Hi, thank you for having me tonight.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah. Thank you. And welcome. Uh, the floor is yours. If you could, uh, present, uh, your petition.
[SPEAKER_25]: Uh, sure. Um, I've had, uh, several email correspondences with Alva over the last couple of weeks to months. Um, my wife and I are resident in a two family. home. We live in the first floor, which is an apartment that we rent as a part of our, the property that we live in, sort of interestingly situated between the Fellsway over by Wellington Circle and Wellington Road. We're sort of, we're Wellington Road and the Fellsway sort of Meet there's sort of an angle where the property begins there's a house next to us that's the actual corner and then we are the next house proximal to that up the street. And, but our property of butts both Wellington road and the fells way. We have a shared garage with our upstairs neighbors that's on Wellington Road. There was a change to the parking on Wellington Road in the last year where there's now permit parking required, but we were not involved in that petition because our address is on the Fellsway and so we were never a part of that parking permit. I received a variance last year and received parking permits for my wife and I for Wellington Road, but in September received some parking warning stating that I didn't have parking permit designated for Wellington Road. And so this variance is to include us as permitted parking for our for our for our residents on Wellington Road. You say you've had this. I'm sorry, I missed part of this. You've had this variance in the past, correct? I was under the impression I was in communication via email with, I think it was Alva and with Park Medford last year, and Park Medford ultimately sent me parking permits. So I was under the impression that I had the variance for what it's worth.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood. I just want to look like your property abuts both Fellsway and Wellington Road. I mean, you share a portion of Wellington Road where your property lies, correct?
[SPEAKER_25]: I'm just looking at the map. Yes, so if you kind of just pull the map up a little bit, if you kind of go up Wellington Road, yep, so that house that's designated, so that you can see off to the, on Wellington Road, off to the right there, there's a small covered garage. So our property goes directly from Fellsway directly to Wellington Road and in fact we have a gate on our yard on both sides. So we generally like on snow emergencies or with full parking on the Fellsway because with now the parking permitted that's on Bradbury and Wellington we don't always have parking on Fellsway we have to park on Wellington Road. Um, and so, you know, there's only, we only have one space in that garage that we can use. So one of us is on Wellington road quite frequently. Excellent.
[Jack Buckley]: Um, thank you for the presentation, uh, commissioner's questions, uh, uh, of Mr. Turner or of each other related to this petition.
[Unidentified]: Don't be shy.
[Bob Dickinson]: Seeing none here, Commissioner Brzezinski, please. I mean, have we looked in the file? Did we in fact approve something in the past for him or no?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, there is some evidence that it was approved in the past and for whatever reason it is not on file as of right now. So yeah, that's a great question. It was approved in the past.
[Bob Dickinson]: But we don't know. We don't know why it was later disapproved or is it a annual thing that he needs to fill out and come get and presumably pay money? Is that what happened?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. So the answer to that is the when Mr. Turnell, and he can speak to this if I get this wrong, Mr. Turnell went to the parking department to get his variance. It didn't specifically list Wellington Road so they wanted the commission to reaffirm their vote.
[Adam Hurtubise]: That is correct.
[Todd Blake]: If I may, I think this happened with a number of people between this transition between Park Medford and the Medford parking department. So I think it's just one of those things that happens. Yeah.
[Jack Buckley]: But I do not remember when the original petition was agreed upon. The original variance was granted. That was last year.
[SPEAKER_25]: It was in 2021.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, we only approved permit parking on Wellington Road in the last two years because I remember it distinctly. This seems fine to me, I would move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: Real quickly, is there anyone here wishes to speak against the petition?
[Adam Hurtubise]: I just want to make sure I'm clear. Seeing none.
[Jack Buckley]: Is that a motion, Commissioner Hunt, for approval? Motion to approve by Commissioner Hunt. Do I have a second?
[Bob Dickinson]: I would second that.
[Jack Buckley]: Is that Commissioner Brzezinski? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski on the second. I'll have a roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Pastorow? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Butler?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, five to nothing. The motion is approved and the permit variance has been granted. Mr. Turner, thank you very much for your participation for your presentation.
[SPEAKER_25]: Thank you. And just in terms of next steps, should I just reach out to the parking department to pick up the permits or?
[Jack Buckley]: HAB-Michael Leccesereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Sure, which would you like to take?
[Alicia Hunt]: Can we take 2022-68, the crosswalk on Boston Ave at Dowling Garage?
[Jack Buckley]: 2022-68, crosswalk Boston Ave on Dowling Building. Director Blake.
[Todd Blake]: One sec. Let's see. Just going to get my aerial to explain this properly. So the reason for the proposal is during the construction of the GLX project, there was a crosswalk on Boston Ave that was moved temporarily to facilitate different work zones that were being set up. But as part of that process, the City of Manford, as well as Tufts University, both prefer the temporary location to be the new permanent location instead of the old crosswalk location. So this is Boston Ave, this is the new Greenline station, this is Tufts Dowling Garage, College Ave is over here, Winthrop Street's over here. So previously there were two bus stops located not aligned with the garage, more aligned with the surface parking lot where this blue symbol is, and there was a crosswalk there, but Anyone familiar with this area, there wasn't really a destination on either side of the street besides the bus stop itself. So during construction, when the GLX was occupying a lot of that side of the street of Boston, that crosswalk was let fade away and it was restriped here to align with the entrance exit of Dowling Hall, which, as you can see from this aerial, connects to the campus from above. So that's a desire line from the campus above that comes down through this building and that's where it funnels out. And that will help guide whoever comes from that direction to and from the new GLX station and other points of interest. So we're asking for the crosswalk to remain where it's shown on this aerial and not be removed and put back over here where my cursor is in the letter A is in Bosna.
[Unidentified]: All right, thank you, Director Blake. Comments or questions from the commissioners? So this would be made to be permanent and improvements will be made to it. And this one would fade away. It used to be right here to here.
[Jack Buckley]: I don't see any questions or comments from the commissioners. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to speak in favor of Mr. DeRico? How are you, sir? Welcome.
[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Commissioner. My name is Rocco Dorico. I'm the Executive Director of Government Community Relations at Tufts University. My office is located at 14 Capen Street in Medford. Thank you to Todd Blake for that. presentation and for his advocacy of this. We are in support of this. This temporary crosswalk in its current location connects to Dowling Hall. As Todd pointed out, that serves as a gateway to our campus. Dowling Hall is fully ADA accessible and creates an equitable path to our main campus. So on behalf of the students, faculty, staff, At Tufts University, we support the current location of the crosswalk. We thank Todd and the city for advocating for it to remain in this location and look forward to the enhancements there that are going to come hopefully next year. Thank you, commissioners.
[Jack Buckley]: Mr. Drigo, thank you for your comments and your participation. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor of the petition? Seeing none, is there anyone present who wishes to speak against the petition? Being none, I turn it back to the commissioners for comments, questions, or a motion.
[Bob Dickinson]: I would support that. I think it makes sense. And if the campus community supports it, then I think we should oblige.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner Brzezinski to approve 2022-68 crosswalk on Boston Abbott Dowling building, do I have a second?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I'll second it.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Hunt. Alba, roll call vote, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Pastorciaro? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Yes, on a five to nothing. The motion is approved and 2022-68 is accepted. Thank you Mr. Durigo for your participation. 2022-64 on petition permit parking 24-7 for Grant Avenue from Salem Street to Hooker Street. You get the petition. Alba, do we have the petition? Is it in order?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: It's good. Let me just see it real quick.
[Jack Buckley]: You get that going. Is there, is the petitioner for this for Grant Avenue present? And if they could raise their hand and we can let you speak.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I'll take it. They are here. They are. Interesting. Do you know what the matter is? I just don't know. I'll wait.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: John Kelleher was the originator of the petition.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, Mr. Kelleher is not present. I don't see him. It appears we have one, two, three.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, there's a comment saying we are here. They're just here under a different name, OANH.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Oh, okay. Excellent. If you wouldn't, I asked wouldn't unmute and you could speak. Can you unmute them?
[Jack Buckley]: It's not allowing us to unmute you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Asked to, I'll try it.
[Unidentified]: Maybe it's something on their end.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: They might not have audio.
[Alicia Hunt]: We could allow everybody to unmute through the security settings and then turn that setting back off.
[Unidentified]: OK. I'll do that.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Chief. Mr. Isaac Kelleher, you guys want to speak on behalf? Hi.
[Alicia Hunt]: I see another resident. Ms. Flynn, are you trying to speak on their behalf?
[Patty Flynn]: I am. I just wanted to let you know, Alicia, I sent him a message to unmute so he can unmute. I'm waiting for a response from him. We did that as well.
[Alicia Hunt]: And he messaged in the chat. We are here. If you want to send a message saying what the technical problem is.
[Patty Flynn]: Yeah, I'm trying to do that now. I saw that, but he's still muted. I don't know that he knows how to unmute it.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Well, do you have their number? Is there any way you could call them?
[Patty Flynn]: I already did. I called and left a message. Let me try again. Jay, please unmute the computer. He's actually a traffic personnel. He works over at Columbus.
[Alicia Hunt]: Since they were able to put a message in the chat, maybe they could try again, put another message in the chat that we could read out. I did, Alicia. I just sent him another one. Oh, they're reconnecting. I readmitted them. Excellent. Thank you.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Is it the same name, Alicia?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes.
[Unidentified]: Hello, can you hear us now?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yep.
[Unidentified]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_16]: All right, we figured it out.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I think so.
[SPEAKER_16]: This is Kelliher, John.
[Jack Buckley]: Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So go ahead, please. So we have the petition. Can I hand it? It seems to be in order. We have several of the residents that have signed this.
[SPEAKER_16]: Yes. We do have two in there, because what we'd like to try to do, too, I mean, after this one, I understand we have to do two different type of situation, but we want to try to do a one way going out to Salem Street as well. So I know we have two different petitions going, but we're only dealing with the first one this evening. Can we read one way? No, we're not gonna do the one way yet.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: That's why I didn't put it on.
[SPEAKER_16]: I've emailed Todd a couple of different times on this loop. So we've kind of started a little email. In regards to the one way part.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, so and we'll that'll be another meeting another week we get legal and traffic engineer but on the petition for resident permit parking the floor is yours.
[SPEAKER_16]: Well, what's happened here during, you know, the resident parking park, we've kind of become a parking garage out here for a lot of people who will park here for the day and take the bus at the corner to go into town to work. We have cars that sit out here for days at a time with Connecticut license plates on them, New York license plates on them. Cars sit out here for two weeks at a time. Residents come home, nobody has a place to park. So we're just trying to, you know, fine tune it so we can, so people can't come home at night and have a place to park their vehicles. Now I understand there's a resident, the restaurant on the corner there, which from my understanding, if he wants that spot, he's more than welcome to it. And right directly across the street, if you folks want, there's four cars that can be parked there. So if you folks wanted to leave even two spots there for guest parking or somebody who wants to do business on Salem Street, There's no issue there either. But it's farther down the street where folks park and we're just trying to get people who live here in the neighborhood to be able to come home at night and park their car in front of their residents.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood. I think Booker Street's right here as well. Yep, that's right. I was just looking at the map and reviewing it. At the risk of not having to speak to every neighbor, because I think I'm going to hear the same, does anyone else like to speak in regards to the original petition?
[Alicia Hunt]: Chief, can I just ask a question?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: The applicant. So I just want to know, how do we know that these are not renters or belonging to people who live on the street?
[SPEAKER_16]: Because nobody in the neighborhood knows who the cars are. Okay, we're pretty, we're pretty tight knit group around here. And everybody knows everybody. And we see the same people every day. And we see the same vehicles every day. Who, you know, who owns a vehicle? There was a car with Connecticut plates sitting out here for four days, just the other day, nobody's nobody knows who it was. Right?
[Alicia Hunt]: Because we do have, you know, renters around the city who don't.
[SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, no, we're a tight neighborhood. But we know everybody kind of knows everybody. And everybody knows who has what vehicles.
[Jack Buckley]: And it does look by the petition that they have a significant amount of residents who signed the petition.
[SPEAKER_16]: So we had pretty much one from at least every household, if not more.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I don't know if P. Flynn, raise your hand prior, so I don't know if they've already spoken.
[Jack Buckley]: The floor of P. Flynn. Hi.
