[Jack Buckley]: Time is 5 AM. This meeting will now come to order, and I'll perform the roll call of the commissioners. Commissioner McGiven? Here. Commissioner Hunt?
[Alicia Hunt]: Here.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Baczynski is absent. And myself, and we still have one vacancy. We do have a quorum also present this evening, seated very close and next to me is the secretary of the traffic commission, Alva Erickson. We will be joined by Metro PD traffic sergeant Larry Rogers, along with director of traffic and engineer Todd Blake. And also I see Jim Silva, who's special projects coordinator for the city of Medford is present. The minutes of the October 8th, 2024 meetings have been distributed. If all seems in order, I'll let detain a motion to accept and approve from one of the commissioners. Motioned. On the motion of Commissioner McGiven, seconded by? Second. Commissioner Hunt, we're gonna see a lot of that tonight. A roll call. Alba, on the roll call for the minutes. Commissioner McGiven? Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On a three nothing, the motion is approved and the minutes have been approved. Tonight's agenda, new business 2024-58 on petition permit parking on Gourley Road, 24, seven Sundays and holidays excluded from George Street, 261 Gourley Road, left side and 17 Dwyer Circle, right side. Is the petitioner present this evening? Raise your hand, wave, we'll let you present the petition. Anyone here from Gourley Road?
[SPEAKER_06]: She called me on the telephone to see why we weren't up, but she was supposed to be staying on. She was there.
[Jack Buckley]: Alicia, I believe in the chat we have a Mark is present.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, okay. Mark, I'm going to ask you to unmute.
[Jack Buckley]: Mark, can you unmute yourself? Yep, can you hear me all right now? Excellent, we can hear you now. Welcome, and the floor is yours for the petition.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, I don't mind the petition, but there is a couple of changes I'd like made, because unfortunately, taking into account the beginning with the parking permit at 61 Gawley, it's gonna shift the balance of parking down to the lower end where I live at 20. And as you know, by Barry Park, Goley Road, between the tennis courts and the basketball courts, there are times you can't even get up the street with parking on both sides. We've got people coming from College Ave, Summer Ave, the two smallest streets that are down by the 7-Eleven that are coming up the park, because unfortunately, the conversion of single-family homes to three and four and five Apartments or condos is quadruple the amount of cars that are parking in that area. I would my only concern is that they would extend it all the way down to at least where I am just before the tennis courts on the it's the even side.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, thank you. Mark, you're here to comment on it, and I understand the comments, but are you the actual original petitioner? That's what we were looking for first.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm not. I actually just found out about this through the letter that was mailed to the abutters, I believe, or the neighbors on that street.
[Jack Buckley]: R.D., that would match up with the name I was just given of Rose Davidson, but R.D., welcome. Can you please unmute yourself? Can you can unmute yourself? We are having a banner night tonight.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right. Now, she said the host wasn't allowing me to talk. Excellent.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. So we heard we I know you just heard Mark and his petition, but you are the petitioner. So you want to go forward with that with the idea of the concept and what you're actually looking for. The floor is yours. And welcome.
[SPEAKER_12]: Right. So yeah, so I've lived here since 1988. Seen a lot of changes in the area from when it was the Dame School to the Tufts Administration Building, then the bus lines coming down George and now the Green Line, then Tufts students housing expanding to George Street and beyond. So what's happening is, as you can imagine, a lot of the permit parking has taken place and gone into effect on, if you're coming from Main Street going west down George to the left, that's mostly permit parking now. And what's happening is the residents tenants, I should say, a lot of them are using Gourley Road for overflow. Say they have a two family that they rent out and the unit has parking for two cars in the driveway while the other four roommates are coming onto streets like Gourley Road. So we get that, they get the tenants, the Tufts students doing that. We also have, since the administration building for Tufts is now Up at the top of the street of Goley Road, we have Tufts employees who park almost every day. Some of them are contractors. I've talked to them and I asked them, do you work for Tufts? No, I'm a contractor. I work two or three days here in this building and then I go to another school or whatever. I said, okay, but it's all day. They probably pull up around 8 and they leave around 5, 5.30. So we have those, then we have now the commuters who usually take the bus, the 94, the 96, and you see them because they park, they walk up with their backpacks, they take a right on Georgia left, and then I leave to go get my coffee and I see that same person at the bus stop. So we got those, and then we got the green line, which I had a neighbor actually, he was on Dwight's Circle, he parked, he got out of his car, this gentleman, looked for signs, didn't see any signs, got out of the car, walked up gorely, and my neighbor actually followed him all the way up to the green line. Got on the green line, my neighbor came back and he said, yep, he went to the green line. I said, Okay, there's another one. Then we also have people that use, you know, our street for the airport. You see them pull up park, get their suitcase out 1030 at night, here comes the Uber, they jump in the car, and we don't think that car is here for about four or five days. Um, again, Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins games. I know it's great. You can take the green line, but you got people even in North Medford that come down here and park and go to the Bruins games. Um, so my issue is really We, the people that live here, we just want to come home either without groceries. We have a lot of families with young children, infants who want to pull up and take that kid out of the car in front of their house without putting them in a stroll and a walk up five houses into their homes. We have people that work, we have nurses that work, you know, seven to 11 or At night, they come home. They got to walk a block because they can't get in their house in the middle of the night. So I think it's time. I can go on and on and on. We got the buses from Tufts we got to deal with. I don't know, the deliveries that we want in front of our house for say we get a couch, we got to find out who's in front of our house, go to Tufts, call Rocco DiRico. Can you tell the person to come move the car? I got a refrigerator coming. So I think it's time.
[Jack Buckley]: Can I ask a clarifying question? So you're looking for George up to 61 Gawley, and then the petition says 17 Dwyer Circle. So I assume that's the first house on Dwyer Circle that cuts off of Gawley, but it's the backside of it. So it makes it kind of an angle. Is that what the petition is exactly for, and not further down by the field?
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, the baseball, I mean, this is always a mystery. You walk 50 feet and you can park in front of a field and no one's gonna bother you. So yeah, 17 actually, Dwyer Circle is 17, it faces Summer Street actually, but their side door is on Gourley Road and they park there. And I know he, it's a, The landlord lives in Winchester or Andover, but his tenants, they're very nice. They pull up on Goldie Road on the side there. But again, 17, their front door faces literally on the street. Yeah.
[Jack Buckley]: I don't have an issue with that. I just want to clarify where the program starts and ends.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, stand by one second. Commissioner Hunt, any questions of the petitioner before we open it up to further public comment?
[Tim McGivern]: Is the petition for down to 61 and 17 or is it down to 20?
[SPEAKER_12]: The petition is for, I had it written here, it is for I worded it from George Street to 61 Gorley Road on the left, because that's the last house before the baseball field. And then 17 Dwyer Circle is right across from 61 on the right.
[Alicia Hunt]: So it's just that half of Gourley, is that?
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I mean, that's where people come off like they literally turn the corner and then pull over. I get the people down to Gourley Road the rest of the way, may want it as well, but the park is all the way on that other side. So I don't, we are inundated with Like I said, that busy part of the Green Line, Tufts, the students, the buses, they're all up there.
[Alicia Hunt]: We're just trying to get the clarification now. Can Alva confirm, so we have the petition, it's signed by a lot of these addresses. It's not signed by the families at 17 Dwyer. Fun fact, I know the owner now and she lives up there. Sandra? His wife.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Laura. Very, very nice. But I'll tell you, he, he only has a tenant on the first floor. On the second floor. No one's in there. Right now. They were doing it over. But the woman on the first floor, I try to catch her. She's very nice. Well, she I can't seem to catch her. She's a teacher. I'll see if I'm going to when this ends.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I just wanted to sort of understand what, do we have all the signatures, usually all the checks?
[Jack Buckley]: From the chair, we have signatures from that segment, George Street up to the Gooley Road where Dwyer Circle starts. We did ourselves reach out to the entire road, and while they are not represented on the petition, we received two phone calls from residents in that. Let me just look here. Two, three, four, five. It's probably six homes there that are in favor of the petition, and I'm not sure if any of them else are present here this evening, so we haven't gotten a public comment. But it may be possible we hear from others, but the petition itself represents that segment, but we have heard since we contacted the entire street, we have heard from others in favor of the petition. If that helps the commission.
[Alicia Hunt]: Because it seems to me that it is very confusing to people to do less than a full block. But to be clear, it has been our policy that if there is along the side of a public park, we would never put permit parking there. We would put like two-hour parking, something that allows people to move through and use the park. And I certainly would be in favor of some sort of two or three hour parking along the park to discourage commuters from using it, but to keep that space available for park users. Yeah, this is something that we discussed when we discussed the outer green zone. We had a term for it. I still have the map here. to go the outer area of the green line. I would much rather see a regional parking solution and not street by street parking. I think that works better and is better for the community. What does that mean? Well, when we make the entire area permit parking, and if you live in that area, you can park on any of the streets, it's not just restricted to your street, you could live around the corner. For example, somebody with an address of Dwyer Circle could not park on Gourley Road because their address would be Dwyer Circle, even though half their house is on Gourley Road. And that's just the example that's on this map that is relevant here. But we see that all the time with corner houses, right? The corners on George, would not be allowed to park on Gourley if their address unless they get a special variance. When you do regional permit parking, you just say all the streets in this region are in the permit. If you live in this region, you all can park on those.
[SPEAKER_12]: That's going to allow the tenants who don't have enough room in the driveways in their rental properties and they They're going to come over here and back.
