[Jack Buckley]: Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the City of Medford Traffic Commission meeting. Today is Tuesday, February 11, 2025, and the time is 5.07 p.m. The meeting will now come to order. Alba, could we get a roll call of the commissioners?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Present.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Here. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: I'm here.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Present, with four commissioners present. We have a quorum. Also present this evening is Secretary to the Traffic Commission, Alva Erickson. I have Medford Police Traffic Sergeant Larry Rogers, Director of Traffic and Engineering. Todd Blake is present online, as well as Jim Silver here. He has special projects. Coordinator for the City of Medford, Jim Silver, and Director of Parking, Sarah McDermott. Todd Blake? I said Todd, didn't I? Okay. Okay, sorry. Alva's looking out for you, Todd. The minutes of the January traffic commission meetings have been forwarded to all commissioners. If the commissioners have seen them and have read them and have anything they want to discuss, otherwise we'll take a vote to approve the minutes.
[Tim McGivern]: Motion to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner McGiven to approve the January 2025 Traffic Commission meetings. Do I have a second?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Seconded.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Hunt. Alma, roll call, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of four to nothing, the minutes of the January 25th Traffic Commission meeting have been accepted into the records. New business 2025-11. Sean Hill of 14 Winthrop Street. Request for visitor passes for Tesla Avenue. Parking is restricted on this portion of Winthrop Street for the Commissioner's as remember is Mr. Hill present and could we ask you to unmute yourself? I'm not so sure we have many other people here present to participate.
[Alicia Hunt]: Chief, I don't see anybody by that name or raising their hand or indicating that they are a petitioner.
[Jack Buckley]: Neither do I. And for Albert, he was notified and indicated that he would attend.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: He has been notified. I have been in conversation with him via telephone. He has had these business passes in previous years. but he wasn't given them for renewal in 2025, that's why he has petitioned for them. And there's no parking on Winthrop Street, so he's between a rock and a hard place.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, and do you know if in the past he has petitioned this traffic commission for those passes? because it's not normal. And for the record, I'll speak to the public and to the commissioners. Winthrop Street, there's no parking on Winthrop Street. And when your legal residential address is not on a permanent parking street, but your property sits on the corner of a permanent parking street, which is this case, then the owner is entitled to automatically receive a permit for the resident permit parking street. However, they are not allowed to have visitor passes. Some members of the public do petition the traffic commission for visitor passes. And do we know, Albert, if he has petitioned this commission in the past? Because he has indicated to us that he's received them in the past.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I'm not sure on that. In some instances where there is no parking on the main street Wentworth, they've given corner homes visitor passes, but maybe with the G zone, it might have a reflection on that and he had to petition. So he did come forward and petition for this year.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, thank you. If the commissioners have followed that, I will take some guidance if you have questions or suggestions on this petition without the petitioner present.
[Alicia Hunt]: I was searching our database and I'm not finding this in particular.
[Jim Silva]: May I speak, Chief Bursak? I looked at the variance list and his name is there, but it does not say visitor passes. So it is on Tesla. He's on Winthrop Street, but it says parking on Tesla. But it doesn't have anything in the notes that states specifically visitor passes.
[Jack Buckley]: Jim, is there a historical record there that would indicate maybe last year or the year before?
[Jim Silva]: It's a carry through, it's a carry over from the list that was given originally two years ago when we implemented this process. So I think Alvin might have asked me that question and I did say his name was listed there. Unfortunately, the notes are not there. I went back and looked through the history as much as I possibly could through the minutes from the parking meetings over the years, and I could not find that specific ruling. It doesn't give me the date when it was approved.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, John.
[Alicia Hunt]: Jim, I felt the need to be able to replicate what you do, given your conversation earlier today. And I went to the file, the TC regulations complete, and would I be looking on the one that's labeled schedule F parking variances?
[Jim Silva]: Correct. So you're going to look at that.
[Alicia Hunt]: And then I don't see it.
[Jim Silva]: If you look at F, if you go to the top of the page, you'll see the street listing. on the left side of this, so it's the street that they are parking on, not the street of their residence. So if it's Tesla, it would be Tesla. There's two entries for Tesla.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I did see that. Now I'm trying to find that. I'm trying to do a search on the page, but I can scroll down to Tesla.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I saw the two
[Jim Silva]: This one references the parallel street that says those folks can park on Tesla, and then it has 22 Winthrop, I believe, is the address. Alvin, is that correct?
[Alicia Hunt]: I think I'm having trouble loading it. I think that's part of my trouble. I'm going to go off the Wi-Fi first.
[Todd Blake]: So I just measured from 14 winter. If all those streets are resident permit, the visitors could park on Boston Ave, which is about 880 feet away, which is about a three and a half minute walk. If that helps the discussion.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I don't really understand why we give permits, but not visitor permits like. On the other hand, I do like people to come and tell us what their situation is. I find that to be extremely helpful.