[Patty Flynn]: Hi, good. Thank you. How are you? So I'm actually a homeowner that lives on Grant Ave. The problem I have is our driveway is constantly getting blocked. I actually have had to have cars because I've waited is the maximum time I can wait. I mean, I'm not saying like a corner of it's in the driveway, which happens frequently, but to the point where I can't get my car out.
[SPEAKER_16]: Okay. Agreed, agreed. We have that constantly.
[Patty Flynn]: Right.
[SPEAKER_16]: People triple parking on top of each other out here.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, just pull the driveway.
[SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I agree.
[Unidentified]: I agree with that we have that down.
[SPEAKER_15]: Yep, from P Flynn I live three houses down in my neighbor where I'm at right now just we have the same problem about it.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, understood. Um, cool commissioners any questions concerns to the petitioners.
[Tim McGivern]: I have a question I was just looking on the maps here I mean it does appear that most if not all of the homes have pretty sizable driveways. And also I would say that the cars that have blocked driveways, definitely call call those in those are illegal. But I guess I want to hear a little bit more. So do folks have more cars than the driveways can handle? Looks like we have multifamily residences, but the driveways do look pretty substantial.
[Unidentified]: So I guess I'd like to hear a little bit more about that. Mr. Keller or Ms. Flynn, would you like to comment?
[Patty Flynn]: Yes, I can address that. I'm one of those families that has a pretty sizable driveway. But I also have four children that all drive. We have two cars. I mean, I'm sorry, we have several cars for, you know, for our home. But not only that, you know, besides the point, you know, we do have to occasionally park in the street. However, there are many two and three family homes here that require parking and they are not allowed to park in the driveways. You know, they're usually home, you know, they're usually owner occupied. but many times they're not allowed.
[Tim McGivern]: So a situation where the owner parks in the driveway, uses the driveway, but the renter is not allowed to use the driveway. So they're limited to the street.
[Patty Flynn]: This is correct.
[Tim McGivern]: Okay. And then we have a situation where we think, um, the theory is, is that folks are parking on this stretch of grant ave to take the bus to like Malden center or something like that, to, Get to work. Do I have the right?
[Patty Flynn]: Yeah, that's correct. But not only that, they're they're parking there and I don't want to inhibit or by any means limit the restaurant business. There's plenty of parking on Salem Street and a little in the next street over. It's just that everybody is parking here. So they are trying to squeeze in close to the restaurant and they're blocking our driveways doing it.
[Tim McGivern]: Got it. I'd be interested in the traffic sergeant's view on this as well and what their field experience is, if they have any.
[Jack Buckley]: Jim, a lot of it on Grand Theft, Sheridan, Farragut, all those. They park there and then they take the bus into Boston.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, OK. That's what we're saying. Yeah, we've had multiple block highways like that relaying to us and issues some live Salem Street, but majority of them are commuters.
[Alicia Hunt]: OK, thank you. This is an interesting problem because actually we'd like to see people taking the bus and not driving places right. Like that's good behavior. That's good for the environment. I do note that there is a the there's a large parking lot at the end of the street, but it's not a pub. It's not owned by the city, it's not a municipal lot, it's owned by the shopping center at the end of the block that one would think they could park there. Is there any chance that the traffic sergeants know whether like that parking, the owners of that lot don't allow people to park there or enforce
[Jack Buckley]: that you have to be sure there is private property, they would not allow anybody. But massive law and square is under construction. There will be a parking lot the next year at the beginning of Spring Street. So I don't know what the restriction restrictions start right now on whether they'll be able to park in there.
[Patty Flynn]: I do.
[Todd Blake]: That will be primarily liquor stores. Yeah, it's why can't I raise my hand?
[Patty Flynn]: Am I muted? Nope, we can hear you. I can tell you because when I hurt my knee, you can use that lot. That's a business lot. Anybody can use the lot.
[Alicia Hunt]: The target lot, they don't know. I was wondering if they enforced the idea that you should only park there while parking while shopping.
[Patty Flynn]: So not the target lot, anybody can use it and people that live across the street from target that live in that building over there, they they park there a lot. It's a business lot as well. I'm talking about behind Martin hardware. There's also parking behind there as well.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, off Lambert. Yeah, yeah.
[Patty Flynn]: That's places to park. It's just that people like the idea of parking close, which I can understand and taking their car, you know, their the bus to work, which is fine. But in the same token, my driveway is being blocked. My kids don't have a place to park visitors in tenants.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, I guess I was hoping that we could displace the commuters to this other lot rather than know that now people are gonna be like, well, now I'm gonna have to drive to work or something like that.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: The target has just business parking.
[Jack Buckley]: We're debating the lots ourselves, but the restrictions are so. Any other questions from the commissioners of the petitioner or to the fellow commissioners?
[Unidentified]: Commissioner Brzezinski.
[Bob Dickinson]: What are the streets like Sheridan around? Are they permit parking or are they free for all also? I guess it'd be Spring Street and then Sheridan. Are they permit parking only?
[Adam Hurtubise]: I'm looking up Alva's list right now.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, I have my list with me and I just being in the conference room restricts us from access. It's export overnight time. That's overnight.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: That's it.
[Jack Buckley]: It's just overnight time. From what I can see. The problem with putting anyone there is private property. We can't direct people to park on private property. Whether or not they allow it is one thing. We can't kind of impose it on them.
[Todd Blake]: It does not look like the other streets in the immediate vicinity have permit yet. Although I will say the Spring Street only is parked on one side, so that could contribute to side streets.
[Bob Dickinson]: that area. Okay. I mean, I think I'd like to delineate between the fact that people who block your driveway, that's one issue versus let's make it all permit parking. And that's the way to solve this. I mean, and then again, I'm, you know, four cars or, you know, that many cars per family, it's a huge amount of cars. And I don't necessarily know that we get to guarantee you get to park outside your house all the time. But I mean, I do appreciate the frustration. I would love to hear from the Fiore Italy people. I don't know if they're on the call or not, what their thoughts are on, you know.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Fiore Italy was notified and the residents at 411 and 413 Salem Street were also notified.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. For the commissioners, I don't know if you heard that, but yeah, the Fiore Italy was notified and so were the residents on the Salem Street. So is there anyone here from Fiore Italy or? Salem Street who wishes to speak on this.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: They asked to speak, I'm gonna ask to unmute them. Yeah, this is Mr. Kelleher.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, that's Mr. Kelleher, but I wanna see if anyone's from the businesses or residents of Salem Street first. I don't see anyone. Okay, so let's go back to Mr. Kelleher.
[SPEAKER_16]: I've spoken to the owner of the restaurant and he's pretty much all for everything we wanna do out here. I mean, if you folks want to go talk to him, you're more than welcome. Neighbor across the street here is good friends with him. And he talks to him all the time about, you know, he's all for it. We've spoken to him. I wanted to keep him in the loop about what we want to do, because we understand he does have his restaurant up the street.
[Jack Buckley]: OK, and you're comfortable if we, you know, if we do carve out a portion of the end of street for business parking if needed to delineate that.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Resident parking will start in front of the first house. Yes, right.
[Jack Buckley]: I'm impressed you guys can hear this because she's not really talking very loud. She's like, like my, you know, my confidant gives me all the important things I have to say but you're picking up every word so that's it. That's pretty good.
[Todd Blake]: Chief and commissioners, I had something to add. We've worked with Fiore Italy for the past several years to help them with the outdoor seating. So definitely the one space immediately adjacent, that would be great if, which as typical with any other resident permit street, it usually ends before adjacent to a business. So definitely I would propose to not include at least that one space, whether it's for parking or the outdoor seating. And then in relation to the outdoor seating, we've restricted the space opposite Fiore Italy so that when the outdoor seating's there, we can facilitate two-way traffic. So it's just something else to keep in mind. Thanks.
[Jack Buckley]: I would imagine most of their business is evening hours, and that there would be more parking available on Salem Street in and of itself in the municipal lots to assist with that. I believe Commissioner Brzezinski, did you still have your hand up? Do you have a comment?
[Bob Dickinson]: I did raise it again. It looks like if you look at Google Maps, that there are two handicapped spots in front of that first house, I guess. behind Fuhrer Italy, are those still active?
[Jack Buckley]: We probably can't tell right now, but we will confirm that. Okay. It's most likely if they're in this, this says March of 22, the street view.
[Bob Dickinson]: So if we're looking at... Where exactly were you saying, Steve? If you're like right behind Fuhrer Italy is a brown house, there's a driveway to the, say, stage left of that house, and there are two handicapped spots designated right in front of it.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, Jordan, if you rotate the other side, it's two signs, but one space, I believe. I've seen, when I've been out there with the outdoor seating, I've seen the person using it, and I believe it's one space with a front and back end sign, even if it doesn't have the arrow. Correct. Yeah. I've seen her actually use it this year, so I think it is still active. All right, very good.
[Jack Buckley]: All right. And we'll go one more time to Ms. Flynn, if you do have a comment. I see sometimes people leave their hands up, but do you have a comment?
[Patty Flynn]: I do. Go ahead. So the handicap signs, one's being utilized. The other handicap sign, the woman has passed. It's not, I just wanted to be clear. I didn't start this petition and it's not just my driveway. So I don't want anybody to assume that this is why we're asking for this. I didn't start this.
[Jack Buckley]: I think we get that. And thank you for that comment. I do think we understand that. But we sometimes want to make sure that we're very clear about what we're voting on here and the reasons for what we're voting on. And so you get questions asked like that back. But I think we all understand that. So to the commissioners, Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Bob Dickinson]: Just one last thing. I've noticed in looking at these driveways, we run into the issue again of the curb cut versus the driveway. And it seems like there are a lot of these driveways that are wider than their curb cut. So, something for them to keep in mind as they go forward, that what you think is your driveway does not necessarily match what the city believes your driveway to be. So, just keep that in mind when people are quote unquote blocking your driveway.
[Jack Buckley]: And that is a very valid point. I mean, and with the commissioner position, sometimes we see you get a curb cut and that curb cut could be traditional, could be, you know, five years, 10 years, 20 years old, and you expand your own driveway, but you don't get the curb cut to match the driveway. And therefore they can legally park up to, what is it? 10 feet on the curb? Three feet. Three feet from the driveway, but that's the curb cut, not the actual driveway on your private property. So I would suggest to all of you that you petition the city to get a curb cut if your driveway is wider than your curb cut. Thank you.
[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah, there's a prime example right there where Todd is showing where that truck is. I mean, that is not your driveway.
[Jack Buckley]: Yep. So in other words, a person parking three feet off that curb cut is legally parked, even though it may impact the car inside that driveway, which is wider than the curb cut. valid point for the residents to keep in mind. And they can petition the city to resolve those matters also. Anything else from the commissioners? Is there anyone online who wishes to speak against the petition? Seeing none, I defer back to the commissioners for a comment or a motion or further debate.
[Bob Dickinson]: And do we, I know it's not, I presume it's not unanimous, but how many do we have in support of this?
[Jack Buckley]: We have a petition has.
[Bob Dickinson]: Oh, and chief, there's also someone out there who does want to speak against this. She does comments.
[Unidentified]: Okay. Good. Yep.
[Jack Buckley]: Welcome. Please, the floor is yours for your comments.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_02]: Hello, I actually am here mostly about the overall sweeping reform of our permitted parking, but I wanted to comment on this one as well. I actually regularly park on the street and I obviously don't block anybody's highway, anybody's driveway, but it is, I mostly park there because of businesses that are on Salem Street. Salem Street does not have any available parking whatsoever. To be honest, if parking were to be introduced on the street, I'm not sure where to park otherwise. As you discussed, there are no real parking lots around there and there are no places where I could park even briefly to access the businesses on Salem Street.
[Jack Buckley]: But thank you for your comments and just just for clarification, there are municipal losses a missile lot on sound street on the opposite side that was one that we had kind of pointed out, and it was actually it's specifically for those businesses in that area. For you know to to to help support the businesses, and you know we talked about the target lot and i'm very careful it is completely private property but. whether you want to debate it one way or the other, they have not really, they've been open to the public to park there. And I'm just leaving that as a comment because I can't, of course, direct people to park on someone's private property. But they've been very charitable to the neighborhood.
[Alicia Hunt]: I actually just wanted to ask that because I haven't been there since the Haines Square construction has started. So I'm wondering if there is a temporary parking restriction, but there are several blocks of metered parking in Haines Square. So it's limited to two hours. It's not all day parking. But when I've been to those businesses, I've certainly utilized that. And it starts at Grand Ave and goes up to Fellsway. So is it not there during the construction?