[Alicia Hunt]: So right now there's already a regional permit and the ones that are on the other side of George Street, if they register their cars in Medford, can get a permit for the Green Line region and they can park on those streets over there. There is not a zone on this side of George Street. But if somebody lives in an apartment and they have proof, they have a lease or whatever, and their car is registered in Medford, then they can get a permit on the street that they're living in. So the streets, the apartments on your road would be able to get the permits. It wouldn't just be restricted to property owners.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, let's do this. Let's hear from others. Mark had already presented, and I want to know if he would like to present again now that we've heard the petition in specific. So let's ask Mark to unmute and see if he wants to kind of repeat his comments. Hey, Mark, welcome back. And I know you already presented, but we've heard from the petitioner now. You're a resident of Gooley Road. Do you want to restate or add any facts to what you've already said?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, absolutely. I've been there almost 30 years myself on that street. I've seen a huge increase, like the petitioner said, in cars. Again, unfortunately, when you convert houses from single, you go from maybe three cars to nine or 10 cars for each house. It just doesn't work with our neighborhoods. Um, she's correct. I, I look out my front window and I see people grab, like she says, grab the backpacks and this is parking down by the baseball field and the tennis courts in front of my house at 20 and they grabbed the backpacks and they're off and running. up to the T. There's a gentleman that lives down on this. I'm not sure the exact name of the street. It's a little, uh, little circle street down. If, if you go down across from the end of, uh, Gawley, um, he has a construct construction contractor business. He parks three vans there at a time because he can't fit them all in front of his house. I have no problem at all with people parking the whole side down there in the park side could be left alone. Anybody can park all they want from the tennis courts down can park all they want. I would just like to see it extended from 61 because if you stop at 61, that person's going to drive another 50 feet, park in front of the houses that are further down. It just, it alleviates the problem for them, but it puts the pressure on our end of the street. And I just seeing, you know, would like to see an equal distribution in that case. I mean, if we're going to. We don't want custom to move 4 or 5 spots. We want them to move. Either off the street to find some parking in Medford. I'm sure there's options. where they could find, or like she says, these people that don't live there, they work in town, they come from all over and drop their cars and run. I mean, but it's really kind of an unfair to ask the rest of the street to pick up the overflow. I mean, honestly, if you're in a parking lot, stop and shop, if there's no spots up front, you park 10 spots back, which is exactly what's gonna happen on this street. Leave the park side open. I mean, that's fine. Leave the tennis court side open. I mean, we're asking for about maybe four more houses.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, I appreciate your comments and thanks for your participation. We have Dee Healy. Unmute yourself. I chief. Good welcome. Thank you Sir, I'm going to keep it brief.
[SPEAKER_17]: I know you crunch for time. I agree with both petitioners. I think putting the permit any way that we can figure out a way to do it to reduce the amount of Parkers that are really commuters and not residents of the community. I think it's going to be a win. I agree with all the comments I've heard and I thank you for your time.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much and no objection. George to summer or Well, I might have already lost you, okay.
[SPEAKER_17]: No objection, Chief, no objection to that at all.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, appreciate it. I want to go back to the petitioner.
[Alicia Hunt]: There was one more, a person who put a note in the chat. So JMAC, should we give them an opportunity?
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, let's hear from JMAC first. JMAC.
[SPEAKER_15]: Hey, what a normal name that I have there. Hey, how's it going?
[Unidentified]: Yeah. You're welcome.
[SPEAKER_15]: I live across the street from Rose, and I agree with everything that was said here. You're just getting a lot of traffic, and that congestion on both sides can often cause a lot of, you know, issues when you're pulling onto George, and you see people every day going up and down the street with backpacks and suitcases, so I just wanted to echo what was already said, and I agree with the petitioner, so thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very, very much for your participation. Going back to the petitioner now, I'm going to ask a question for you. So, you've heard that there's a number of other people here who are suggesting that not limited to Dwyer Circle, but extended George to Summer, excluding the Parkside. Do you have a specific objection, or did you just not reach that end of the street, or do you have a preference on that?
[SPEAKER_12]: No, that you can do as long as our section is permit packing. Whatever everyone wants on their end of the street, I'm all for. It's really, you know, I don't know what goes on down there. You know what I mean?
[Jack Buckley]: I appreciate it. Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to speak to this point, either in favor or against the petition? Raise your hand, put something in the chat. Okay, seeing none, commissioners, questions, concerns? I also have Director Blake and Sergeant Rogers. Any issues on that side of things? I can get an answer.
[Todd Blake]: Hey, thanks everyone. I'm in full support of this. I think it's just the tip of the iceberg because I think Once this approves, Marsden and other streets will probably come in with similar issues because it's just pushing the problem. So the GL zone fixed it over there, and then this is the result. It's pushing outside that zone, and then it's getting worse for these neighboring streets, and it's likely to occur again. So I would definitely recommend supporting this and approving this. but be mindful that maybe we circle back and revisit the outer zone in the future that was previously denied because this is the reason why we had asked for it before so I think it would be beneficial as Alicia mentioned at some point but for now I'd approve this individual one. Thank you Director Blake.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Hunt, Commissioner McGibbon.
[Tim McGivern]: I think Todd touched on my point. This might cause Marston to come in. But I think this is exactly what I wanted to see when it comes to how these zones are created. So now we can identify or start to keep track of the overflow from the G zone. So I'm in favor of this petition. And if we can do it for the whole block, I would prefer that.
[Jack Buckley]: Good. Raishan?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I guess this is the first way to get this started. So.
[Jack Buckley]: There's a better way to get a motion.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, move to approve approve the permit parking for the entire street of Gourley with the exception of I believe I got some inside information that the park has 3 hour parking. So that the park is 3 hour parking. I don't Jim did we have some sort of exception for residents after or something like that, or it's just three hour parking along the park.
[Jim Silva]: It's three-hour parking. The example I was giving was Tufts Park. Along Tufts Park is three hours. We had talked to the recreation folks, and most games are three-hour long, and it is resident parking on Morton Avenue from 10 p.m. till 8 a.m., and then it's open for people who participate in the park activities, but it prevents commuters from parking there and walking up to the Green Line.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right, so I prefer consistency around the city. So if it was resident permit parking with along the park, three hour parking during the day and permit parking only 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.
[Jim Silva]: That would be consistent.
[Alicia Hunt]: I just want to make sure that that's consistent.
[Jack Buckley]: To me, that's consistent with what now.
[Alicia Hunt]: One of the residents was pointing out, how is that handled with odd and even parking in the winter with snow and stuff like that? Does that matter? How do we handle that?
[Jim Silva]: It's my understanding that resident parking is not enforced during a snow emergency. Is that correct, Chief?
[Jack Buckley]: That is correct, and the same rules will apply, especially in the park side there. Well, it should have no impact at all. Okay, so Alicia, you, I heard everything you said, and I made my notes and the petition is for resident permit parking. And you want to include in this motion, the 3 hour parking on the park side.
[Alicia Hunt]: I think so, or else we will just end up with commuters, et cetera, scooting up there and parking in front of the park all day long and making it hard on people using the park.
[Tim McGivern]: Agreed. And I second that whole motion.
[Jack Buckley]: OK. So on the motion of Commissioner Hunt, for resident permit parking 24-7, Sundays and holidays excluded, from George Street to Summer Street, with the Parkside limited to three-hour parking during the day and permit parking from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., I'll have a roll call.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of three to nothing, one absent, the motion is approved. You will have resident private parking in that whole area. It's going to take us a little bit of time, right? It's not going to happen tomorrow. I always give this caveat. I can never tell you exactly when it is, but we will work on this and then move it forward for you. I thank all of you who participated and spoke on this and all of you who put up with our delay and thank you for that. Appreciate it. 2024-59, request from Marion Street residents for no parking here to Corner Sides, both side of Marion Street at Winchester Street, excuse me, submitted by Ms. Anna Campbell, 75 Marion Street. Is Ms. Campbell present? Oh, Kristen Nelson there, you wanna speak on this? Yes, let's see if we can get you to unmute. Can you unmute yourself? Technology has so many pros and cons. Believe me, I'm going to contonate tonight.
[Alicia Hunt]: There should be something popping up on your screen.
[Jack Buckley]: Here we go. Oh, no. Anything? You see a sign on your screen? Unmute.
[Alicia Hunt]: If you're on a phone, swipe left and see if you see a big button asking you to unmute.
[Jack Buckley]: Here we go.
[80br4JUepho_SPEAKER_21]: Okay.
[Jack Buckley]: Welcome.
[80br4JUepho_SPEAKER_21]: Thank you. It says Kristen Nelson, but it's really Ann Campbell.
[Jack Buckley]: Welcome. It's Anna Anna.
[80br4JUepho_SPEAKER_21]: Ann.
[Jack Buckley]: Ann Campbell. Welcome. And the floor is yours. Thank you.
[80br4JUepho_SPEAKER_21]: We are petitioning to have two signs, one for each side of the street, no parking from here to corner. because we are having, since the G zone for the T has moved in in July, we are having people parking way too close to the corner and hanging over onto Winchester Street. And larger vehicles are not able to come around the corner. And we have had a few emergency vehicles, fire trucks, that have not been able to get around the corner where the cars parked on both sides. The odd side of the street has a fire hydrant and they park right at the fire hydrant with no clearance and they park right in front of number 80 and they hang on over to Winchester Street and you just can't get larger vehicles around the corner. We have school buses that come around, we have oil trucks, we have emergency vehicles, and you just can't get around the corner when they park too close. So we're trying to get two signs so that they won't park too close to the corner.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for, you can see, we just put the map up here.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: So if I do go down there, it is tight. I've gone down a couple of times. Again, we have the no parking 20 feet anyways, but they're not adhering to it. So maybe the signs would help.