[Jim Silva]: During the search, we also noted that there was resident parking on Winthrop Street, and there is a legacy sign by the former Sacred Heart Church location. It's not inconceivable that at one point, resident parking was there. It's just that we are petitioning to take that sign down. Obviously, there's no parking on that segment of Winthrop Street anymore, but a sign does exist.
[Jack Buckley]: guess is that's extremely awful when the church was there. Well we could deny the petition based on the Traffic Commission rule related to resident permit parking variances for corner residential homes and in light of the petitioner not being present, the petitioner could always request it again in the future, moving forward, but I will leave that to the commissioners to make a decision on what to write.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Can I ask a quick question? Yes, sir. I mean, is this something we would consider granting if they could complete their case? If so, can we table it? a month?
[Jack Buckley]: We can table anything and we have considered this in the past. And I can't tell you what level we allow. I believe, like Commissioner Hunt has indicated, we'd like to hear their story and their cases to what we granted. So it is possible in tabling. It is a resolution to this.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I'd support getting rid of it, but as a courtesy, I'd support tabling it just to give them another month to come talk.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so we have a motion to table. That's Commissioner Brzezinski. Do I have a second?
[Alicia Hunt]: I'll second that.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Hunt. Alba, roll call, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven.
[SPEAKER_15]: No.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of three to one to zero, the motion is approved. Table 2025-11. I'll vote. We'll reach out to that petitioner and see what's going on. Yes. 2025-12, perfect parking variance for Harvard Street. From Christopher Miller, 379 Main Street. The petitioner has indicated he has had a variance for permits in 2023 and 2024, but has been denied for 2025 citing changes to the policy with the adoption of the GLXR. Is the petitioner, Mr. Miller, present, and could we ask them to unmute?
[Alicia Hunt]: So there is somebody raising his hand, a viola, why don't I, I'll ask him to unmute.
[Jack Buckley]: Sounds good.
[SPEAKER_11]: Beautiful, thank you very much. My name is Tony Viola and good evening everybody. I just got a call from a landlord at 379 Main Street in Medford where Mr. Miller lives. He's a second floor tenant. I just got a call from him a few minutes ago, suggesting that he couldn't make the meeting this evening, and he asked if I would stand in for him. I'm not sure what the protocol would be with respect to the traffic commission, and if you'd like to table this for another month, that would be perfectly fine. It seems reasonably straightforward in light of especially what the chief has just said. But if it's something that needs to be tabled, please, I would love you to consider that as well. But I'd be happy to sit in and explain some of the situation to you.
[Jack Buckley]: Well, thank you for being present, Mr. Viola, we understand. Generally, the petition should be presented by the petitioner. However, we have historic rules from the Traffic Commission related to residential homes and apartments on corners. We have recently made Harvard Street a resident-private parking street based on the GLX zone. There's been some offline discussion I've had with Jim Silver, et cetera, but the point is, Based on the rule, this petitioner would be allowed a variance to park on Harvard Street. and it would be automatic and it could be granted just for the parking department. It does not need traffic commission approval. The difference this year would be that this individual with that variance would be given a GLX zone parking permit, which will allow them to park anywhere within the zone. And so I just wanted the commissioners to understand that that the new zone, there's an impact on the rule as it relates to the new GLX zone. Thoughts on this or would you like to wait for the petitioner?
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, I'd be interested to hear sort of what the issue is, if Mr. Viola can explain it to us. I recognize that Main Street is not a street that residents can park on, and this person has clearly been used to parking on Harvard Street, and they must be in the section that hasn't allowed parking recently, so he's been having to park up the street. Right, isn't this right near the corner is where we actually said it's not wide enough to park. And so we've been enforcing the no parking there.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, this section measures the part that's no parking, which is next to that building, like I said.
[Alicia Hunt]: Can you see that? I feel that since Mr. Viola made the effort to come, we can at least hear what he has to say. And then we can figure out if we can decide or if we need to table it or deny it or approve it or whatever.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, fair enough. Any other commissioners have a thoughts on Mr. Viola presenting on behalf of the petitioner and or the rule itself?
[SPEAKER_15]: I'm okay with it.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, I agree. Okay, I will turn it back to the petitioner's representative. Mr. Viola, can you just speak briefly on the reason that your tenant is, should you know, or is a need in perhaps discuss the issue of parking around the apartment building?
[SPEAKER_11]: Just very quickly, Chief, for the record, Mr. Miller discovered recently that he had a parking permit that was issued for Harvard Street back on August 25th of 2023. We have the permit number if you need me to tell it to you. He was on the impression that the permit was valid for one year from 8-25-23 to 8-25-24. And then when he went into the parking clerk's office was denied the ability to renew the permit. And I think it probably expired back in 12-31-23 to start with. So now he's been parking on Main Street, and the walk is a little bit longer, obviously, to get to Main Street areas where he can park that isn't restricted by time, especially during daytime. He's been a tenant again since 2023 and had the benefit of a parking pass to park on Harvard Street, and he would like to have that renewed if possible. Am I under the impression that the parking variance should be automatic or is it by vote of the Traffic Commission when you have a corner lot? that is a corner lot in a GLX zone or in a corner lot on a resident permit parking street?