[Todd Blake]: Construction is allowing parking in most of those areas. We've directed construction to only restrict where they're needed and where they're working at the moment. So those had been restricted to like half blocks at a time on one side of the street. So all that that you're speaking of, Alicia, from like Dempsey's to Fellsway has been available the whole time. And then only areas near Ronnie's at times in this bank have been blocked and occasionally on the Dunkin Donuts side near the hardware. But for the most part, that block definitely from Dempsey's to Fellsway has been available in the lot behind Dunkin Donuts has been available.
[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah, I mean, I go through there a good bit. I think it's just sheer volume. I think there are a vast number of people that travel through there now. The construction doesn't make it any better. I don't think that a lot of people know that the Lambert Parking lot is there, unless you frequent Dempsey's or you just know that the lot is over there. So I think it's mostly just volume, the number of cars that go through there and the number of cars that park and stay there for a while. So did we get an answer on the percentage of people supporting the petition?
[Jack Buckley]: I have 22 signatures, 16 of which are separate households, but what I don't have in front of me is how many actually households are in that area. So I can't give you a clear percentage. I don't have that right in front of me, but if we could, I don't know if you have that there. If we could just kind of Google map and look at how many houses quickly were approximate in that area. Do you have the total numbers?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I know we do have the residence houses that I sent to Seattle Street to hook up.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so the number of 1234. 21, 22. So it appears to be 22 residential houses were mailed to regarding this petition. There were also two on Salem Street and fewer Italy in and of itself. And out of those 22 sort of residential buildings, we have 22 signatures, but they come from 16 separate residential. So 16 out of 22, that's 375, 70%, something along those lines. That would be a rough percentage of people petitioning for the apartment pocket. Thank you for that. The other commissioners comments, questions or emotion of either myself or the petitioner.
[Tim McGivern]: I have a question for the traffic sergeants. My experience with that lot on Lambert Street is that a lot of the residents that live right there park in that lot and it doesn't really get enforced. Is that your experience as well?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: We towed. I think there was like four vehicles out of there two weeks ago for residents that are in the area that parking for over 40 hours to being a you all truck. would say we enforce it. Obviously, not as much as we probably should, but we're aware of the issue that we've been having over there. But I would say that there are residents that are parking in there, but we're trying to be more vigilant and paying attention more to that.
[Tim McGivern]: Okay, thank you. Yeah, this one. On the fence on a little bit here, but That's good information. That has been a problem. So if that lot is staying clear, it's being used for its purpose, then I don't necessarily see an issue with this particular petition. This block is right up against the business district. So I would imagine that folks are parking there to go to the businesses and go to the T and do other things. So I can understand this.
[Jack Buckley]: Is your understanding in the form of a motion?
[Tim McGivern]: No, it is not. It's still kind of on the fence, I mean. Thoughts from the other.
[Alicia Hunt]: The problem, Chief, is that we see parking as a public good for everybody and not belonging just to the people whose houses are right there. On the other hand, they have a right to be able to, you know, to park. I wonder, I remember that we had another street in front of us about two years ago that was in a nearish by neighborhood near the Fellsway where they had strong belief that people were parking. They actually watched people then get in an Uber and Uber places like the, and they think like take luggage out of their car and get in an Uber. And we became aware that people had figured out this was a good place to get a ride to the airport and leave your car. without pay. And I don't know if that might actually be what's happening here too. It's a very bizarre phenomenon to me. I'm trying to- I agree with that sentiment.
[Tim McGivern]: Another part of this too, that you didn't say and I'll add, and maybe you weren't gonna say it, but that Yane Square, you know, could use some more foot traffic. And I'm reluctant to, restrict more parking for the businesses in Haines Square right now, especially with the driveways that I'm seeing on this block of Grand Ave.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. We really need better signage for our public parking lot that directs people back there, that shows people where the public lots are. We've heard this about lots in other neighborhoods. I actually wonder if there's some long-term potential to utilize some of the space of the target lot as a public lot if they'd be amenable to a partnership with the city. Because I believe that we should have spaces for people to park. And I did take a quick look with Street View, the signs in the target lot are pretty threatening. They just don't sound very like that they would like it very much if you parked there and went to the other businesses. but they have excessive amounts of parking there, excessive.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I'm just going to share our screen here with some of these spots. Target really has done a good job at allowing vehicles and businesses to use them here in this lot here. Sorry, it's coming up now. Target, these front spots here, they've definitely been very generous with allowing businesses that are along this strip here on Salem Street to be using these parking spots. I'm not gonna say all of them are for the businesses, but I would say the majority of these vehicles are probably workers or people that are shopping in these businesses around this area here. We've never really had any issues with vehicles having to be towed and targets never really called us if there was any issues, unless I'm not aware of it. Sarge, I don't know. So I can get the other view out for you.
[Jack Buckley]: Well, I mean, in one sense, this is interesting, right? So a lot of commissions items on the agenda are put forth by commissioners, in which case that commissioner would then push for approval and it would get voted or denied, but where we could take uh, petitions from the public. Uh, in some sense, we still have to take a vote on this one and it has to be voted yay or nay. Um, so I would ask the commissioners to think about at least putting the motion forward and, uh, regardless of how their vote would go. That makes sense.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: And also, sorry to. add on again, but this is being revamped for parking, you said next year, Chief?
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, they don't construction now. I guess the other option is to table the item, right? To do some more research on the public parking and the availability of parking and bring it back up after we do some more research when it comes to that.
[Tim McGivern]: Well, it sounds like at least half of the people that live there are in favor of this on that block. So that's pretty swaying. That's what's pulling me to that side of the fence. And then I feel like Haines Square is always having trouble getting businesses to stick and flourish. So that's the other thing pulling me on. But if we have better wayfinding to the Lambert Street Lodge, what a lot of people don't know about, then that could, They could push me over the edge here, so.
[Jack Buckley]: I will remind the commissioner that we have in the past approved such resident permanent parkings with a period of review, three months, six months, so we can see and determine impacts on the neighborhood. You could also maybe amend or present a motion that had something with, you know, to present clearer signs for the use of the municipal parking lot there like you know in the past they had the blue p parking signs etc which i do not think they're up so i mean there are a few options when it when it comes to a motion if you're on the fence with that
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. Chief, am I correct in belief that the parking, the signs that would be the big P, those are not regulated that point people to the public parking and between my office, the planning office and Tim's DPW, we could just decide to put some of those out there.
[Todd Blake]: That's correct. I would like to interject because that request has already been made. So we actually already have an active request to order in place It was Pete Parkinson's at every municipal out in the city, per several requests from different departments. We're just trying to sort out how we're paying for that.
[Alicia Hunt]: So it's an ongoing- I'm talking to me up tomorrow offline and we'll figure that out.
[Todd Blake]: If that was going to use some of the leftover grant for one of the projects, so we're already actively working on it.
[Jack Buckley]: The answer to the question directly, it's not regulated where this commission would have to take a vote on that. It could just be done. commissioners have to move one way or the other.
[Alicia Hunt]: I would move approval. And I'm just with the aside that I'll speak to Yvette in my office and see what we can do to move forward, getting the signs out for the pointing to public parking.
[Tim McGivern]: Alicia, if I was going to make a motion as well, but can we have it that we include in the motion itself to put up some wayfinding signs as a part of this, just to have it on the record, because that's really my concern here.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sounds great. So move approval to approve this with the addition of a request that the city install wayfinding signs to the existing public parking.
[Tim McGivern]: I'll second that motion.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, on the motion Commissioner hunt, seconded by Commissioner given to prove petition 2022 to 64 private pocket 24 seven for grant Avenue from Salem Street to hook a street with a request coming from the traffic commission that the city put wayfinder direction signs up for the municipal parking over and roll call Commissioner given. Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Passatore? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Bob Dickinson]: Are we adding in the carve out for the first couple lots from Salem Street that would not be included?
[Alicia Hunt]: That is my understanding. Right, the petition included that it would start at the first house. So like not, so yes, not these two on the end.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Brzezinski to know that is standard now pretty much for any street we approve if there's a business on the corner doesn't start to the first resident.
[Bob Dickinson]: Okay, very good. Oh, yes.
[Jack Buckley]: For me, Chief Buckley, yes on a five to no vote the motion is approved. for Resident Permit Parking on Grant Avenue. I thank you all for your patience, for your input, and your comments this evening for those that spoke both in favor and against this. 2022-65, Permit Parking Variance for Joseph Mizoraka, 402 Main Street for Wareham Street or Bonner Avenue. Is the petitioner present? I'm gonna need the screen.
[Alicia Hunt]: Chief, they have a weird, they don't seem to have an unmute opportunity next to their name in our participants list. I'm wondering if he doesn't have a microphone.
[Jack Buckley]: That's interesting. Mr. Mizaraka. We can't unmute him.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. Can you type in the chat?
[Jack Buckley]: And while we're doing that, do you have a specific petition in front of you from him?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I don't have it. It's all emails.
[Jack Buckley]: All right. And do you know the premise of the petition?
[Alicia Hunt]: Chief, it's also the phone number. So here. I'll unmute the phone number.
[Jack Buckley]: You've got to unmute the phone number. OK. Excellent.
[Alicia Hunt]: I think Sir, you might need to hit there you got it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome. I finally made it. I've lived there for 2 main streets for all of my life and recently with him Street, I was parking and I never had any issues finding a spot now we're waiting Street became resident parking. I have a difficult time finding spot. Sometimes I have to park all the way down there. Tough talk to me in the school lot. which is kind of crazy. I'm also competing with business owners and their employees who park on the few blocks where I live on Main Street, as well as their customers and folks who may be going to karate or different places. Also, my vehicle has been hit more than three times by being parked on Main Street, hit and runs usually, because of people making illegal turns. So I'm just trying to find the ability to talk on with him 3 like my wife came home at 4 o'clock this afternoon and there were no spaces. I had to go pop in a tough spot where when they drove up with him Street is definitely plenty of spots on with him 3 as well as on a raft so I just want some consideration for myself or folks who live on Main Street where is we're definitely being squeezed out we're all the fact trees and a resident parking and I can't get a resident parking because they don't live on. that particular street. Thank you for presenting that and just to confirm that it for the for the commissioners that is the resident and that's where it's located in uh uh in regards to my family it's on that house for their whole life pretty much over 70 years and like now the pizza shop I got employees from the pizza shop who park in front their business trucks who park in front of there with commercial plates as well as there's a coffee shop, people that go to a coffee shop, especially on Saturdays, it's terrible coming home in the afternoon with groceries or just trying to find a parking spot. It's kind of crazy.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood. And again, for the commissioners, that street to the left, that would be opposite him. That is Wareham Street. That is the street that was the variances being requested. Any comments, questions by the commissioners?
[Tim McGivern]: I got a question, if I have the house correct it looks like there is no driveway for this structure is that correct.
[SPEAKER_03]: Correct correct the driveway that 400 pain free.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you.
[Todd Blake]: Also, to chief and the commissioners. Depending on what happens with the proposal for the rest of South my for hillside. I don't know if this person will still want to variance the side street or prefer to use the permit for Main Street Main Street becomes permanent. That's a good point.
[SPEAKER_03]: If Main Street were ever to become a permit parking, where?
[Todd Blake]: So it's currently proposed, Main Street is currently proposed to be permit parking in areas that don't currently have any restriction. So then if that were to happen, usually the commissioners, one, you request, if you do get a variance for side street, you lose your ability to park on the street itself. Is that correct, Chief?
[Jack Buckley]: That is correct. You get one, of Avenue.
[SPEAKER_03]: So currently the folks on William Street and all the other side streets have permits back and can park on Main Street, correct?
[Todd Blake]: They can, but if it's approved for Main Street, then that won't be the case anymore.
[Alicia Hunt]: And that is something that was on our agenda and has been tabled, and we intend to take it off the table and discuss it tonight.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah. Like I said, it's horrible trying to find a parking spot. There's employees from the local bakeries who park there over eight hours, 10 hours a day. And only, like I said, you know, whoever's cops there. And I can't even find a parking spot. If you put up that view again, you have people that make illegal U-turns right on William Street, and my car's been hit multiple times. And I just get nervous parking my car on Main Street as well.