[Jack Buckley]: As Sergeant Rogers said, that we do have an ordinance and a law that there's no parking 20 feet from, in this case, it would be Winchester Marion Street. There's some issues with enforcement on that, but that is already a standard or a law within this city for us to follow.
[80br4JUepho_SPEAKER_21]: And I wish I had thought to take pictures because this is not generally what the street looks like during the day.
[Jack Buckley]: I will add that both the traffic sergeant and myself, this is, Ms. Campbell, this is not the first time you've complained about this and we've tried some enforcement areas and you brought this to our attention a number of times and it may require the next step of signage and enforcement. But I agree with you that it's not typically looking like this on the average day. commissioners before I open it up to the floor.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm fine with this unless Todd or somebody has some reason why we wouldn't do this at this location. It sounds like it's needed.
[Jack Buckley]: Anything Commissioner McGibbon?
[Tim McGivern]: The only thing I would say is this sign pollution would be signing in an already enforceable condition. I mean, that's my only point, but it doesn't look like there's a lot of signs in this area. Would we wanna increase the 20 feet? I mean, I'm much more in favor of signs if we need to like increase that 20 feet zone. I don't know if Todd has any opinions on that.
[Todd Blake]: Director Blakey. That's what I was just gonna say. Thank you, Tim. If it's just a matter of enforcing the 20 foot rule and we want, if Tim was okay with putting signs up, we wouldn't even need a vote because it's just a sign reinforcing the existing rule. We usually only bring it to traffic commission when it's beyond the 20 feet. I haven't looked at this particular 1 on the left with the hydrant. it should be more than 20 feet already because it's plus 10 to the hydrant. So, on the right side, maybe it needs a little more.
[Jack Buckley]: I think Peggy in the chat just hit your point a little so the hydrant does extend that further than that. So that that is 100%. Sorry, working on the crap quarters here.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, that side's already basically 28 or 30 anyways if you go from the hydrant.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, so Director Blake is doing some measurements. If you took into enforcement the markings of the hydrant from the corner and added the 10 feet beyond that, that would be almost 30 feet on that side. Maybe just 20 feet at 25 on one side. And he's now looking and recommending 25 on the other side. So what he's suggesting is that The hydrant rule may be the one that is kind of in question on the other side of the street where people are encroaching on that hydrant. And second, I've always recommended 25 feet on the near side, what would be south side of Marion Street. So if that helps the commissioners.
[Tim McGivern]: It does for me, because I think we could put a sign at the end of the hydrant zone, no parking here at a corner. And we could put one on the other side of the recommended 25 feet. And upon, I presume this is recommended by the traffic surgeons too, from what I'm hearing, this is a condition that we feel needs a little bit of extra step beyond normal rounds of enforcement.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, correct, and this has been brought to our attention by the petitioner a number of times, and it definitely needs some, it would help us with enforcement, let's put it that way.
[Tim McGivern]: All right, then I'll move to do what I just stated, the right side, 25 foot, and the left side, end of the hybrid zone.
[Jack Buckley]: Would be 10 feet from the hybrid.
[Todd Blake]: If I may, Chief? Yep. Since this traffic commission regulatory changes, maybe the vote is only really for the 25. The other one's just a sign reinforcing the existing 10 feet.
[Jack Buckley]: Correct.
[Todd Blake]: All right.
[Alicia Hunt]: It just to be clear, though, whatever sign you would put up, like, normally, I would think of a sign. It's like, no. No parking hydrant, but what you really need is no parking to corner because it sounds like people are parking between the hydrant and the corner.
[80br4JUepho_SPEAKER_21]: They park directly at the hydrant and back to the corner. They ignore the hydrant completely.
[Alicia Hunt]: I wouldn't just want people thinking, oh, I didn't park next to the hydrant, but I can park between the hydrant and the corner because that sounds like it's one of the problems.
[80br4JUepho_SPEAKER_21]: I mean, could we paint the corner yellow? I mean, I don't know what else you can do for people not to park there.
[Tim McGivern]: No, we're just going to try these signs, I think. And Alicia. Yeah and Alicia they would be the same signs no parking here to corner. Great.
[Jack Buckley]: All right so let me give a shot at well let me ask if anyone else wishes to speak on behalf of this or against this in public raise your hand put something in the chat. Okay seeing none on the motion of commission of a given let me give this a try. Establish a sign on the north side of Marion Street, no parking here to corner to reinforce the 10-foot hydrant rule as well as the corner rule, and a 25-foot no parking here to corner on the south side of Marion Street. Good enough? Okay. Motion seconded by?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, second.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Hunt. Roll call vote, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On a vote of 3-0 with one absent, the motion is approved. Again, that will take a little bit of time to get those signs established and get them out there. It takes a little bit of work, but we'll get some increased parking enforcement, traffic enforcement on this.
[80br4JUepho_SPEAKER_21]: I definitely thank you for your attention to this matter.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your petition and for being patient with us. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Okay. 2024-60, Handicap, Arkansas, William Crowell, 119 Bowdoin Street. Mr. Crowell, is someone here to speak on behalf? I see a Bill Crowell. We're going to ask you to unmute. Hello. Hello. Hello. Welcome to the Traffic Commission.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can present your petition. Yeah. I need some parking in front of my house. I've been, I've had a couple heart attacks and some bypass surgery. And sometimes, you know, I live on Bullard Street, Bullard College kids, and sometimes I'm like around the block, down the block, walking can be a problem for me sometimes, especially if I have to carry something. I can't, I'm not supposed to carry anything over 10 pounds. And if I do go shopping, I'm down the street, and I have to stop in the middle of the street and bring one bag out of the car. There is a driveway, but we're not allowed to park in it. She said it's for emergencies. She lets the cars just park in there when there's no emergencies. She doesn't want to be blocking the cellar doors in case somebody has to go down and do work. And it's just that I really need the park in front of my house. So it makes my life so much easier. You know, I'd like to say a couple of times, I have heart disease, a couple of heart attacks, and open heart surgery, and bypass. I've been here about 30 years. And I just need help from the city. I don't want to do anything else. And that's about it for me. And if I had some other place to park, if I could park in a driveway, I would. But I can't park in a driveway. And even if I could, I can't open my door. Can't open my door. I'm just trying to keep it simple and sweet. That's the best I can do.
[Jack Buckley]: No, you did fine. And Alvaro, all the paperwork is in order? It is. Okay, so the commissioners, the paperwork is in order. I'm just trying to take a quick look. Commissioners, any questions of the petitioner?
[Alicia Hunt]: I just think that it's useful to mention, as we usually do in these cases, that if, so you must have a handicapped placard or plate or something to use the spot if we create it, and it's a public handicapped spot, so if somebody else has a legitimate handicapped tag, they also can use the spot. It can't be reserved for you. But if people without handicapped placards are using it, call the police and they'll come ticket them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree. Yeah, I agree. I just, it's just nice to have one there and go shopping or something. I don't have to, I don't have to, I don't have to want to hurt myself anymore.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Okay. Chris, should we give him anything? I went down there Sunday, let me just say, Here's a problem, I believe, on the right. The driveway is on the left. I just want to make note to the commissioners that it's going to be the fourth handicapped spot within a two-block radius on Bowdoin Street.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is two of them right now. There was two of them removed. There was one across the street. There's two of them across the street which were removed on my block. There was a, there was a, um, on, on the left-hand side on, on the left-hand side of the, on the even side, there was two of them and they were removed, um, a couple of years ago. I have one, I have one, um, and I have one next to me, but they have two handicapped right, right there. And they, they switch up and it's just, it's not, it's not a lot, you know, but as far as I know on my block, there was only two.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe further down the other end there is, but down my block, my father's street.
[Jack Buckley]: Let me ask, does anyone else here speak in favor of the petition or against the petition? Again, just wave your arm, raise your hand, something in the chat. Okay, seeing none, to the commissioners.
[Alicia Hunt]: I would move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve a handicapped parking sign at 119 Bowdoin Street for Mr. Crowell. Seconded by Commissioner McGiven. Alva, roll call vote.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, that's a approval, three to nothing to one absent. Mr. Crowley, your handicap sign has been approved. Again, I give a normal caution and advisement that it won't go up necessarily tomorrow, but we're going to do some work and get it out there as fast as we can.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I know. I'm in no hurry. I know how it works.
[Jack Buckley]: All right. Thank you very much, sir.
[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate your patience with us. All right. And you've been great. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Uh, okay, that was 2024-61 on petition stops on on Central Ave at Pool Street or Linwood Street from from Mr. Steven Shea, 33 Pool Street and others. Mr. Shea, I'm going to ask you to unmute if you would like to present the petition.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, it's good.
[Jack Buckley]: We can hear you and welcome to the Traffic Commission. If you'd like to present your petition, go ahead.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I didn't realize it was a petition. I just sent a letter to Ms. Erickson after meeting with her about our concern on Pool Street and Central Ave. The traffic is going way too fast. We would like to see a stop sign probably at Linwood Street, the corner of Linwood Street where Morrison Park is and that we would hope would slow down the traffic. We noticed that Central Avenue from the Fells Way to Spring Street, there's no stopping any traffic. But from there down to Park Street, there were several stop signs at the intersections to slow down the traffic. And we've noticed right after I sent the letter, the speed bumps appeared. The neighbors think I have great power somehow, but that had nothing to do with this petition. But we're just hoping you would look into that and see what makes sense. to allow people to get out of Pool Street safely. Also, crossing to the park from Central Ave is an issue as well.