[Todd Blake]: TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. TAB, Alex Weinheimer. So the plan was the proposal, which includes Main Street was to have resident permit in areas that don't currently have restrictions, except the caveat would be it's two hour during 8am to 8pm, except by permit. So someone like yourself that lives on Main Street, if you got a permit for Main Street, you wouldn't be subject to the two hour, but business patrons for that area would be subject to the two hour. In itself, that restriction is meant to help folks like yourself so that there's turnover for businesses, but also it allows you to have the ability to park there all day and night. So whatever you choose, you can wait for that and be supportive for that, or you could go forward with what you're asking.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, winter time is coming, and I would prefer if I could park on Wareham Street, and who knows when that may take place for Main Street. Because if you look up the street near the bakeries and the karate Right now, there's meters there, as well as people who go to the local restaurants for the now and away system, but shall we still park on the few blocks where only available in their own place for me to park pretty much.
[Todd Blake]: I guess one last comment would be you could wait to the end of this meeting, you might have your answer.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, no, I'll stay. But I would if I can, I for the time being, I'm looking to park on Williams Street. I'd like it last call. I wasn't able to speak through zoom. That's why I dialed in this time. Like I said, it's very, every, every day is a challenge.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: So, uh, I've personally responded twice to a hit and run. And, um, with this particular resident at this particular particular, uh, spot, he's been hit multiple times on this road. Um, I personally respond to the two, which there may be more, but we do have issues and we've tried to address it as a traffic division here with this crosswalk is continuously blocked off by deliveries being made for the liquor store and the pizza shop here and the other shops around. But I understand what Todd saying, you know, it's definitely up to you, but just to kind of give you guys more insight, I've personally responded to two hit and run crashes here for this particular gentleman. And we are aware of the, issues we're having with some of the deliveries that we have for the businesses in this area.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I will say that I am more inclined to approve it, this unusual variance, because of the fact that I wish there was a way we could slow down these vehicles and that we could stop people from doing this insane hit and runs because people should be safe to park on their own streets. But I actually appreciate hearing from the traffic sergeant that they really are having this problem with hit and runs on this. this particular area. I feel like that's compelling.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. And, uh, kind of Todd brought it up before, uh, this issue, this area here, and then, um, kind of a side topic, you know, this street, we have a lot of, you know, incidents as well, but that's a side side note. Sorry.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. That lends itself to like, what can we do about traffic calming and calming the people who drive?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, the people fly by and even if you're in that crosswalk over there, people don't even stop for you for some reason.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, it's a very highly congested area for businesses and pedestrian.
[SPEAKER_03]: In 18 years ago or so, I used to be able to park on Bonner Ave, but that became resident parking as well. Like I said, I drove up William Street at four o'clock and there were definitely plenty of parking spots. And it's just frustrating knowing that I can't park. A lot of people on William Street do have driveways. who do use it. And like I said, especially on Saturdays when people go into karate or to different places or businesses. And like I said, it's just the employees at the businesses. Like I said, I know their vehicles because I'm outside trying to move my car that's three blocks away trying to find a parking spot near the house.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood. Let me ask, is there anyone here who wishes to speak against the petition? Let me see if there's anyone here. Seeing none, I turn it back to the commissioners for the comment, discussion, or motion on this.
[Tim McGivern]: Is there a preference for Wareham or Bonner? It sounds like there's a preference for Wareham.
[Unidentified]: Petitioner? We're just going to unmute him again. Sorry, Tim.
[Jack Buckley]: Oh, that's OK. I didn't know it was stated. It's not stated, but I believe from what he said, he's unmuted. All right, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, Wayham Street is the biggest street, and there's more spaces available than Bonnarab, because Bonnarab, you'd have to go down to the second block. But the corner house next to me, there's a few spots usually, but I would prefer Wayham if that's possible, please. And then I'll stay on for the whole meeting to hear about Main Street, but it would only be for a year if that's possible. Then if I need to switch back or
[Jack Buckley]: Obviously, I participate more often on these calls to move approval for Wareham Street on the motion of Commissioner McGiven to approve 2022-65 for permit parking variants for Mr. Joseph Miss Araka for Wareham Street, we have a second. Second, seconded by Commissioner Brzezinski. Roll call Alba Commissioner McGiven. Yes, Mr. Hunt.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yes. Commissioner Pesetovo. Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley. Yes. On a five and nothing vote, the petition is approved, the motion is approved and the petition passes. Mr. Mizarraca, thank you very much for your participation and comments. And it just will give us a couple of days to get all the information over to the parking department, then you should be all set in obtaining that variance. He's still muted. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: I appreciate it. And what time do you think you'll talk about Main Street? I'll stay on the call just so I can listen.
[Jack Buckley]: We have a few more. It could be a little while, but we have a few more to go.
[SPEAKER_03]: OK. I appreciate all your time and everybody. Have a good night.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Excellent. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Chief, I have to step away for two minutes. I'll be back in two minutes. I don't know if you were which one you were going to.
[Jack Buckley]: If you're gonna step away for two minutes, why don't we, well, I would have to get a motion to commission, but take 2022-67 out of order. It's a crosswalk and we could have, we can discuss this at Columbia Road and Royal. I think that's before we get into the opt-outs. Okay, so 2022-67, new crosswalk across Main Street at Columbia Road, Royal Street, the north leg of the intersection. Todd, I didn't see Amy, is she on? I apologize, Amy, if you are on.
[Todd Blake]: I don't think so. Yeah, so I'll be representing this one for Amy for the transition traffic division. So, bring this up.
[Jack Buckley]: Yep.
[Todd Blake]: share a screen.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, it is. Sure.
[Todd Blake]: The request is for a crosswalk. There's ramps on all four corners, but the way the alignment of the ramps works, Amy was suggesting the north crossing versus the south crossing, just because for accessible folks, it would work out a little better, the orientation and the desire line for the crosswalk. So one has never been present here to our knowledge. There is one at summer. There's not one at Maine. There is one at George in the vicinity, but only one side. We're working to rectify and add this other one at George at some point as well as part of Greenland improvements. But at the moment, this is the one we're asking about. And it kind of provides a connection from the Royal neighborhood across the Mystic neighborhood. It's one of the only streets we're on the Columbia that punches through this triangle block all the way to Mystic. So it does have a desire line in that regard. So this would be from this ramp to this ramp.
[Jack Buckley]: This ramp to Main Street, we've just put blocked out. Okay, that's actually interesting. So there's no construction has to take place. The ramps are already in place.
[Todd Blake]: Correct. So we would look to paint the side streets as well which we believe that was the original tent for these camps, but then asking the commission to approve this one across Maine as well.
[Jack Buckley]: And I feel like I should clarify this just for everyone. Amy Ingalls, and she's been on the commission before. She's a traffic engineer for the city of Medford, and she's looked into this, and this is her recommendation. So Director Blake can obviously present the petition on her behalf. But for those who are either watching and are wondering, that's who Amy is, as we refer to her. So comments and questions from the commissioners before I open it up publicly.
[Tim McGivern]: This is Tim.
[Jack Buckley]: Is there a crosswalk at George Street?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes. Yes. I'm in favor of this. Hold on one side, Tim.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Todd Blake]: Should be on the south side. So George currently has on south side and then a west leg, but there is a ramp here. And then as part of the Greenland mitigation money, we're constructing brand new ramps at this entire end section. So there will be a north crossing here as well at some point. And then as part of the main itself and mean it mystic improvements we're working on getting a crossing across mean in this vicinity, which currently doesn't exist so in this area there's a lack of a swap sons, there is one summer.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you. I'm in support of this. No, because I think we need to hear from people in favor and not in favor. Commissioner Brzezinski, you have a question?
[Bob Dickinson]: No, I love it. We walk, my wife and I walk in here, this area a lot, and it's incredibly dangerous if you're trying to make your way across the street. So I'm all for it, particularly if we can start repainting all the old ones in the area too, so.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. I'm seeing nothing else from the commissioners. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to speak in favor of this petition? Seeing none, is there anyone from the public wishing to speak against the petition? And seeing none, I defer back to the commissioners. It sounds like there may be a motion.
[Unidentified]: Move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner McGiven. to approve 2022-67 new crosswalk across Main Street at Columbia Road, Royal Street, the north leg of the intersection. Seconded by Commissioner Brzezinski. Yes, I second that. Roll call vote, Alba, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? She's absent.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'll abstain since I was not here for the presentation. Commissioner Passaciuoro? Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Yes, on a four to nothing to one abstaining the motion passes and 2022 to 67 is approved.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Can I just say something on that sorry. Good. I know this is probably not part of it but the lighting over there is tough and if we're going to add a crosswalk there. If either it's signage or lighting at night, it's extremely difficult to see in that area. lighting issues that we've had from summer to Royal on that. So if we're going to add a crosswalk, I know you guys already voted, so I probably should have brought this up before, but if there was some way we could bring a little bit more lighting to make the public aware that it's driving on there, that more foot pedestrian traffic that either lighting or signage.
[Alicia Hunt]: Are you talking about a street light or like a pedestrian flashing light?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Either or would be, preferable, a streetlight or flashing light. I don't know what would be easier.
[Alicia Hunt]: If you're right, if you're just looking for like a Cobra head streetlight, you can put a request into our electrical department and they should be able to do that, especially if it came from the police.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, either one. I don't know what would be easier. Tim, obviously probably defer to you on that.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, send me an email on that, Sergeant, and I will get it to the right place.
[Chris D'Aveta]: Right.
[Tim McGivern]: And it would be a Cobra overhead, unless we wanted to do a special treatment but the important thing is we have a crosswalk approved so this. Yeah, there. And if there's an issue with lighting, we can treat that as a separate issue.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I just didn't want to add it and then not bring up that we have an issue with that so that we have more pedestrians going over there.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, for the crosswalk itself at the very least would try to add the standard. a warning, fluorescent yellow green, crosswalk warning signs, and as funding and resources are available, we'll look to enhance, but at the very minimum, the standard fluorescent yellow green. All right, thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: To the commissioners, I pose a question. So what's left on the new business is 2022-67. These are opt-out petitions on the GLX. I have been notified, though, that last month a petitioner, Mr. Chesnick, file for a permit parking variance. He lives on College Avenue and he was unable to attend. He is present now. So we would have, I would have to entertain a motion to take 2022-57 off the table items to address since he's present. If the commission is so wish to do so before we get into the permit parking. So I'll throw it back to you.
[Tim McGivern]: Motion to take 2021-57 off the table.
[Jack Buckley]: 2022-57, permit parking variance for Woodbine Road for Mr. Vincent Chesnick, 72 College Avenue. Is someone from the petitioner? Is it Mary that's here to speak for Mr. Chesnick? Alba, yes?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I think it might be, yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Mary G?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Can you just unmute?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Mary, if you'd, we just asked you to unmute, so you just have to click unmute or unmute your screen. We'll speak on behalf of that.
[Adam Hurtubise]: When was this?
[Jack Buckley]: and we believe the petitioner may be on the Mary G on the screen, and we cannot unmute you, so if you could unmute yourself. There it is, there we go.
[SPEAKER_29]: Good evening, Chief Hawaii this evening.
[Jack Buckley]: Good evening, how are you?
[SPEAKER_29]: Thank you very much for having me, I appreciate everything.
[Jack Buckley]: Sure, the floor is yours, what's your petition?
[SPEAKER_29]: Yes, I'm requesting a permit for Woodbine Avenue, Woodbine Road, I'm sorry. I currently live on College Avenue on the Tufts College end. And there was no parking on that street in that area. And I also have, my house is the only house on the street that does not have its own driveway. That is why I've been parking on Woodbine Road for the past eight plus years. My house has no off street parking. And I was looking for something to be able to park legally so I don't get hit. Right now, I'm parking on George Street. OK, we're just going to take a quick look here.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, go ahead.
[Alicia Hunt]: I believe that when this was on the agenda last month and the petitioner wasn't here, we really had the strong question as to why would Vine Avenue, it just seemed to be quite far away from their home. And we felt that it would be important to understand when we're, it's unusual to give a variance so far away. So we wanted to understand that better.
[Jack Buckley]: Mr. Chesnick, would you like to speak to that? You did say you parked it for the last eight years, but I'll let you speak.
[SPEAKER_29]: On Woodbine Road, yes, Chief. I've been parking there for eight years. Like I've said, my house is the only street on the house that does not have its own driveway.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Was that the other side? No.
[Alicia Hunt]: So we were just wondering, sir, why Woodbine and not Wedgmere or Pearl or the other block of college across George? Why not something closer to your home?