[Jack Buckley]: Hey, thank you for the petition. It's understood. So you're looking for it's either or pool or Linwood, but on Central Ave, right?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes. And I think Linwood might be better because Linwood is a busier street. It's also a two way street where full street is a one way. There you go. All right, then. See, there's a park at the Morrison Park. Yep.
[Jack Buckley]: Director hunt can I have you go to Linwood and just to confirm that there's a stop sign coming on to central and then to pool to confirm that there's a stop sign from pool on to central and I'll tell you why I'm asking that question in general and I'm going to refer to director Blake in a minute general it's not like. It's generally not a sound thing to do to put a stop sign in the middle of a major or larger street where there are side streets off. Do you have an opinion on that or is that something to do? I might be completely wrong.
[Todd Blake]: Given the current state guidance on stop sign control, stop signs are not supposed to be used as traffic calming, controlling speed. They're supposed to be used for right of way control when it's unclear who has the right of way. So, the certain criteria that has to be met to put an always stop, like, and central and some of those other streets on the other side of spring. So, I believe that was done prior to me being here, but I believe that was based on crash history, but we did recently put. the speed table just east of pool on central for the very reason that you described. It's a long straightaway with no breaks between the two traffic signals. That's one of the reasons why we chose that location. So hopefully it's helping a little bit. But at this time, given the information I have at hand, I wouldn't recommend a stop on central unless we looked into the criteria and it met it, it likely wouldn't meet it at Poole, definitely. Maybe Linwood. So those other examples on the other side of Central, on the other side of Spring, like Otis and others like that, those are two-way streets that go all the way from Salem all the way to Washington across Central. And I think there was Crash History is what I gather. These are two T intersections, so they're not introducing as much traffic into Central. Usually it's more reserved for when two streets are roughly equal and it's confusing the people with one without the right of way. I understand. It's not meant for slowing people down. Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I get that. Okay. I don't know what else to say. It was an attempt to do something because people are really having a difficult time, whether it's, as in the previous examples of the petitions, parking too close to the corners and trucks there. Commercial trucks that are staying there all day. Yeah, it's a problem. You can't see.
[Todd Blake]: It sounds like you're saying parking on Central near the corners, if that was freed up, it would enable- It's on Pool Street too.
[SPEAKER_08]: People who don't live on Pool Street are parking on the corner of Pool Street. People from Central Ave, for example, contractors and so forth.
[SPEAKER_03]: We can't see getting out. I don't know how many times we've all been hit. We were close to being hit. Yeah. They don't stop and we're just standing there. What do we do? How do we get out without an accident?
[Jack Buckley]: So I do think there's, I know you're just here, and I haven't gone to the rest of the commissioners for their opinions, but certainly from a police perspective, there's a number of things we can do, including some increased enforcement, but we can put some traffic advisement signs up there in the neighborhood to bring notice to it. But as you heard in the last petition, there is a, There's a rule about parking the 20 feet from the intersection on the corners there. So combined, I think a lot of that might alleviate if we just put a little extra attention on it. I think it may be more beneficial than going against the norm and establishing a stop sign in the middle of the street, but let me go to the commissioners and seek their opinions first on that one. Commissioner Hunt, Commissioner McGiven, thoughts on what the petitioner is stating? Other thoughts that we might be able to address?
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm wondering if it's better now that the speed bump is there.
[SPEAKER_08]: It is better, but not really great. People fly over those speed bumps and take the hit, you know what I mean?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. I do know that I have learned that the speed bumps are designed to slow you to 25 miles an hour because that's the legal speed to be driving there. Sometimes people see the sign speed table and it slows them down until they get used to it. I would also think people aren't parking on central, like literally on the speed table. So it kind of disrupts some of the, but that you said that the problem is on pool.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, the exit from pool to central.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's two streets that come out onto Central Ave. going in there. There's only two streets that go on to Central Ave, and then you have a freeway all the way down to the Fellsway, and they're speeding. And we can't see. We cannot see with the trucks and the cars on Central Ave. You can't see. So you're inching out, and you're hoping to God there's nobody coming. And I'm not the only one that has voiced this.
[Jack Buckley]: Well, I think you I don't want to your our position here to think that we're diminishing your concerns. We know concerns and wholeheartedly we will. One of the things that I was just talking with Sergeant Rogers behind here is not only can we put up You know, like the signs that will say slow down 25 miles, but we can do a traffic study. We can get a measurement of how many vehicles are traveling on central and the speeds at which they're going at. And it will give us a really good estimate say, whether it's done over a week's time or 2 weeks time of what we're facing there. And then we can adjust either adjust enforcement there or revisit. So I think it's important that you're bringing this to our attention so that we can kind of adjust our strategies and tactics for the area. And it's just not a normal thing to do to put a, as you say, it's a major. I don't want to call it an honoree, but we know that vehicles tend to pick up speed because they have the right of way generally. It's in their mindset by Mass General Laws and the street design that they have a right of way and people are less cautious, I guess they tend to be, especially in today's day. And so putting a stop sign up is generally not advisable for us in that case. But we can do a lot to kind of look at this problem and study it.
[SPEAKER_08]: All right, well, that's very reasonable. Thank you very much.
[Jack Buckley]: Well, hold on one second.
[Alicia Hunt]: I just want to see what... Can we motion to deny the request but refer the problem to the traffic division for further follow-up?
[Jack Buckley]: We can, we've done that in the past to some success.
[Alicia Hunt]: I just don't think we need to keep it on our agenda. I think that the item is done. You guys will deal, and if you all determine that something regulatory is needed, you'll put it back on the agenda. And if you can manage it without regulatory decisions, you'll just take care of it.
[Jack Buckley]: I agree with that. Commissioner McGibbon, your thoughts?
[Tim McGivern]: It's already on the radar at the engineering office, obviously with the speed tables there. We hear complaints about this corridor, Central Avenue speeding. So I think there's two parts here. It's an enforcement and whatever the patrol units can do. And then there's the work that the engineering office is already doing, and I'm sure Director Blake has got all kinds of creative ideas for this particular stretch. It's just a matter of time and observing and getting feedback. So we appreciate your openness to providing that feedback, and we'll continue to pursue solutions that work.
[Jack Buckley]: And that would be a second of Commissioner Hunt's motion?
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, a long-winded second.
[Jack Buckley]: All right. On the motion of Commissioner Hunt to deny petition 2024-61 for a stop sign on Central Ave, but to refer the matter to the Medford Police Department and their traffic unit, and that will bring about an increased enforcement with some advisements and a traffic study done in that area, seconded by Commissioner McGibbon. Albert, a roll call vote, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, indeed.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, I'm three to nothing, to one absent. That motion is approved. And while we deny the petition, I think we might be able to come up with some better solutions for you and work our way through that. And you make sure you stay in touch if there's a problem outside of that. But I thank you for your participation this evening. Okay. 2024-62 crosswalks across Winchester Street at New Bern Ave, North Crossing, Morton Ave, South Crossing, and Granville Ave, North Crossing. That is Director Blake, and so I will turn the floor over to Director Blake.
[Adam Hurtubise]: If you, my map's here if you need that or don't worry.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Hutt, can you bring up the area of Morton and Wichester and that area on yours to share?
[SPEAKER_07]: Sure.
[Jack Buckley]: Using my desktop is going to share some things.
[Alicia Hunt]: We can't both share at the same time though. New Bern and, sorry.
[Todd Blake]: What do you want for us to? We could start either one, Felicia. Winchester at New Bern right there, yeah. So I think we said North, South North, right? That's right, yeah. If you want to look at the petition. If you could do the aerial. Yeah, so basically there's already existing wheelchair ramps at these three locations and this will enable better enable people to safely cross Winchester. Right now, there's only a crosswalk painted up at Albion and Broadway, Somerville, and down at Harvard Street. So pretty much the entire length of Winchester has no painted crosswalks currently. And by painting these, it will help facilitate safe crossings from the neighborhood to the green line back and forth into the parks at Tufts Park and some other areas. So we'll better alert the drivers, because people are already crossing there, there's already ramps, it's already crossing. It's just to paint them and to make them more awareness to drivers that to expect pedestrians crossing there. So we'd paint it and add warning signs as well.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is all four?
[Todd Blake]: The two on the side streets, we usually don't come to the traffic commission, but we plan on painting the crossings on the side streets. But across Winchester, only one of the two at each location. We picked the ones that had the better alignment of ramps and better visibility. So it's the north, south, and the north, as the response says.
[Alicia Hunt]: This one?
[Todd Blake]: also.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay.
[Todd Blake]: So we've also recently added a radar feedback sign in Winchester. The police already had one in one direction. Engineering just added one in the other direction. So we're trying to change the character of that street and control the speeding just like the previous complaints for Central Ave. Winchester Street is the street we get Habitual complaints about that, so we're trying to change the character introducing these painted crosswalks with warning signs and the radar feedback signs. Hopefully change the character of the street. That's not just the.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sense to me.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: I don't have any questions.
[Jack Buckley]: No questions from Commissioner McGiven. Let me open up the floor. Does anyone here wish to speak in favor of this petition adding crosswalks on Winchester Street? And does anyone here wish to speak against the petition? Have any concerns against the petition? Okay, I don't see anything. No concerns either way. Back to the commissioners. A motion for approval or denial, I guess?
[Alicia Hunt]: Move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, second. Okay, on the motion of Commissioner Hunt for crosswalks across Winchester Street and Newburn Ave, North Crossing, Morton Ave, South Crossing, and Granville Ave, North Crossing, as presented by Director Todd Blake. I'll have a roll call vote, please, and seconded by Commissioner McGibbon.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On a vote of three to nothing to one absent, the motion is approved. Director Blake, that has to be the fastest you've ever presented and got something approved here, sorry. 2024-63, no parking anytime, 310 Lawrence Road, Northside, a distance of 20 feet at crosswalk. Director Blake, again, the floor is yours.