[SPEAKER_29]: I understand. Yes. It's just that right now, all those streets are very busy with everybody just coming in and parking there and taking off for the whole day, going into Boston to work or anything. And it gets even crowder in the summertime when they come in for graduation for tough students.
[Alicia Hunt]: So you find that it's easy to find parking on Woodbine Road and therefore you'd like to continue to park there?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Commissioners, any other commissioners have questions or comments? Seeing none, I'll open it up to the public. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor of this petition? Seeing none, is there anyone present who wishes to speak against the petition? Also seeing none, so I defer back to the commissioners. Further discussion? Motion?
[Alicia Hunt]: I would move approval. He doesn't have a driveway. It seems like you can see that there's only houses on one side of Woodbine Ave, but there's parking on both for a long section. So it makes sense that there's plenty of space there. It feels like a very reasonable request to me.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve 2022-57 permit parking variance from Mr. Vincent Chesnick for Woodbine Road. Do I have a second?
[MCM00001177_SPEAKER_30]: I'll second.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Pesattoro. Roll call vote, Alva?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Pesetoro? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, five to nothing. The motion is approved and petition 2022-57 has been approved. Mr. Chesnick, just give us a day or two and we will reach out to the traffic department and advise them and you should be all set from there. We've had this comment waiting for them. That's good. All right. 2022-66 opt-out petitions, GLX permit parking streets. We, just one clarification on this. We have not, correct Alba, received a full opt-out petition from Spencer Road, correct?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Correct.
[Jack Buckley]: All right. So we will not be dealing with Spencer Road. We have full petitions related to West Street, Carding Street, Winter Street, Lyman Avenue, Auburn, between North and Mystic Valley Parkway, North Street, between Auburn and the bridge, Walkling Court, which is a small public segment there, and Marshall Street, Lyman to North. That is the, there are all separate petitions. Although this is on the agenda as one sort of petition, they are all separate petitions with numerous signatures from the residents. And so I asked one quick question from the commissioners. Do you want to take up each street at a time to deal with, or do you want to try to address it in mass? How would you like to proceed?
[Tim McGivern]: It's probably okay that we do it as one like this. From what I understand, it was sort of designed this way to allow folks to opt out. I would ask the question, once they opt out, and if it's approved, at some point in the future, are they allowed to petition to go back in? We've discussed that already. Okay, we already did it is yes right yes yes yep correct.
[Jack Buckley]: Well, we would be Larry about is about up and up out of it and causing a lot of you know. but I don't think that will be the case. We do know that several of these streets have unique situations. We recognize that the neighbors have discussed this in full, which is great, and that they have their opt-out petitions. But if it turns out that GLX is a bigger problem, then we would certainly open our commission up to hearing whether or not they would have want to reinstate parking. So, yes. Let me ask is the someone here wishing to speak up Christian position, please.
[Bob Dickinson]: I just had one question. Is this are these streets in the areas that we have not voted on? This is like in that outer ring. Is that correct?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, so that is correct. And so we've had a little bit of debate about this. The other half mile, I guess, is the best way to put it, is still tabled. We may take that up later on at the commission as we have to. And what you would be voting on based on these petitions is to allow them to opt out. If the petition, we would have their opt outs agreed and on file, should the petition be approved, if we take the items off the table and approve the half mile, they would be excluded.
[Bob Dickinson]: So they would not have to come back if that got approved. Very good. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, I thought that it made sense to take these now so that those residents when, if it didn't pass if the other piece didn't pass tonight they wouldn't have to show up every time we said we might take that up, but we could just have this on the record.
[Jack Buckley]: And I agree. There's someone probably, if we could just do a raise hand, who wish to speak in favor of the petition for the opt-out to the reasons why. If you could please just raise your hand and we can try to go through one at a time. We'll limit comments to a few minutes to get your point across, but we have to get through this. So please raise your hand if you wish to speak in favor of the opt-out petition.
[Alicia Hunt]: Chief, I will, oh, there are so many here. I was gonna say, I was alerted that there might not be residents to speak on behalf, and that's part of why I circulated the packet of written comments, so they'd be officially on the record, and my colleagues could see these. But somebody did just raise their hand.
[Jack Buckley]: Yep, I'm going to get to them one second. I just that you made a valid point. I just want to make sure all the commissioners receive that package and have reviewed that so we don't have to kind of discuss going back and forth and nodding ahead of the other commissioners. I did myself get that.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I myself have not had time to read the whole thing, because it came.
[Jack Buckley]: But yeah, we've gone through it pretty extensively. Okay, Sarah and Brett.
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome hi, just a point of clarification that the we're residents between high street and. and basically Mystic Valley and High Street. And I know this particular petition is not including that and wanna clarify that. Will we be discussing that portion? Is that included in the second tier of this, which is discussing getting all of those streets under permit parking?
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so you're living on the upper end of Auburn closer to from Mr. belly pocket to high street you're not included in this petition, so this petition passes the area of Auburn Street from north to Mr. gap would be opt out of the permit pocket. Later on this evening, a commissioner may or may not decide, the commissioner may or may not decide to take the half-mile resident permit parking program off the table, and we will discuss it, and you could then have input on your area. Your street would be included at that point.
[Todd Blake]: Thank you. I think I'm hearing it differently. Sarah and Brett, you live between Mississippi Valley Parkway and High Street, correct? TAB, Mark McIntyre, Ed.D.: : At the school. TAB, Mark McIntyre, Ed.D.: : So, so that air is not on any of the agenda items, including the table items. TAB, Mark McIntyre, Ed.D.:
[Jack Buckley]: : Oh that's not even a half mile right so.
[Todd Blake]: TAB, Mark McIntyre, Ed.D.: : So the area being discussed, and I think there was some confusion with maybe one of the robocalls. TAB, Mark McIntyre, Ed.D.: : Just the proposal, the pilot proposal is for South medford hillside areas only. TAB, Mark McIntyre, Ed.D.: : So apologize for any confusion, there are other areas in the city. as you've seen tonight, that have permanent parking in Glenwood and West Medford and others, but those are still being handled on the case-by-case, street-by-street, opt-in, get a petition to have resident permit, just like Grant just did earlier tonight. So the pilot program to include all streets within the area is only South Medford and Hillside. I apologize for any inconvenience or confusion.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I apologize for taking up time. But just one more point of clarification, the block and segment for Auburn Street on the Excel doc does not designate or specify that block or segment of Auburn Street.
[Jack Buckley]: Correct. What director Blake is stating is your end where you live and it is not part of the resident permit parking program. It will not be taken up at any time unless that that area of the street take it up in the future.
[Todd Blake]: see if he's pointed out a correct typo in the Excel spreadsheet version of list it didn't list. So if it's not the entire street. There's a column for from street to street and it didn't have any info in it.
[Jack Buckley]: It is not the entire street is only North.
[Todd Blake]: I'm going to check the word version of it that Alva had as well. Thank you so much sir and Brad I'm sorry so much for the confusion.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your participation, but you should, it sounds like you're gonna be good for where you stand and we'll correct any of those typos. Excellent. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor of the petition? I think Bob.
[Robert Paine]: Yes, I joined late, but I just wanted to make sure that the West Street petition to opt out was received and was in order.
[Jack Buckley]: It has been received, it is in order, and if you'd like to say a few words in favor of that, you're welcome to do it this time.
[Robert Paine]: Sure. Well, so far, we haven't seen any additional cars parked in our street since the GLX station opened. All quiet on West Street. So we sort of want to keep things the way they are.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. Thank you for your participation tonight and your comments. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor of the petition?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Chris did have his hand up, but it came off.
[Jack Buckley]: It's back up. Let's unmute you. Chris, the floor is yours. Once we get you unmuted. Can you unmute yourself, Chris? All right.
[Chris D'Aveta]: Can you hear me?
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah. Welcome. We can hear you now.
[Chris D'Aveta]: Oh, thank you. Chris to be the 67 West street. Um, yeah, I, I also wanted to echo what Bob Payne just said. Um, we have not seen any traffic, uh, okay. Granted it's been two days now, but, um, still, uh, I did the, um, walk from the GLX to my house. And in fact, I Google mapped it and it's one mile. So, um, The other part of West Street may be slightly less than one mile and the part beyond me, maybe slightly more, but still, we're a good distance away. And I just wanted to also make clear that I'm not against permit parking as a policy, but the street by street situation, I think for us would be not favorable.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. I appreciate your participation and your comments, and we understand that. And that's why we actually, in our efforts to address this, put the opt-out program in. And so we understand fully that people's situations can be different. But thank you. Anyone else wish to speak in favor of the opt-out program? Seeing none, do I have anyone who wishes to speak against the opt-out program petitions for these seven streets? Seven streets. Maybe eight streets. Seven. Seeing none, I turn it back to the commission. Oh, I'm sorry. Yep.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Just unmute.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_06]: Is that Robin? Fran Mitchell. Hi, welcome. Thank you. Very informative discussion here. I live on Edison Avenue, which is off of Tesla. Now Edison Avenue is divided halfway in the middle by a fence. Open to the fence. It's tough. from the fence to Tesla is residential. And over the years, all of the landlords have, well, the permanent residents have sold their property. And we have, there were six houses here and four of them have been converted into, it's all two family, spaces for students. So four, and they can have eight students per house. And we have a problem because we don't have parking.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, can I just interrupt for one second? So very specifically the petition we have before us right now is related to seven individual streets who wish to opt out of the permit parking program. And we are going to address the entirety of the rest of the resident permit parking program next, I believe. Edison is not part of what we're discussing right now, but it may be pertinent for the next spot. If you can hang on for a few minutes. So anyone else wishing publicly, wishing to speak against it before the public portion? Seeing none, I go back to the commissioners then. All the paperwork has, it does appear to be in order. It is approved to form. They have done the research. The residents have signed. Any comments or questions from the commissioners as it relates to this?
[Alicia Hunt]: I just wanna, I'm very visual, and so I'm marking up my copy of the permit parking diagram to reflect these. And so if I understand correctly, I just wanna be clear, West Street, Cotting, Winter, and Lyman are the complete streets are opting out, whereas the others, it's a portion of each?
[Jack Buckley]: That is correct.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay.
[Unidentified]: North Misty Valley Parkway. All right. Corn. Marsh Street. Wait.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, okay, North Street, Auburn to the grid. And by the bridge on North Street, they mean the train over the train tracks?
[Alicia Hunt]: I assume, I apologize. I could be looking at the permits with all those street numbers and that would tell me, but I just feel like we should know what we're talking about.
[Jack Buckley]: It appears to be that Northern corner of the corner of this, that half mile exclusion, a proposal, a proposal I should say. And yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: On your map that you just show, there's a private way that on the copy that was printed and I have in my house, my office, is not showing as a private way. Sorry, it doesn't have a name on it.
[Todd Blake]: And I'm just- That one right here is Norton. Yeah, go ahead, sorry.
[Alicia Hunt]: Is my copy wrong? That's a private way?
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I believe this has been on there the whole time, but I can't comment on what's in front of you, but this pink one, Norton, if you recall, in September, I think there was a resident from Norton that was speaking about this. I can go with my cursor, the streets are up here, West Street, Dutchess Street, Winter Street, Lineman, the entire street. Auburn is the entire section in the zone, but not the entirety of Auburn Street. So it's from, you know, this section here. The section that's just beyond the red is technically in Somerville, and there's a section here that's posted as two-hour parking. Walkland Court, there's a small stub that's public before you get to the private segment. That's part of the petition. This block of Marshall closest to this upper corner, So if you plot it out, those are the ones that's basically the most northwest corner of the region.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, thank you. I just wanted to be completely clear, because I think this will then play into the next portion as well.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Hart, just to be clarified in that private way that is listed in the picture, that should be Norton Avenue.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. On my copy, it's not pink, so I don't know.
[Jack Buckley]: It is a public way. But the interesting part about it is I don't think you can park a vehicle on the street. It's that narrow.
[Alicia Hunt]: On Norton?
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah. And so a car can travel down, and they have some unique arrangements. It's a neighborhood where they really get to know your neighbors and really get to work together with each other. And I think some of this, what we're going to do, is going to help them also. We've heard from some of those neighbors.
[Todd Blake]: So I just outlined the area. It's this area minus the private section. So it's this group of streets that are opting out.
[Alicia Hunt]: Great. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: So it's still with the commissioners or other comments or questions or
[Alicia Hunt]: If they wanna opt out of the program, I don't have a problem with it. And I appreciate that I saw the sheets that tell all the people who signed and everything.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, they did some good work and appreciate that. So is that a motion?
[Alicia Hunt]: Unless anybody else wants to speak first, I'll motion to approve.
[Unidentified]: Second.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, on the motion of Commissioner Hunt, seconded by Commissioner McGiven, for 2022-66, opt out to petitions for the GLX permit parking streets for West Street, Carding Street, Winter Street, Lyman Avenue, Auburn, between North and Mystic Valley Parkway, North Street, between Auburn to the bridge, Walkland Court, the smallest public segment, and Marshall Street, Lyman to North. I'll have a roll call vote.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Yes, five to nothing. Motion is approved.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, for the record, I think I didn't motion to say excluding Spencer understood that that that it's in the agenda.
[Jack Buckley]: That is, it is an official agenda, I made notation prior to this that they did not complete the requirements of the opt out petition. And as I read the motion publicly what we were voting for I excluded Spencer road so we can deal with them. Right, so that concludes new business.
[Alicia Hunt]: Can I make a motion to take the permit parking program off the table? I think this is 2022-49. Is there anything else that needs to come off the table? I think we have residents here to speak to this one.
[Jack Buckley]: 2022-49, expansion of the pilot residential permit parking up program in the new GLX station. All city public streets list attached to propose to become resident permit parking only 24-6, without a petition, excluding Sundays and holidays. Exceptions include along non-residential uses, where two-hour parking will be allowed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. without a residential permit. Changes only apply to areas currently unrestricted, i.e. changes do not apply to existing no parking areas, short-term parking areas, meet or pay to park areas, loading zones, accessible parking spaces, existing resident permit areas, et cetera. If approved, residents can choose to opt out by completing a petition to remove resident permit parking from their streets as we just have seen. Commissioner Blake, I'm sorry, Director Blake, Thank you, chief.
[Todd Blake]: I think you just stole my thunder and mentioned it.
[Jack Buckley]: You're going to read that? I have to read that.
[Todd Blake]: I'll bring up the map again so that folks could look at that while we discuss it. So hopefully that's visible to all. So the area that we're discussing tonight is between the blue line and the red line. So the red line is basically all of South Medford and Hillside minus Mystic Ave. And then the blue polygon with the area that was already approved in August. So this is only addressing the area between the blue polygon and the red polygon, and sometimes referred to in text as the outer transit district versus the inner transit district, which is the blue polygon. So the blue streets in this area, the light blue between the royal blue and red, are streets that currently do not have permanent parking based on our lists in the office. The peach or tan colored streets in that area that already have resident parking for various reasons unrelated to GLX, there are other reasons why parking becomes an issue as we've heard tonight. And then the pink streets are private streets in that area. So it wouldn't apply to those. So that describes the area. The reason behind this again is to actually help people take a proactive approach to parking needs based on the Mayor's Commission on Park Policy and Enforcement that looked into resident and business parking issues or parking issues in general throughout the city, but honing in on this particular self-measured hillside, there were a number of issues raised regarding parking. It's the most dense area of the city. And the Green Line opening was just one extra piece that may tip the scales for a lot of this area in terms of additional parking issues. Again, as you see on this map, there's a number of streets between the blue and red that already have permit off of Boston Ave in the west or the left side of this page already under the area that just opted out. They've already experienced parking to the point where they came to the commission in the past and asked for a permit. The Green Line is just one additional thing that may have extra demand on on-street parking. It's trying to take a proactive approach to address this as best we can with the intent to help, not harm, and any businesses, local businesses that get unintentionally impacted, we're here to work with you and create a solution for you. So I think that covers it combined with what you said, Chief.
[Jack Buckley]: Thanks. Thank you, Director Blake. I'll go first to the commissioners, questions and comments.
[Tim McGivern]: to stop the discussion. This is Tim.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Uh, any issues yesterday or today in, uh, in this area, we have, we've had no calls or any issues that we've, uh, that have been addressed to us in this short period. So nothing that we know of.
[Unidentified]: All right. Thanks, Steve.
[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah, I'm still going to vote no on this. Um, I think we've shown tonight as we did with grant have that sometimes a wait and see approach is okay. Um, that we have the people of grant have say that as Hayden square develops, we need help. And we granted them that help tonight. Um, you've also had several streets who have come in here in this area and have proactively said, please leave us alone. So with that, I'm not sure if I could be convinced to change my mind on this. So.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, thank you. Any other commissioners comments before I open it up to public? Commissioner Hunt.
[Alicia Hunt]: So my, I feel that the residents have been given the impression that this is gonna get passed. And therefore, if they're in favor of it, they don't need to come say anything. that that's going to happen and that we've only the people who are against it have sort of made that known and for the most part taking care of themselves. I'm actually interested to hear the woman who was speaking earlier. Because I do think that there's the people who are in favor of this think that they don't need to be here this evening because of the way the outreach was framed. I think there's some level of expectation this is going to get passed and I think that we need to be considering going to regional permit parking and this might be part of the step of getting us there. I've been having conversations with the former chair of the the commission and it was his opinion that this was a step to get us to the regional permit parking that may be needed in this area. So I guess that's where I'm kind of leaning this evening. I wasn't sure who all would show up from the public and how this would go, but we did want to get the word out that we wanted to hear from residents. So I'm ready to hear from the public.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, last call for commissioners, any comments? I'll open it up if none.
[Tim McGivern]: I'll just make one more chief, just a comment. So I hold the position I had last time this was on the agenda, that if this were to be approved and based off the fact that it is a recommended step to a more of a regional basis, I'm inclined to be in favor. However, I think that it doesn't need to necessarily happen all at once. So I'm okay with the idea of waiting for the problem areas to arise, and we don't need to come back to the traffic commission to deal with those issues. We can just immediately deal with them. So I just want to kind of put that comment out there. It's not like we have the manpower to do this all at once anyway. So I just want to make sure folks are clear on that. As a DPW commissioner, that is the tact I intend to take if this is approved.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. All right, last call commissioners. I'll open it up to public. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to speak in favor of the residential permit parking program for what is essentially the half mile area? Just raise your hand if you could. Robin. Yes, Robin.
[Unidentified]: This is Mitchell. Mrs. Mitchell? Thank you.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_06]: I live on Edison and half of Edison is Tufts. Our half is residential. It was never permanent parking. We're in the blue zone and we've always had people park here knowing that they won't get a ticket, nothing. And it's becoming more and more of a problem. as more students come in. And we'd like to have it, you know, permanent parking.
[Jack Buckley]: And that would be the, the street as you started to tell us earlier, the street is divided, correct?
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_06]: Correct. And half of it is... Half of it is private, belongs to Tufts.
[Unidentified]: Correct.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_06]: And the other half that goes into Tesla, public is without a permit.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. Thank you very much. I think we get it and you're speaking in favor of the residential permit parking program.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_06]: Yes, yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. Anyone else in the public wants to comment, speak in favor. Raise your hand wave or add a message. Okay, seeing none. Anyone here wishing to speak against the resident permit.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, Robin that the other woman that had raised her hand.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, sorry about that.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_18]: And I co owner to family we live on different floors. Okay. I think, I think the issue is. We've been denied parking permits, and I just, tonight was the first time I saw that we're a blue line, so we should be able to get them. We've always been told it's a private way, but in the last few years, many of our neighbors have sold their houses to landlords. There's an incredible number of students here with cars, and so it's become very difficult to park. So if we had residential permits, parking that might help alleviate that problem.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent, thank you for your comments. I will just add, I mean, a question was brought up tonight as to whether or not the entirety of Edison is a private way, or is it half public, half private? Correct. We have not, we do not have the answer to that as of yet. So I will add this, if it does turn out to be a private way, you cannot participate in the resident permit parking program, We don't do that for private ways. We don't have the resident permit blocking, but if it does turn out to be half and half, it obviously would be, your half would be the public road and you would be able to participate. It's just that we're not gonna be able to resolve that until we work with DPW and go over some of the notes as it relates to the providence of the street. So thank you for your participation. It doesn't minimize any of that. I think your comments are valid and taking the point for this.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_06]: And may I say one more thing. Yes. Back in May 1998. Leo a soccer jr. Who was on the metric traffic commission, because we couldn't find parking on our own street. Let us gave us permission to park on Tesla Avenue. For the residents of 19 through 26 Edison Avenue, which is our side of the street.
[Unidentified]: Yep.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_06]: Okay, we couldn't find parking on our own street.
[Jack Buckley]: All right. And that, so that would have been a variance. And that was, he was the former chief of police and former commissioner of the traffic, my predecessor. And so that, if it does turn out to be an option, that's something that we could take up and review later on. But I appreciate you adding that and have that conversation. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else now wishing to speak in favor of the petition for resident permit parking? Just one second. Go ahead. Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: I just sort of in. I, I often want to speak in on behalf of renters and to make sure that they don't get marginalized because they don't always get notified because notifications go to tend to go to homeowners, but I will say that we have confirmed with Tufts University that any student of Tufts University can get permit parking on their campus for, I believe it's $40 a month. And so there is no need. Residents of apartments who are Tufts students may want to park by their apartments for convenience, may wanna park there temporarily to load and unload groceries, et cetera, but they don't need to keep their cars at their rental units when they are walking distance from the Tufts campus. And I just sort of wanted to make sure I know most of the commissioners tend to know this sort of say that for the record and for anybody else who might be watching. Because I actually care a lot that the tough students can participate in our community and that they live here, etc. They're paying rent, but they don't actually need to park their cars by their apartments if they are walking distance from the campus.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so seeing no further public comment in favor, I'll open it up, the floor up to anyone who wishes to speak against the petition. Okay, we have, I think it's from... It's Rebecca? Yeah. Welcome, and the floor is yours. Hi.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_02]: Hello. We're good. My name is Rebecca.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_31]: I'm Alex.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_02]: And we live and own a house on Walnut Street and South Street on the corner. It's first Walnut Street and it's also a unit on what is the 20th.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_31]: 36th Street.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_02]: 36 South Street. So it's a two unit house. And we've been very concerned with this problem. Should I get right into the areas of concern? Sure.
[Jack Buckley]: Yep. Yep. You're on the floor. Let us know what you think.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_02]: So I would say that broadly, my concerns are divided into two parts. One is the concern with the process, and the other is the concern with the way it is going to be implemented. So the problem with the process is, like Alicia Hunt mentioned, There doesn't seem to be a ton of public outreach. It seems like the service could be implemented. There was a broken link until last time the issue was brought up so that we couldn't even view the proposal until we made several calls to restore the link. There is no published plan, reasoning, or survey data, even though we received information that it exists. Also, the logic that we've been given so far is that there are a lot of streets that currently want to opt in. And that out of streets that are potentially on this plan. Not many have. And I would like to point out that this logic doesn't really seem to be all that convincing because first of all, I think that a lot of residents are currently unaware of the proposal. And again, I don't have a data for it. And I think that there really should be some data collected. And so many streets would not opt out just because they don't know that the proposal exists. And we already see some areas that do want to opt out. There is also streets that have a permit parking today, really need them because they had to overcome significant significant problems and organize and request this parking. So there is no reason to expect that those streets would opt out. And by the same logic, alternatively, we can say that most streets that have not been requesting permitted parking may not be interested. And there has not been publicized evidence that this is not true. And then my second part of the problem is with the way it is going to be implemented. I am not necessarily completely against zoned parking, but the street parking is very problematic because because like first of all there's we for instance our house on the Walnut Street and South Street and we're observing consistently that Walnut Street has way more people wanting to park there as opposed to South Street and if it's if the permits were given by street it would create a distribution problem where Walnut Street might not be available for parking and everybody is really struggling to find parking because South Street is not available. And we already saw several examples of that in this meeting with the Main Street and Weimar Street. And there will also be potentially problems with private ways that can participate in the program and might be now surrounded by permitted parking. Moreover, when you are trying to opt out as a street that does not need permitted parking you end up being the only unpermitted street in the vicinity, which prompts everybody to flock to your street, and which creates congestion congestion again. We are living right now in an area, I wouldn't say the whole area, but at least like our streets. There is 17 minute walk away from 17 to 20, 15 to 20 minutes walk away from the station. And I would say we are unlikely to be affected by the station opening. I can't see commuters wanting to walk 20 minutes to the station. So I'm not sure why there is even a reason to, to impose parking permit on us. And at the same time, we will have multiple problems with businesses affected by this and less food traffic and the community becoming generally less vibrant. And lastly, in this In this proposal, there was nothing about visitor parking. So I'm wondering what would happen if some of us would get a visitor from out of town who would need to park on the street, and what would be the situation with that?