[Todd Blake]: Alicia, if you could share that as well, the 310 Lawrence Road. It's the house, if you're traveling from Forest Street to Winthrop Street, it's prior to the crosswalk at Rural Ave. Yeah, exactly. So this is very similar to a bunch of other previous requests to daylight a crosswalk. So when cars park in front of 310, they kind of block the view of pedestrians wishing to cross there and pedestrians can't see the car coming. And there's a lot of kids that cross in this area because the school bus stop is in the vicinity as well. So I would just be looking to do what we've done elsewhere with the one car lane 20 feet prior to the crosswalk. We've done some other things there as well, but this is an addition. So we've added an in-street sign there to create warning. We've trimmed that tree. We're trying to create more visibility of the sign in the sidewalk itself, in the crosswalk itself. So the restricting one parking space will help with that. I believe it would still remain one parking space in front of that house, so we wouldn't necessarily take away the space that's entirely from the crosswalk to the driveway. It'd be about half that. And most of the houses on Lawrence Road are single family with big driveways, but again, this would still, it would only take one of roughly two spaces in front of that house.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Thank you, Director Blake. Before we open up to public comment, Commissioner McGibbon, Commissioner Hunt.
[Tim McGivern]: In general, I like these requests, and I think they go a long way. I hear that people appreciate them as well, so I'm in favor of this.
[Alicia Hunt]: I have just one question, sort of a side question, is that I've had a few people ask me if we were planning to do bike lanes on Lawrence Road, since it's a major thruway to the high school. And this seems like if there was a bike lane, you wouldn't need a daylight parking spot. I was just curious about that. if that's a project that's on the radar or anything.
[Todd Blake]: Lawrence Road, I would say is a target area for potentially doing that. What I'd like to do before that becomes what the traffic commission would be to collect data of the parking utilization on both sides of the street to confirm that there's less than 50 percent occupancy and that we've done on a high street and winter street in certain areas. And then that would lead to potential bike lanes, at least one direction, if not both.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah.
[80br4JUepho_SPEAKER_21]: Okay.
[Jack Buckley]: Anyone wishing to speak in favor of the petition? Just wave your arm, raise your hand in the chat group. Is there anyone wishing to speak against the petition or have an objection? Or any other general question related to the petition for no parking at 310 Lawrence Road?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Okay, seeing none.
[SPEAKER_06]: I did receive a phone call from the owner of that home, and she has no objection to the sign for daylighting the 25th, but there was presently another sign posted in front of her house, and she didn't feel that she liked two signs posted in front of her house.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, did the commissioners hear that? I'll just repeat it out loud. Alba received a phone call from the homeowner at 310 Lawrence Road, who is no objection to this petition. But if we can look at that, her concern is that there already is a sign in front of the home, and I believe that that's probably the crosswalk. And as to if there's something that could be done where she did not have 2 poles in front of her house, that's more of a question for probably Commissioner McGiven. Director Blake.
[Todd Blake]: Normally that pedestrian warning sign would be closer to the crosswalk right at it or maybe on that telephone pole, but that tree when it's in bloom blocks anything behind it, right? So that's why that warning sign is before it in this case. So in general, yes, that existing sign would be closer. The no parking sign, if we wanted to use the same pole, we'd probably have to add a taller pole so that there's enough clearance. Usually we don't add the parking restriction signs to the same traffic. warning sign. And I assume it would have to be pulled back, right? Yeah, exactly. It would have to be posted exactly at 20 feet so it would be a little further back. We could consider that. I wouldn't want to make any promises because there's a lot of competing interest there with the height and the visibility and other things. But yeah, in general, if we can reduce, as Tim said, the number of polls to get the same effects, then we will, but sometimes we can't.
[Alicia Hunt]: I couldn't see how having those 2 having that sign and then another sign 3 or 4 feet from it would look kind of weird.
[Todd Blake]: Again, if Aggie wants to eliminate that tree, though, so no, that's a joke. The warning sign is such that because if it's moved elsewhere, it's not visible. So it's just nature of this particular area. Someone asked if we could paint too. Sometimes we do paint the daylight areas with hatching markings. Usually, we try to match the character of the current street or neighborhood. This street currently doesn't have necessarily markings there, but I think if and when we add the shoulder lines, that makes sense to do that as well. That just highlights the no parking area. But we need the sign for enforcement anyways.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I'm in favor, I would move approval. If you can accommodate, like making it not multiple poles right there with different signs, that would be nice. I assume she does not want that crosswalk sign upgraded to one of our flashy ones. So keeping it simple. Do we think there's a no parking Like a daylighting zone, do we still need the crosswalk sign? I think we do, but.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, we'd still typically want it, because especially at night, it's more visible to drive. Usually, most of the areas we've been trying to improve pedestrian safety has been a combination of efforts, the daylighting, the warning sign, and the in-street sign. So between all these things, it changes to, you know, drivers say, all right, something's different here. So we'd rather the extra awareness.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Just trying to look at one last thing here.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, I do believe there's still a motion, correct? So a motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve 24-63, no parking anytime, 310 Lawrence Road, north side, distance of 20 feet, the crosswalk. with the added consideration from the director and DPW to look at the sign issue would double up. Is that close enough, and is it seconded by Commissioner McGiven? Yep, second. Alba, roll call vote, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Fent? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On a vote of three to nothing to one, absent, the motion is approved. And we will leave it to you guys to kind of take a look at the situation and see what we can do to resolve. 2024-64, Mr. David Newhall, Crockett Design Group 400, Mr. Gav, there's a project. You can describe the project, but they are looking for a stop sign and stop line bar on Fulton full, excuse me, Fulbright Street at Mystic Avenue, and then a second no parking anytime both sides on Fulbright Street from Mystic Avenue to the first private driveway. And I see a, there is a Mr. Collins with his hand up. I'm going to assume that could be the petitioner. Yep, just gonna try to get you to unmute yourself if that's working. Mr. Collins. Thank you, Chief Buckley. You're welcome. Welcome, come here, and the floor is yours.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you. I'm Matthew Collins with Crocker Design Group. We're the engineering firm representing Herb Chambers for this project. In September, we went through permitting with the engineering department. And we received our permit, and then in October, they had a few comments after the fact. Specifically on Fulbright for the stop sign stop bar and for the no parking on either side up to that 1st driveway going into the proposed lot and. So they wanted us to add those. As part of that, they wanted Traffic Commission's approval. So we are just here for approval. I'll try to keep it short for all of you. I know you've been here for a while, so I'm willing to answer any questions you may have.
[Jack Buckley]: Much appreciated. And just for clarification, that is going on the bank property there, or is it on the opposite that where
[Todd Blake]: so right where that mouse is that uh so we're going uh if you take a right to um where the bank is uh that's the proposed herb chambers uh headquarters okay excellent see if i could have before yep director blake uh so yeah they're coming before you because i requested this in relation to the uh review of that project so basically they're doing some other good improvements they're gonna up you know upgrade the crosswalk there into a They're going to do a bump out to make it more teed off full bright at Mr. gaps will be a shorter crossing. So this is just to prevent parking between Mr. Gavin the driveway, which is moving a little bit further up, but it will kind of clean those areas just like we heard from the residents. If someone parked on either side in between those areas, it might. Lock the view of anyone coming in and out, and it's going to be more traffic between that little stretch there. So, yeah, so it's only about 50 feet or so on either side of the street. So, instead of the standard 20, because it's from the corner of the street, but then also the corner of their driveway, and it's going to be higher use driveway. So if people are familiar with that street, sometimes you get a lot of people parking on Fulbright, because it's kind of one of those streets that, you know, people find out, oh, I could park there all day. So this will just clean that up between the higher use areas of the turning movements coming in and out of that side street.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Thank you, Leverett. I always thought it was by the way. I think I'm wrong. There are car carriers, tractor trailers, buses, everything else parking down there. I wonder if we could go further in restricting the parking maybe overnight. If it is, in fact, the public way. It is a public way. I can confirm that. Restricting maybe the overnight parking because the tractor trailers, as Todd said, they park there and they leave their car there. They can't go home.
[Jack Buckley]: Sorry that we're going to debate this out loud a little bit. But already there would be no open parking for the track to trail, correct? You're just looking for it to be posted so that... I don't like it posted, no parking.
[Todd Blake]: And if I may, that request by Sergeant Rogers would be similar to other restrictions we approved on the city portion of Mystic Ave, which restricted, I think, 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.? Yeah. We've done this on Commercial Street and Mystic Ave as well, to kind of get a little more control over the overnight people that are coming. It's a dumping ground. Yeah. And was the signage no overnight parking in commercial vehicles? No, it was just for everybody, no overnight parking at all. I think it was either 10 or 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Yeah. This is a consistent thing.
[Tim McGivern]: Todd, are you aware of the, The, the issue with full bite street and which portion is public and which portion is private.
[SPEAKER_20]: I thought, based on the recs and engineering, this portion was public. That's why I directed to the traffic.
[Alicia Hunt]: This is something that's come up for us with other things and we've looked into it a bit but in the planning office that Fulbright is a public road to about here where there's actually a gate at which point this portion of it is on private property.
[Todd Blake]: No, it was behind the former yoga studio. It's essentially the driveway to the building with the yoga studio floor. For those way back, the blockbuster video, I think.