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_31]: For extended periods of time.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. And I certainly support the streets that need the parking as a result of the station or generally should get it. I'm just not sure that the way this proposal is formulated right now that I can support it.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comments. Very well put together. Very concise. I appreciate that. Alex, do you also want to comment to speak in favor? I'll give you the opportunity now if you do. Yeah.
[MCM00001179_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, sure. That'd be great. I mean for the most part I definitely agree with what Rebecca is saying and just wanted to kind of add a second voice, supporting all of those points. I think I just wanted to add a little bit of extra emphasis and comment and comments. to the kind of like lack of availability. We both emailed various people and we, I was sitting in on the last meeting as well. And I've heard that there's some data in surveying supporting this, I haven't actually been able to see anything or like, find a way to meaningfully contribute other than going to these meetings. So I'm just kind of not really sure what the channels for that are. The only thing I've seen, I just noticed that there's some information in the meeting notes and in the link to just the list of streets that are under consideration. I haven't actually like seen the proposal. And kind of the other thing I wanted to point out is Right now, like streets have a way of opting in, and some streets are opting in like there's some, there's a couple streets around us that chose to opt in and I think that's great. But I think it really shows that like six streets have already chosen to opt out even before this program has rolled into place. I think I would have actually started a petition I just didn't realize it was an option to opt out before the program rolls and I thought we had to wait until the program would roll in, but I think that It's basically, I think there's a lot of people that would want to opt out, but it creates a very high, it creates a high barrier to that. So yeah, I guess I'll pass it on.
[Jack Buckley]: Well, thank you for your comments and questions. I'll start with the last part, regardless of what happens this evening. I mean, I should say, if it does pass, you still do have that opt out option, right? The get this plan goes away. So I just want to make sure you understood that. There was some considerable, studies done with the parking traffic enforcement. Generally, Jim Silva, who is a special employee for the city and was on that commission, they worked with tons of work and sort of with a community group and put together lots and lots of suggestions on resident parking, not just in anticipation of GLX, but to try to get the parking under control in the city of Bedford. And that Those documents and that studies are available publicly. I apologize on the city's behalf that you weren't able to access them, but if I do have your emails and this is a side story, but I tend to, when I have to go public and talk to the commission, I don't want to respond back to an email, we'll have to give public comment. So, but I will make sure that I have your emails and I try and get you access to that studies and those studies so we can leave that public. Now, Director Blake, I know you've had some involvement in working with both the enforcement group and the studies that were involved. I don't know if you want to respond a little bit quickly. I hope you still have, because you took your camera off. Todd. I think he's uploading the report now. Do you see that in the chat room? You can see he uploaded some of the reports there. Thank you, because that'll help me out. That'll take you a lot longer to read than right now.
[Todd Blake]: Thank you. Just quickly, because Jim's unable to be here tonight. As the chief mentioned, Jim was one of the, I think, 12 members of the Commission on Parking Policy and Enforcement that the mayor put together over a year ago. And that commission was made up of six residents, six businesses, no employees. We attended meetings on behalf of the city, the chief, myself, and some others, and the councilors, but the commission was run by the residents and businesses themselves. And the whole purpose of that commission was to look into issues that residents and businesses experience regarding parking throughout the entire city. And through that process, they surveyed up to 1,000 people. It wasn't necessarily just so we're clear on the survey and data. It wasn't necessarily survey data about this specific proposal here tonight. It was a survey regarding collecting information and input and feedback from everyone in all communities, including South Medford and Hillside, to come up with a list of recommendations to be proactive about parking issues versus reactive. So this stems from that report, just as the chief said, it's going to take some time to read the whole report, but we're not just approaching this out of the blue. We were following up on that effort. That group asked the city to take those recommendations and try to achieve them and address point by point, you know, throughout as quickly as we can, but we're trying to do it in a manageable way. And once you try to tick off one of the recommendations, it leads to another and leads to another one. But we don't want to get so bogged down as a city that that's so difficult to answer every single possible question that we don't do anything in the meantime, we're trying to progress with some of the proposals as much as we can. And as someone alluded to earlier today, in that report, it may mention the district parking or zone parking. And this is seen as a stepping stone towards that potential evolution for South Medford and Hillside.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Todd. And I will add, because you were part of a lot of these conversations, separate from the parking commission that did those studies. Early on, when GLX, MassDOT and GLX were presenting their proposals, hundreds and hundreds of meetings and there was a lot of feedback from the public concerned about the impact that the GLX station would have on parking in that Hillside and Bedford-Stolt-Miffin area, even back then when we were contemplating.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, Chief, on that note, in the GLX study before it even became a design project, and I was involved in various iterations before being with Medford, When designing and extending a transit system, the question always comes up, do you build a parking garage at the last stop to serve the suburbs, right? So early on in the GLX process, from what I recall, again, before I was an employee of Medford, that was discussed and dismissed that communities like Medford didn't want a garage, didn't want to attract a bunch of trips, like our wife has a garage on Route 2 that would serve all the suburbs. So by not having a parking garage, it limited to, or it tries to limit it to be more of a community station for like Medford-Somerville-Ongleston versus a suburban station. And then if there are parking issues related to someone from the suburbs trying to drive and park and take the Green Line to work like they would Elwife in a garage there, the system in place for cities and towns to prevent that is permit parking. So it allows parking for, the neighborhood, the Medford residents is a way to restrict suburban people that may travel and park here. So there is some thought in the GLX and the T itself will tell you that stations usually draw from a mile area and things like that. So there's other information involved in these decisions and processes. So we're happy to talk about it, but this is what's on the table tonight and what's being proposed as, and again, It's meant to help the residents and businesses of the area, because the on-street parking doesn't, the supply doesn't meet the demand, even before the GLX, right? So with the extra demand from GLX, potentially, we're not getting any more supply in the streets. So it doesn't guarantee you a space, but it limits your competition with everyone else. That's the whole purpose of resident permits.
[Jack Buckley]: Director Blake, thank you for those comments. We'll circle back around. So I think that addressed a lot of the questions or concerns at least in response, but I do appreciate both of your input on this one. It was actually well done in depth. Anyone else wishing to speak against this? Let's see if we can move around in the public. Raise your hand, something in the chat room, make yourself visible. I'm gonna try to unmute. Excuse me, unmute, Elisa. Hi. Hi, welcome.
[SPEAKER_26]: Thank you. I mostly just wanted to echo what Rebecca was saying. I thought that was really well said, and I'm not sure I can add too much more, but I kind of do want to reiterate the concern that even though there is an opt-out option, it would put all of the pressure kind of consolidated onto the streets that choose to opt out.
[Jack Buckley]: Can I ask you, you're just a resident where you live, is it still Walnut Street or is it a different area?
[SPEAKER_26]: Yeah, I'm on Walnut Street. I'm just a renter.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. Appreciate your participation and comments. Anyone else? We should speak a guest. Seeing none, the time we refer back to the commissioners for discussion, comments, questions.
[Tim McGivern]: I got a couple of things, Chief.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner McGibbon, go ahead.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, and this has to do kind of what I was saying before. I think, you know, before we go, you know, full bore putting signs up, There may be another opportunity here for notification to residents. So everybody is aware, say, just hypothetically, this gets approved. So the streets that are approved, folks are well aware that they can opt out and give them some sort of opportunity, some time frame, I'm not sure what that is, to do that before we go put up signs and have to take them down. I don't want to do that. And then I would also like to, with the understanding that this is a stepping stone as recommended by the policy on transportation and parking, what the plan would be, and I'm not sure if Todd could speak to this. So like when we're talking about going to zone parking and this is a stepping stone, are we talking a year? Are we talking two years? Do we know? Kind of maybe understanding the plan for that a little bit more. I know we want to do that and we want to head in that direction as a city, but do we have a timeframe on that? So those are my comments and questions at the moment.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. Director Blake, do you have knowledge on that question for the commissioner?
[Todd Blake]: I don't believe we have a timeframe. We're open. We wanted to get something, and my understanding is we wanted to get something in place so that there aren't remaining unrestricted areas that may get inundated and to help. So whether that means a month after this, a month, I guess, whether that means a short timeframe after, if this were approved and the signs were put up, then if people realize the benefits of district, if that led to a quick change or if it would be more gradual, I couldn't really speak to that. But I think by having some policy, it will lead to some that are not sure whether it should be street by street or district. By having one or the other, it will lead to determining for themselves on each street whether which would be better for them or not. But right now, if it ends up being unrestricted, it may be worse than either of those options. So that was the idea. But I couldn't say at an exact time frame, no.
[Tim McGivern]: TAB, Mark McIntyre ): Okay yeah that's Okay, I think I mean, I understand the stepping stone piece that this becomes restricted parking so when we go to zone at some point in the future, the restrictions already there. TAB, Mark McIntyre ): Unless obviously folks have opted out, but the folks who have opted out would still fall under zone.
[Todd Blake]: TAB, Mark McIntyre ): Correct, I think, for the zone that's a good point to for zone or district, it may be more. I'm not going to slam the door but I'm thinking through the logic of it may be more difficult to have individual streets, not be part of it.
[Tim McGivern]: But I would presume that it would just be zone parking and folks are getting permits, regardless of the city goes in that direction.
[Alicia Hunt]: That's an interesting question because, as I read. the opt, and maybe I actually have to look at the petitions people submitted, but as I understood the program and the advertisement opt-out, that they would be opted out of zone parking as well if we switched it to a zone. Or on the other hand, it might depend on what the proposal was and what the language of the proposal said.
[Tim McGivern]: I think that's the latter thing you just said would be correct. If a zoned parking proposal was before us, then that question would have to be answered. Are the folks who opted out, do they stay opted out, or do they get wrapped up into zone? So I think that goes in favor of the idea as this is a step in the process.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I think what both of you just said makes sense in terms of the petition language, I believe. I don't have it in front of me. It was referring to the current proposal, whether you could opt out now and opt in later of the current proposal, which is street by street still. Yeah, that question would have to be answered in any proposed district or zone. But it was interesting to hear tonight from, say, the person on Main Street. In that situation, maybe that lends that person to believe that district or zone may be better, maybe not. But those types of things on those border streets or corner areas, That, that spurs that conversation as well and gets more people engaged maybe to, to help decide.
[Bob Dickinson]: Commissioner Brzezinski. I just want to get clarification. This is hypothetically a step or it is a step because I feel like we're hypothesizing that this is a step in, in order to persuade people to think this is the right move. when I think at least tonight, the resounding voices have been, this is not the right move. So is this a step or we are hypothesizing this is a step?
[Alicia Hunt]: It was recommended by the chair of the parking report that this would be a step towards doing that. That doesn't mean we have to take the next step. There was some, why didn't we just go straight there? And there was a lot of pushback against that as well.
[Tim McGivern]: My understanding is that it, um, it restricts parking. So when we go, when, if we go eventually to zone, then the restrictions already exist as opposed to creating the restrictions. Then that's the idea of it being a step.
[Bob Dickinson]: But I would think based upon the verbiage of what these people were opting out of, if you then put a motion or put something on that, we are going to zone. we're, and I think this goes back to what you were saying a second ago, Tim, you're going to have to revisit these things. I don't think there's a presumption that you opted out of this GLX expansion. So that means that you've opted out of district parking. Correct. Yeah, that was, that was why I brought that. Okay. So, so basically, again, the point I want to be made is, is that this is not necessarily a step toward district parking, because if district parking ever gets brought up, I think we've clarified to ourselves, at least I'm clear that you're gonna have to revisit this anyway. Okay, so I'm willing to table this another month if you want more people to give them a chance to talk about this and hopefully some more pro put me into restrictive parking would come speak about this. But if I count the number of people who spoke about this when we originally put this up, the number of people that are here tonight, including the people who signed petitions that clearly said, please do not put me in this, then I don't think I can still vote for this, so.
[Unidentified]: I think you're right.
[Tim McGivern]: I think it's not a requirement. I think is what you're getting at. This wouldn't be a required step to go to zone parking.
[Bob Dickinson]: OK.
[Tim McGivern]: I don't think it would be.
[Bob Dickinson]: We're hypothesizing that, oh, if we do this, If we do this, we may go to zone parking it sounds like there may be people out there who are reluctant to go to any way so regardless of whether we do this, we may not go down that path anyway.
[Tim McGivern]: I mean, I mean, I was talking about whether we whether we wait a month or we have some sort of grace period to allow folks opt out. I think we're going to be seeing more information regarding this topic as the station remains open. And that's kind of my position has been the whole time, let's not solve a problem that doesn't exist. And if we're trying to go to zone parking, then, you know, TAB, Mark McIntyre ): This is an individual step that it is its own proposal, it doesn't have to be when it's not a required part of some future zone parking proposal.
[Todd Blake]: TAB, Mark McIntyre.:
[Tim McGivern]: : thing. TAB, Mark McIntyre.:
[Todd Blake]: : As I guess, because jim's not here and mayors outside here, I guess i'm. by being an administrative employee that's not one of the commission members. I'm the one I think that needs to speak up for the current proposal at this time, you know, just to explain what it's about. So I would say that I'd like to share this graphic again, that although we did hear from people opting out, it was the furthest Northwest corner grouped together. It wasn't sporadically throughout the whole South Medford Hillside. So of the 56 streets between the red and the blue, it's still 14% of that. So that's 86% minus maybe Walnut who we've heard from tonight. So it's still, if no news is support, then there could, I wouldn't necessarily say the group that showed up tonight or the opt-out means the whole entire red polygon is against it when it's one corner. But whatever the residents want, definitely support opt out, opt in. But I wouldn't necessarily want to make that leap to say, in my opinion, that, and then of the blue rectangle or the polygon, only one of those is considering, which was, you know, one of 16 that were new. So I don't necessarily know if it's opposed or not as a large group or area. I think we would have heard a much larger outcry, in my opinion.
[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah, I agree with that comment that just came up that basically said, like, if you don't complain about it, it means you must like it. I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't think the people who are against it should be the ones who have to take time out of their evening going on almost three hours to talk about this. So if you want to bring it up to vote, I think we're going to go ahead. I don't necessarily know that any of the commissioners would be swayed one way or another at this point. Again, if we tabled another month to hear more voices, I'm all right for that. But if we vote on it, I'd vote for it tonight. Or I would vote on it, not necessarily for it, but I would vote on it tonight.
[Todd Blake]: I guess one last point is, if it were tabled or voted for or against, regardless of which way you all go, what would revert back in place is the current process to opt in. And there could be the potential, after it's open for a while, you could get six to, you know, half dozen streets a month coming in wanting something immediately. So again, it was an attempt to be proactive. You can look at it from both sides, I understand that, but I'm just pointing out that there is something that would be in place if it wasn't voted or tabled, but it may be, that has its own issues, I guess, if people wanted something more immediate, so.
[Alicia Hunt]: If I might, I feel like I remember, and sometimes there's a lot going on, we don't remember everything, that after we passed the inner group, the inner area, there were a number of people on a couple of streets just outside of that who sort of said, wait, why not me? Why can't we be part of this? And Emory Street immediately comes to mind as possibly one of them. And I wonder if it might, at this point makes sense that if there was some density of concern or problem streets, my gut feels like Gourley Road might have been one of them, but that those residents be encouraged to actually either come and speak in favor of this or just get a, it sounds like just get a petition and, you know, for some people that's a lot of work to go up and down the streets and ask your neighbors. For others, it's a great community bonding activity to get to meet your neighbors. But I'm wondering if they could be encouraged that if they're concerned that we're dragging our feet too long on this, that they do go ahead and do a petition to opt in without waiting for this to get passed, if that is of concern.
[Bob Dickinson]: And- I love that. I mean, because these people on West and Cotting, they all, I mean, they went out and beat the streets and got signatures to get out of this. These people feel like they don't- But if it's so imminent for the people next to that blue line that they should be in it, where are they? How many petitions have we gotten since we tabled this? the streets next to the blue line who came in and said, please put us in.
[Todd Blake]: How many? So the messaging since September has been that in with the original August proposal was that the whole time we messaged this, we were flipping the process because based on the commission on public policy and enforcement's efforts, it was understood that this was something to tackle proactively. So we flipped the process, uh, to be opt out versus opt in. And that's been communicated so many times. And there have been, as Alicia pointed out, after the inner area was approved in August, between August and September, there were other streets like Toro, Boston Ave, the other part of North Street that do want this. But where is that, Todd?
[Bob Dickinson]: Where is that information? Have you seen any of that correspondence?
[Alicia Hunt]: Not one of those messages has been forwarded to us as commissioners. If you want us to consider them as part of our consideration, then we need the staff who are receiving the messages to bundle those up and send them to us. I need the supporting materials for every issue that comes in front of the Traffic Commission in order for me to make good decisions. And I think that's what I'm hearing Steve say as well. Right? If there's actually 25 messages between August and September saying, why aren't we in this? How come not one of them has been sent to me as a commissioner so I can see what the issue is?
[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah, because I'll be incredibly candid. I think Alicia hit it on the head. I mean, look, I'm going to vote no, because I think there's a resounding number of people over the last couple of meetings, including tonight that we've talked about this, who said, please don't put me in it. But if there are hundreds more than the people here tonight who are out there saying, Todd, what's going on? Mrs. Mayor, why aren't we in this yet? What's going on? Do I need to file an opt-in application? Hey, I got to get taken care of. I don't want to be bothered by this. And we're not hearing about it. It's a great disservice to those people because maybe they'd sway my vote. I mean, maybe I would have said, what are we talking about anymore? It seems like the resounding number of people actually say, put me in this. So right now, the way it stands is I think it's It's no, but if there are people out there who want to be in this, you know, again, that's why I offered the table, this, another, another meeting, as much as I hate tabling stuff, it gives these people out there who really think this is beneficial to them to let us know, Hey, this is really beneficial to me. Please help me because I don't have the time to bother all my neighbors to come vote into this thing. So.
[Jack Buckley]: So all good debate and conversation. I just remind the commissioners that it is up to them to make the next move, right? So you either, we have to put the petition forward on a motion and vote yay or nay, or we table. And I seek direction from you.
[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah, I'd be willing to table it as long as we can take the next month to truly promote this and to let people know here is your last opportunity because fellow commissioners, and I will vote on this thing the next meeting. And here's your last chance. I mean, it was great. We had 27 participants at one time. I think that initial meeting, we were approaching 100. I'd love to just give it one more chance, as long as the committee commits the next time we get together, barring anything unforeseen. We truly do vote on it.
[Jack Buckley]: So if you would actually motion for a table, then all discussion ends. Commissioner Hundy, you have a motion.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, Chief, you're too far away from your microphone. We can barely hear you. You have to stand over by our side.
[Jack Buckley]: After three hours, I have one.
[Alicia Hunt]: We can either see you or hear you. It's not both.
[Jack Buckley]: One or the other. OK, so again, as I push back, I remind you, if that is a motion to table, then we have to stop all discussion. But I don't know that it was as clear to that. But I want to know if Commissioner Hunta or the other two have any comments for us before I ask Steve if that's a formal motion.
[Bob Dickinson]: I would put a formal motion out there that we table it. So long as there is very much proactive work on, on me, I'm willing to come to city hall to help. I talk to people in city hall and the police department, not to put this all on Todd. Cause I know he works incredibly hard in all of it. Cause she works incredibly hard, but I really want to give this another chance for people out there to here's your last chance to tell us what you think about this. If you commit to that. I'll put the motion to pull it out. Let's go ahead and vote on it, because I don't think you're going to sway any of us one way or another.
[Alicia Hunt]: Could we add this map and additional information to the Traffic Commission web page? All we have to do is email that stuff to Lisa and ask her to add it to the Traffic Commission web page. And a link to the Traffic and Parking Commission report.
[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah, and I've noticed a lot lately of our community involvement on Facebook promoting these meetings. So maybe that's a good thing, too, is to try to get this out there. And as much information as we can actually get out to the public and beat them over the head with information. But making it clear that this is it, this is the last time we're going to table this because we're going to vote to get this out of the way next time.
[Jack Buckley]: OK, and to be clear for the motion, is it a one month till the next meeting?
[Bob Dickinson]: I think that's fair. I don't, I don't, I mean, is that not fair? I'll defer to Alicia and Tim and Maria. Like, I mean, how much more time do we need? I don't see this being tabled two more months, but I mean, we, we had plenty of time for the first time we had this up and we've had time tonight. And, um, I mean, one more month with great promotion of this, I think that'd be wonderful versus continuing to delay this thing more and more.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right.
[Tim McGivern]: We'll have real time data too. We'll have real time information. And I would ask, you know, the police to keep their eyes open on problem areas. I'm sure we'll get phone calls too. You know, I think that we don't necessarily have an immediate mechanism to deal with problem areas, right? But I understand the concern. And I think it would be OK if this waited a month. To be honest, we couldn't get all the signs up in a month anyway. So from my opinion, I'm still looking at where are these problem zones and where are we putting up signs first? And that's my perspective. Tabling this a month doesn't necessarily impact that, but I would caution that we may have problem areas that we may have to deal with. Understood.
[Jack Buckley]: So we have a motion to table. So I'm going to end discussion. And so on the motion, the table 20, 22-four nine. Do I have a second?
[Bob Dickinson]: Can I interject? I'm sorry. Can I interject one thing, or are we out of order? I don't want to. I just want to say, can we put this, can this be first on the agenda the next time we meet, or do we have to entertain new business first?
[Jack Buckley]: So it can be at this point, if we do table it, and a commissioner would have to take it out of order to move it from table to motion. So yes, that could happen, especially if you made that motion next month. Thank you, Chief. Yep. So on the motion of Commissioner Brzezinski to table 2022-49 for one month. Do I have a second?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Ann Marie seconded.
[Jack Buckley]: Ann Marie Pesatoro seconded. Roll call vote, Alba.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon.
[Unidentified]: Commissioner McGibbon. Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt. Yes. Commissioner Pesacuo? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? No. On a 4-1 vote, the petition passes, the motion passes, and 2022-49 has been tabled for, I say one month, but it's the next meeting, and that is January 10th, right?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I think so.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, okay, we'll check out the SNAP. Okay, well, that is the end of new business. It is the end of table business, but I have one other item I'd like to publicly present. Commissioner Pesatoro. Her commission expires early in January, I think it's January 8th. And she has opted not to remain with the E-Traffic Commission. I just wanted to publicly state that you have been a blessing to this commission over the last year. I really, really appreciate it. Two years, yes, I'm sorry. And I keep saying a lot of things. And I just want to publicly commend you because public participation in government is essential. And I do truly believe that. And you've given a lot of yourself. And plus, you're a traffic supervisor, too. And you give yourself daily to the kids and to the city. So I wholeheartedly thank you for all of your support. Don't be a stranger. We see you all the time anyway. I just wanted to openly say thank you and to give the commissioners a chance to say anything to Commissioner Pezzatoro for her support.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you, Ann Marie.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. Thank you all. You've been amazing.
[Tim McGivern]: It's too bad we didn't get to have too much in-person time. I know. COVID really screwed that up. I'm sitting here all alone in my office, you know? I know.
[MCM00001177_SPEAKER_30]: No, thank you. Thank you for your patience. And I learned a lot and taught, especially you, because I've had side conversations with you, so I appreciate it. But I appreciate everybody's support, thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: And it really, truly is thank you for all this, because it is hard for people to donate as much time as you did to the city for many, many years on the one end, but the last two years with traffic commission. This stuff isn't easy and you hung in there with all of us and you did great and I just wanted to say that. So thanks very, very much. Thank you. Any other comments? I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. for the final meeting of 2022, right? Yeah, so.
[Bob Dickinson]: Maybe Anne Marie should motion since this is her last meeting. I'll motion to adjourn.
[Jack Buckley]: I'll second on the motion. Commissioner Passacoro to address. Seconded by? Second. Let's do a roll call. So we can have one more roll call. Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt. Yes. Commissioner Castro. Yes.
[Bob Dickinson]: Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: And Chief Buckley. Yes. Five to nothing. Commission is meeting is adjourned. Have a great holiday, everyone. Yes. Stay safe. Enjoy yourselves and we will talk and we'll be ready for next month. Excellent, thank you.
[MCM00001177_SPEAKER_30]: Thanks everybody. Thank you.