[Jack Buckley]: I will say, I don't have it in front of me, but that is my recollection also, because that has been closed off. for my entire police career. So yeah.
[Tim McGivern]: So there's a discrepancy because the record drawing for Fulbright Street has an acceptance plan for the portion that goes through the parking lot. So the other portion and not this portion that we're talking about tonight. So there is a discrepancy and we brought it to the attention of the folks that own, I believe it's the car wash. I'm not really sure, but anyway, there is an issue with that right now.
[SPEAKER_16]: And I could share my, I have our layout plan here that shows the area a little easier. I don't know if that'll help.
[Alicia Hunt]: I think that would be great. I was actually looking for my files to see if I had that to share, but.
[Todd Blake]: If for some reason it's not a public in this stretch, then the abutters of the private way could restrict what we're asking for anyways, or if we did it for safety, that is one of the things that we could do in a private way.
[SPEAKER_16]: And so our property, and it goes through the middle of Fulbright, but there is that existing 50 foot wide easement that goes right through. You can see the dashed line is the Herb Chambers property line in here.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. Just for, you know, just for what it's worth, we think that it's been misconstrued that the one that has seen improvements, the side that's seen improvements has been called the public side, whereas the side that has not seen any improvements or betterments is, for some reason, what was accepted by city council at some point in the 40s or something like that. I cannot, Todd, we gotta make sure we get you those records for that. I don't think we can necessarily vote on this tonight for that reason.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I agree. I don't think we could vote on the overnight thing if it's a private way, but near the corner, I believe the police are able to, To take it for safety violation on private ways, which would include corner restrictions and then the applicant or the petitioner. Being 1 of the 2 or 3 of butters could also institute that themselves. Signage potentially for the, for the. no parking section for the stop sign if it's a private way it wouldn't be us either um if it's public it would so my apologies if there's some discrepancy it's out loud who can approve a stop sign if it's a private way if it's a private way the way the state law is written it's already a stop private way entering a public way so it's just a matter of putting up a sign to reinforce that okay
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, stop, as Todd was saying before, just clarifies who's right of way. So you have to stop regardless if there's a stop sign or not.
[Alicia Hunt]: But people don't know that it's a private way unless you put up a stop sign.
[Tim McGivern]: That's for any ways. Any ways, private or public. So you have a way entering another way. It should be pretty obvious who's got the right of way. And if it's not, we try to put up a stop sign if it's warranted.
[Todd Blake]: Because in a lot of suburban settings, you don't have a stop sign on side streets. It's just understood, as Tim's saying. But I would highlight that the petitioner is doing a lot of things that we've asked for to tighten this in section up so that for pedestrians and safety, it's gonna get a lot better than it is today. So this is just furthering those efforts.
[Tim McGivern]: I think we know what he wants and I think it's, Unfortunately, it's a bit of a technicality here on whether this is a public way or not. We just reviewed this in engineering. I saw the acceptance plan for the other half and not this half. So for that reasons, I would move to table this until it can be known definitively. If it is determined that it's a public way, this portion is a public way, then we could vote on it. But I don't think we should vote on it if we don't know.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm confused about the stop. So there's two different things, though. The stop sign and the stop line, that was their request. That I would think we could vote on. It's the part about parking restrictions that came from the traffic division that we certainly couldn't vote on if we don't know if it's a public way.
[Tim McGivern]: Well, the stop line and stop sign would be on private property.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, and I think the way I read mass general law when we looked into this last time is a private way entering to a public street has to stop already. So regulatory wise, it's already there. It's just a matter of the petitioner agreeing to paint and put the sign up, but it probably doesn't require a traffic commission at all if it's private way.
[Tim McGivern]: Correct. That would be my understanding too. And we would approve it either way.
[Jack Buckley]: Um, Interesting. Okay. Do we have a timeframe of when we might get an answer on this? Just private, public way, because the records exist in engineering, unfortunately.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, exactly. I think within a day, I mean, we can finalize it tomorrow morning. I think engineering has already finalized it with whoever they're directly dealing with on this issue. So it would just be a matter of me confirming it, me or Todd confirming it in the morning, basically with Owen.
[Jack Buckley]: And just for petitioner, then, I don't know the time frame of the project. If you needed traffic commission approval, we would be asking you to come back the second week in December. I don't know what that does to your time frame. But I can say this, I believe number one on the petition, stop sign and stop line bar on Fulton Street at Mystic Avenue. I mean, if it's a public way, I think the traffic commission would vote yes. Yeah, I agree. Maybe we should do that. And that way, if it's a public ways, get approval for that one. And if it's a private way, they can do it anyway, and should do it.
[Tim McGivern]: A conditional approval? Yep.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah. The second one, I think we should wait until we get some idea of whether or not it is a public private and can address it there with no parking issues. That could work, yeah. We want to do both conditional, It's up to you. I'll leave that part to the commissioners.
[Tim McGivern]: We might as well just do them both conditional, because I think the end result is going to be the same. So if it's determined that this is private, then we don't have jurisdiction, and maybe they'll do it anyway upon our recommendation or Todd's recommendation or a condition on the project, because I believe it's a site plan. So if it lands in the site plan conditions, then it's a site plan condition. So you have that, and we wouldn't need to vote on it, but if it does turn out to be public, okay, yeah, we've already voted on it, and it becomes a site plan condition, so they'd be in good shape regardless.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, you could report back to the traffic commission, so whether or not we log it as a public or as an approved traffic commission meeting, then we'll do it that way. All right, so on the motion of commission that were given to approve 2024-64, conditionally for stop sign and stop line bar on Fulbright Street at Mr. Gav and number two, no parking, anything both sides of Fulbright for Mr. Gav to the first private driveway. The condition will be determined by the engineering department as to whether or not that area or that section is in fact public or private. So if that sounds good to the commissioners.
[Tim McGivern]: It does, I think that summarizes it well.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, Alba, roll call vote, please. Seconded, Alicia. Oh, seconded by Commissioner Hunt, yes. I jumped it.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of three to nothing to one, the motion is approved with the conditional factors. So to the petitioner, Mr. Collins, one way or the other, you're going to get what you need as a result of it being private public property, and if not, it's a private way and you'll have the authority to make those determinations yourself. But we want to operate under the correct regulatory standards. So we will let you know in the next day or two, but I don't think anything will hold up your project with what has just occurred with that fork.
[SPEAKER_16]: I really appreciate that. Thank you so much for your time.
[Jack Buckley]: All right. Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_16]: Good luck with your project.
[Jack Buckley]: thank you one last thing on this was sergeant rogers request obviously that one is more dependent on the fiber public so we can circle back to that yes once we find out okay thank you very much 2024-65 landlord parking permits business parking and clipper ship east lot the parklet area health care parking permit and fee price list for February 1st, 2025. I direct you to Jim Silva, the Special Project Director for the City of Medford. Jim, the floor is yours. Thank you, Chi.
[Jim Silva]: There's a lot to unpack here, so I'm going to take each one of these. The landlord parking permits, back two years ago, the Traffic Commission approved a landlord parking permit program. Unfortunately, our system was not able to handle it at the time. So at this point, we are able to do that. And we've had three requests in total over that time period from landlords. Part of that would be a proof of unit ownership with a tax bill, a deed, or a water bill, plus their registration. So their registration to go into this system, their address would be in the system, and it would only be for that particular street where they own the property. We're trying to be fair. And it does allow, it doesn't allow them to park anywhere other than the street of ownership. In our case, we have Bowen, Burrick, and Benton Road, those streets for request to. And I believe Alva had 1 request from a landlord recently as well. So, 4 in total. we can accommodate that. What we'd like to do is to offer that for next year, and if possible, start the sale of that during our annual renewal for resident parking. So on 12-1, make a landlord pass available for year 2025. and again at $150 per location. If they have more than one location on a resident parking street, they would pay an additional $150, and their car would also be registered to be able to park on that street.
[Jack Buckley]: A quick question for that one point is you have four known potential purchases or requests, but is there a restriction? We're not capping it, right? Correct.
[Jim Silva]: And it's surely been one property isn't being requested for each one of these folks.
[Alicia Hunt]: Can I ask a clarifying question? These would go with a vehicle, right? So, if a landlord had 2 vehicles, they would have to pay twice if they wanted either 1, or if, say, they had 15 locations in the city, it would only be good at 1 vehicle. So they'd have to pay 150 for each of their 15 locations if they wanted it. And they would literally only be able to park at one of those locations at a time because it would actually only be for one vehicle unless they paid for more vehicles.
[Jim Silva]: Exactly. And that what most of our streets are not resident parking. So it doesn't really impact the city in total. But just in the resident parking street where obviously, resident parking is a premium, spaces are a premium. And this would not be a physical pass that could be handed out. This is something that's related to the actual vehicle itself. If there's some opportunity to do work, we have additional passes. We have a two-day and four-day pass. In addition, if the owner has somebody living in the house who participate in the resident parking program, they could use their visitor pass for two days, as well as most of these homes, more than 85% of the homes. have some form of off-street parking so we have some legal room to work with and again this is an opportunity to see how this program works but it's a great start and we'll see if the power enforcement tools work in conjunction with this.
[Jack Buckley]: And to clarify one very important, I think will be an important point, if you have a resident apartment or if you live in the g-zone It's still restricted to that street that you have the property on. It does not give you entitlement to all the whole song. That's correct. Yeah. All right. Excellent.
[Jim Silva]: That's the. 2nd, business parking and slippership East lot, which face at a time.
[Alicia Hunt]: Should we approve this 1 of the time so that. We don't get confused.
[Jack Buckley]: I'm okay with that if unless there's an objection from commission, but given we could go right through. know that's fine I think just like to move approval on the landlord permit while it's all in my head I get it okay okay we do have a few people anyone in the public wish to comment on the landlord parking permit issue raise your hand and to the chat room up and down. Hearing none, on the motion by Commissioner Hunt to approve the landlord parking permits as presented by the Special Projects Director, seconded by Commissioner McGiven, roll call vote, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of three to nothing to one absent, the landlord parking permits as presented is approved.
[Jim Silva]: Number two, business parking in the clicker ship east lot. Currently, the signs for business parking are there. There are 601 participants in the last year for business permit parking. That was purchased in 2024. If it is identified and approved, then we will make those changes to the website that will allow people to navigate there. Okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: Commissioners, any questions? Can I show you which lot this is?
[Jim Silva]: It's where the parklet is.
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, I can share it if you want.
[Jim Silva]: Please.
[Alicia Hunt]: It came to my attention that the, like, Mister Silva said the there are signs in this lot already that say that business parking is allowed. So I would move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Gibbons, any comments? I'm going to try to open this up public also see if there's any way I wish. No, I can second this. Okay. Anyone public want to comment or against? Seeing none, on the motion of Commissioner Hunt, approved with a seconded by Commissioner McGiven, a two, I'll offer to designate the Clippership East lot as business parking. Alba, roll call vote.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On a vote of three to nothing to one, the motion is approved. Mr. Silva, healthcare parking permit.
[Jim Silva]: Enhancing the healthcare parking permit to allow healthcare permitted folks to park in business parking. Throughout the city, there are only four people who participate in the healthcare. permitting as of 2024. There are a number of folks in Medford Square specifically that do not have location to park without meter parking, and it becomes cumbersome for health care workers who are doing an eight-hour shift to actually utilize that. Some of our business parking, if we expand the size of it, it can accommodate those four folks who are participating, and maybe the program will grow a little bit more. So we're just trying to enhance the business parking. Those locations that have business parking to include the healthcare workers to park there, they pay the same price as they would if they bought a business permit. So the pricing is the same.
[Jack Buckley]: Comments from commissioners?
[Alicia Hunt]: Makes sense. familiar with this issue. Just to be clear, this is intended not because you work in a clinic. These tend to be people who are being the day-long aid for somebody. and that's when it's most likely to be an issue is that they can't leave to feed meters, et cetera. And that we are actually, you see this, this Clippership lot in particular is a target location for where this happens because of all the senior and disabled housing adjacent to this lot, so.
[Jack Buckley]: How much commission have we given? No, I agree. Okay, anyone in the public wish to speak for or against this? So if you're present, we'll just open it up to either one. Public comment? Okay, seeing none, a motion?
[Tim McGivern]: One of the commissioners? I already motioned, I'll motion if she didn't.
[Jack Buckley]: I'll give it to Commissioner McGiven on the motion of Commissioner McGiven to approve the health care parking permit expansion, seconded by Commissioner Hunt. I'll have a roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of three to nothing to one absent, the health care parking permit expansion is approved. Mr. Silva, fee price list for February 1st, 2025.
[Jim Silva]: Yes, we have been doing an evaluation for the last year or so, comparing our fee structure to the surrounding communities. We've looked at eight different communities. We see that some of our fees are much lower than others. We are trying to be a little bit more competitive in regard to paying for services, some of the enforcement tools, some of the enforcement itself. And some of these have not been raised for a number of years. So I did send everybody a list of the fees. I'm wondering if someone could share that on the screen. That would be very helpful. I don't have it.
[Alicia Hunt]: Wait, were you just saying, did you email this to me? Sorry.
[Jim Silva]: It's Saturday.
[Alicia Hunt]: Is it from you?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay. Sorry. There it is.
[Jim Silva]: I will mention off from the start, resident parking is $10 per vehicle for unlimited per household. That went into effect on November of 1980, that price. So for 44 years, it's been $10. So I think it might be time to look at this and review some of these price fees. The other issue is within the household, currently it's unlimited. We have run into situations where some streets are inundated. People may have 10 cars, and that sometimes is not a healthy sort of situation. So by limiting the cars and actually tiering the resident parking for the first two, it's 20 per car. and the third car is 30, fourth car is 40, and the fifth is fifth and final car that can be in a household. This gives people an opportunity to talk about limiting, if this is too much, if this is too little, et cetera, but it's a good opportunity. And we'd like to have this possibly approved by February 1st of next year. So as I said earlier about the renewal process, which is in December, December 1st to January 1st, the folks will not be impacted by any price change this year. So for a whole year, people have paid their $10 and they're good until beginning of 2026 if these fees were approved. The other thing is our visitor pass program is currently free if you purchase resident parking. If you don't have a resident parking, it's $10 per pass. So that price already exists. We're just gonna charge the visitor pass $10 per pass. It's a limit of two. And so that will be included. You purchased your resident parking, you'll also have to purchase your visitor pass. So that's the enhancement for 2025, again, February of 2025. Business parking is currently $100. So people will renew their share for $100. Next year, we'd like to make it 125. The home health services, again, is 100. Naturally, the business parking went up to 125 per year. Postal service. Currently, we have 42 postal employees that participate in our program. We also provide some parking locations. We're looking to potentially have them pay $30 per year for next year as well. Resident commuter pass. There are two commuter parking lots in Medford. One is in West Medford and one is behind City Hall. Currently it's $100 per calendar year. We would like to go up to $125 per calendar year. The senior folks, senior resident parking is free. We would like to keep it free. Senior visitor pass is free. We'd like to keep it free. Senior meter and kiosk parking that allows people 65 and older to park in any municipal lot for $25 per year, we'd like to keep it the same. Realtor fee. There was one realtor. We currently have zero. We'd like to raise that to $150 per calendar year to match the landlord fee. Moving day pass, 4 day pass and 2 day pass. Currently they're in the G zone, which is our zone parking. We'd like to see if we can make that citywide for resident parking streets. It's been very popular with the moving day pass. Generally you'll have those being purchased in September. This is a pilot program. So we missed the June move out date. But we're assuming that we had 50 people participate in the gene zone this year. So it is a popular moving program. And it allows people to have, again, if you're moving into your location, you at least have that space in front of your house for moving trucks. Four-day pass, two-day pass is probably we're helping landlords that potentially didn't want to participate in the landlord program, but they could buy these two passes. Currently, nobody has bought either one of them, but I think we could look at sort of promoting this a little bit better, and the prices will basically stay the same. And the last one is a new resident pass. We have currently been offering a two week pass for $10, which will be applied to their resident parking. going forward. This program is only available for Massachusetts registered vehicles. So if you move from Melrose to Medford, you can participate in this. But if you come from Virginia, you have to on the day of move into Massachusetts, you have to have your updated registration. So it keeps it within line of what we currently do. Any questions?
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, I like that they would take effect in so that people renewing now. They'll renew it the old rates, and then they take effect in February. That would say if somebody hasn't renewed by February, then they don't use their pass very often. But then if they move in over the course of the coming year, it's they're impacted by the new rates or they get a new car during the course of the new year. So I like that. I would be happy to see the resident parking passes more expensive than this, but it's a start. So those are my thoughts.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner McGinn, a comment?
[Tim McGivern]: No, just that I know Jim has put a lot of work into this and you know Alicia I know and myself at times have contributed to this effort in the working group so I'm in support of this and I Yeah, we'd move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Questions or comments from the public? Anyone want to raise their hand? Chat, please? Seeing none, on the motion of Commissioner McGiven, seconded by Commissioner Hunt for the approval of the fee price list structure for February of 2025 as presented by Mr. Jim Silva, Alvaro Calvo.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of three to nothing, to one, the fee structure is approved. I think that's everything within the petition. Anything else, Jim, that we missed?
[Jim Silva]: I just want to make mention that two of these are effective for purchase on 12-1, the landlord pass and the resident pass, just those two.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Chief, can I ask you, on the moving pass, is that gonna come with no parking signs?
[Jim Silva]: They do, they currently come with two no parking signs for that specific date. So folks come into the parking department, and they request that date, they pay, and the dates are written into that, and then there are two.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Jim, currently it's only the G-Zone, correct?
[Jim Silva]: Correct. We'd like to move it city-wide into resident parking streets. Obviously, if you don't have resident parking, maybe the program could work for folks as well if they need to do that in front of their house. But I just think it's a good place to start to see how it works because it is limited parking in resident parking streets.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Because constantly I'm posting outside of the G-Zone,
[Jim Silva]: I think those are homemade signs. I have to be honest with you. We're only issuing them within the G zone.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, excellent. All right, any other questions? Excellent job. Thank you for the presentation. 2024-66 stop sign on Whittemore Street at Edward Street. Is this a police department petition?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: I believe this was a complaint, Chief. I did go up there, and I did make a mistake with Alba. On Edward Street, Whittemore is the only street entering Edward Street. There is no stop sign. There's a one-way do not enter sign. All of the streets on Edward Street exit Edward Street, so there are no stop signs.
[Jack Buckley]: The commissioners hear that out there that this is presented from a complaint to the police department and the traffic commission, and it's with regard to Whittemore Street, which filters out onto Edward Street. There is no stop sign present. There has not been one in the past that we have any record of. Initially, someone thought it might have been missing, and the complaint is listing that, you know, speeding, wrong-way drivers, et cetera, and they would like not only enforcement, but a stop sign. Director Blake?
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, this one, unlike the other one on Central Ave, this is more like the Fulbright if it's a public way, Fulbright. So this just clarifies that the minor street must stop before entering the more major street of Edwards. So I'm in support of recommending approval to this.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay. If it makes sense, it's in line with requirements. There's a feeling that people need to be told to stop before turning. That's my sigh for people who just don't notice that maybe you should stop and look.
[Jack Buckley]: Well, I mean, to that point, we obviously can't put stop signs on every street, right? And but this one does accompany a number of complaints about wrong way drivers, which I don't know what the stop sign is going to do about that, but in some speeding, it might help to slow down the issues in that area. So. but I do agree, there's some basic rules of the road that people have to adhere to. I know they were tested on it.
[Tim McGivern]: Was there a move in there?
[Alicia Hunt]: I move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, second. Okay, I will open it up to public. Any questions, concerns, comments? Seeing none, on the motion of Commissioner Hunt, seconded by Commissioner McGiven. I'll have a roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Chief Buckley? Yes, on a vote of three to nothing to one absent, the stop sign has been approved. 2024-67, no turn on red on Locust Street to Riverside Ave, and that would be Commissioner Todd Blake to present. Alicia, can you pull that up for him? They'll be heading on Locust to Riverside.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, so thank you all. Basically, this is to help pedestrian safety. So that right turn lane that you see heading up on the screen, when a pedestrian pushes the button to cross and gets the walk signal, that right turn currently could turn on red. And they kind of, they're so concerned with the vehicles, they're not paying attention to the pedestrians. So by having no turn on red, it would help pedestrian safety and it wouldn't impact the vehicles too much because that right turn gets a green during the locus street green as well as during the riverside left turn green it overlaps so that that right turn gets double the amount of green that the left turn does on locus street even if we restrict the no turner red so um that's the intent of this um request okay um the commission does have any questions of director blake Did you say there was an incident here? No, but I've experienced it myself and I've seen others have issues with this as a bus stop on a bus shelter on that south side. So when people press the button across to get to that bus, the vehicles turning right just don't pay attention to any pedestrians at all. They're too concerned with the gap in traffic on Riverside.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, we see, I know in the region, Cambridge has had a couple of these right turns that pedestrians get hit because the turns allowed on the right hand. We've talked about this in a number of other spots in the city. I'm in favor of making these restrictions. So I have a motion to approve this.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right, second.
[Jack Buckley]: Public comment, anybody here wishing to speak for or against? Seeing none, on the motion of Commissioner McGibbon, seconded by Commissioner Hunt, to approve the no turn on red on Locust Street to Riverside Ave, petition 2024-67. Alvaro, roll call vote, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of three to nothing to one absent, the motion is approved. I do have, I know Peggy is present here this evening, 87 Monument Street. We have a table. Let me just look this up for one second. 2024-51. And this is for the commissioners as to whether or not we would like to take a table. This is a request from Ms. Peggy Rose, 87 Monument Street, for no parking here to corner signs on Harvard Ave at Monument Street, northeast and southeast corners. So that was tabled. Do we know why? From last month because she was not at the meeting. Okay, so it was tabled from last night because she was unable to make the meeting, but she is present this evening. Do the commissioners want to take up a tabled item this evening? Sure.
[Alicia Hunt]: He has sat through this entire meeting. I'm happy to pick it up.
[Jack Buckley]: I was hoping you were going to say that because it would be awfully awkward for me to explain to her that we were not going to. Does that require a motion? We'll do it real quick. I'll roll call vote to take table item 2024-51 up for debate. Commissioner McGibbon? Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes. Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes on three, nothing to one. The motion is approved. We will take up item 2024-51. I've already read it, 87 Monument Street, no parking, gate to corner. Ms. Rose, I'm going to ask you to unmute yourself and just present the petition. So busy. Welcome, and thank you for your patience.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. I'm actually not a patient person, as Alvin knows from my emails that I sent earlier this evening. I thought I would just give it a try. You can always push yourself. So here I am, still at the end. So Harvard Ave, I know you guys have been working hard on Harvard Ave at the speed tables. There are no parking here to corner signs at several of the other streets, like Sharon and Jerome. And we need them at Monument Street for kind of the same reasons. We don't need them on the far side, and I think, actually, The no parking here at a corner on the far side. Of monument street is actually super confusing and weird because you can't park. No 1 parks on the far side. So, I'm just asking for them on the near side. Kind of where you see the back end of that red car, which, you know, it's practically 20 feet. Not a big deal, but over here. Yeah. So that. That side that we're looking at, it's sometimes people park there, but not too often. But there should be a sign there. And then on the other corner, people, huge vans, vans with ladders on top, like they park right literally to the curb cut thing, the wheelchair ramp there. And it's absolutely impossible to get onto Harvard Ave with any degree of safety. So.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, that was presented. Commissioner's comments, and then I'm going to also ask Director Blake for a comment on this. Yep.
[Alicia Hunt]: I want to make sure that we're looking at the right things. I realize I've been controlling the screen here. Is this here, like we're talking about in- That's the really desperate one where people park
[SPEAKER_05]: really close to the corner and it's very, very hard. And then across the way behind the red car there, just to keep that clear as well.
[Alicia Hunt]: Were there two locations or those are the two locations you're talking about? Those are the two that I want. Okay.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner McGibbon, any comments? We're just doing some measurements right now.
[Tim McGivern]: do you know really besides my other the comments that i had before if we're just talking about corners and no parking at the corners i'm not sure i want to sign it if it's just um the 20-foot rule so how do we get them i mean this is the problem is that it's this catch 22 when we put up the signs people think
[Alicia Hunt]: that, oh, here I'm not allowed to, but over there there's no sign, so I must be allowed to. Whereas if we don't put up the signs, many people don't know that there's a rule that you can't park within 20 feet of the corner.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, partly, honestly, it's like a public education thing. It doesn't affect me as much, but at Boston Ave, at Holton, which is the other way to get out of my house, it's like ridiculous. There's a red girl that parks, like, literally past the curb, you know? And my daughter and I have joked, like, we should just start a campaign of, like, putting fake tickets on these cars that say, does this corner make my butt look big? You know, it's like, it's just, it's ridiculous. It's just, it is absolute nonsense to park your car that way for like a hundred reasons. And it's against the law. So like, what can we do? I mean, I totally agree, but I can't get out like either way. I can't get out of my neighborhood.
[Todd Blake]: So as the residents saying, we did restrict parking and sign it at at least two other locations, I think Jerome and Sharon. So this would be consistent. I believe if memory serves me in those locations, we did do more than the 20. I think she did 30 in each case. So maybe we should consider 30 feet, just like those other two.
[SPEAKER_05]: Certainly to make it consistent just along that strip, because it's people parking for the train, you know, and it's, well, it's commercial vehicles or should be, you know, vans with ladders, you know.
[Jack Buckley]: And we've had some success, right, Sergeant, Todd, so far with those current restrictions we've had in place on the other, so all of them, so.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: And again, I don't want to keep her here. I like it painted. Because I didn't do the stuff until he realized, oh, I can't park here.
[Adam Hurtubise]: But that's well, however, I was in more of a major street. So that's the street that we should to reinforce. Yeah.
[Jack Buckley]: And again, based on our modification tonight, can you hear the traffic sergeant is suggested that he really would like it painted. As well assigned, but like the curb. Yes, no, there's well, I mean, that's my I'm sorry, not not not the curb, the hatch mark. So we put a cross market. So you look on the ground.
[SPEAKER_05]: You can't see that. Honestly, that would be heavenly because. I mean, that's a really tough street. It's really, people go, as you know, because you're trying to fix it, people go so fast and people coming off the river are going, they're not driving in their lane, you know, because they don't want to hit the parked car, but then, like, people are stopping and letting each other go by. It's tough, it's tough, but especially under that tree on the southeast corner, you know, under that tree, those hatch marks would be really, really important, really improve safety. Because people fly from the river, they're going so fast. They're not going so fast from Boston Ave because they don't have a chance to get going, you know?
[Jack Buckley]: What are your thoughts?
[Tim McGivern]: Charlie said the stretch has 30 foot off corner, no parking signs.
[Todd Blake]: I believe so. I believe that's what we proved in the past. Yeah, it is. And if that tree is an issue itself, we could consider trimming the bottom of that as well. If that impacts sightline.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm not sure it does. I've actually never. I don't know. I haven't thought about that. But you know, whatever is standard would be great. Um. Yeah, I don't think that's so much the issue.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm okay with it. I think the question is just sort of how
[Tim McGivern]: I'll second that if that motion is for 30 feet.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sure.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, on the motion of permission to hunt, I just want to go on my paperwork, sorry. On the motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve 2024-51 for no parking signs here to corner 30 feet on Harvard Ave at Monument Street, northeast and southeast corners, seconded by Commissioner McGiven.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, indeed.
[SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of three to nothing, to one absent, the motion is approved. Ms. Rose, thank you for your patience in sitting through our lovely Traffic Commission meeting that got started off with such a bang, but I think we finished up well for you then. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: I learned a lot. I appreciate your work.
[Jack Buckley]: Thanks very, very much. I appreciate it. Have a good night. So that is a pretty good agenda, plus as Todd puts out, we got one off the table. Commissioner Brzezinski will be proud of us that we took the tabled item off and dealt with it. Again, we will do better next time. I point that out always, but I have no idea what happened to our email this evening, but we adapted and we overcame and we got the meeting done. It's not quite 7 o'clock. We can talk about when we need supper.
[Todd Blake]: Motion to adjourn.
[Jack Buckley]: The motion of commission, 7.40. The motion of commission we're given to adjourn, seconded by Commissioner Hunt. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Have a good night, everyone.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Good job, Jim. Good job. Thank you. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Alba.