[Jack Buckley]: Yep, so by rule, the rule of the traffic commission, given that this is a corner residential property where the And in this case, Main Street is not a resident permit parking, but we have just made Harvard Street a permit parking over the past several, for this past summer. So it allows your tenant to automatically receive a permit, resident permit parking for Harvard. So by rule, you are correct in understanding that. Historically, Harvard was not a permit parking street until we made the GLX also.
[SPEAKER_11]: So does that render this the meeting that we're having now about the variance move or is it something that we would want to do?
[Jack Buckley]: That is my next question of the commissioners. Should they agree that this is a moot point for the traffic commission and or parking director McDermott is present also if they have a thought or concern.
[Sarah McDermod]: I'm sorry. Yeah. May I speak to this, please? So the variance that this resident is seeking. Would kind of set the. Kind of set a precedent for the rest of the G L X zone and any future zones that might be created. So the I believe the reason the If they get Harvard Street as a variance, that's lumped into the G zone, which means they could park anywhere with that variance. They could park on Wareham, Marion, all those streets in that zone, Yale Street, and that hasn't been approved, which is why it was originally denied by the clerks. I believe that's why the resident or the landlord was sent to the traffic commission to seek this variance. in granting this variance, it might set the stage for any other corner variances that would lead to a variance in the G zone.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. It's a valid description of the impact of the commission. So the commissioners, do we have any concerns with upholding our, well, do we have any concerns with upholding the rule as it stands?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. And I don't think that the corner variance rule had been contemplated with the idea of zoned parking. It would give him permission rather than just on the street throughout the whole zone, which is like a huge level of parking other than that had not been contemplated.
[Tim McGivern]: Yep. More space.
[Alicia Hunt]: Here, it is possible to walk down the street down to Main Street, like three blocks, I think, two blocks in either direction, two to three, and get parking. On Harvard, he's actually going to have to walk up. It's not literally a block, but it's the same distance up Harvard Street to where parking is allowed. It's not like he could just park next to his house on the side street.
[Jack Buckley]: That's all factors.
[Alicia Hunt]: I guess if this was a street where Main Street had no options, I might feel like we've just taken away all his parking by creating the zone. In this case, we haven't, but it could be somewhere else in the zone.
[Jack Buckley]: So, Commissioner, I think it almost is irrelevant what street we give it on. He's had Hobbit in the past. I don't think there's a concern over granting Hobbit. I mean, if we granted Wareham, which we've done in the past, if we've granted Marion, which we've done in the past, the question still remained, that would entitle the owner of that variance to park anywhere within the GLX zone. Now, I think by rule, I'm fine with that. The question is that the rest of the commission is fine with that.
[Tim McGivern]: I'm okay with that, because we're just carrying through status quo. Because you're a corner lot, you kind of have frontage on a G zone street anyway.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Buzzynski?
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I agree. I mean, I'd like to implement the plan that we have versus, you know, granting a variance.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Hunt, any?
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm okay with it if the others are.
[Jack Buckley]: If the commissioners will allow, can I ask Jim Silva to weigh in on this, because he was the planner behind the GLX on. Jim, comments and your thoughts on this?
[Jim Silva]: Certainly. I think this probably is the best case scenario to grant to any of those streets. The reality is, If we keep granting to Harvard Street when it wasn't a zone, we don't even know how many parking spaces exist. So we're granting all of this opportunity to park in one location. But the zone parking perspective, now you're spreading it out dramatically. So when people need a place to park, they're no longer relegated to one location. They're actually able to park anywhere in the area, in the proximity to their home. So to your point, I think we were waiting for the G zone to become a reality from its temporary situation to a reality of a permanency. But that said, this is sort of a precedent for those corner homes going forward. So we're not overwhelming one street, we're actually spreading it out.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. And Director McDermott, any issues from the parking director perspective of maintaining the same rule?
[Sarah McDermod]: No, Jim Silva and I have discussed this briefly and I'm on board with granting this and similar variances in zoned parking in the future. Yeah, I think I think it makes sense that we were, we didn't have a solution for this because we weren't sure of the permanency of the G zone. So, I believe that's on the agenda tonight. So, I guess, maybe we'll. we'll see what happens but for now I have no objections to granting this variance.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay and no concerns if Mr. Miller shows up in the next couple of days to get his variance? No. Okay. Mr. Viola, having heard from the commissioners, I can state that this is not a matter for this traffic commission this evening and the rule of the traffic commission that would allow your tenant to receive a resident permit parking is still in existence. I would, if you have any questions, I would accept on behalf of the petitioner, a withdrawal of the petition with the understanding that he's eligible to get this without traffic commission approval.
[SPEAKER_11]: And I'm sure he'd be very happy with that, no question. So yeah, no further questions. I think it's a nice resolve. And just from a landlord's perspective, it's so much easier to be able to tell a tenant, a prospective tenant that a permit is available to you rather than needing prior to site execution of a lease to come and appear before the traffic commission to obtain a variance for the parking. Especially when I back and did some research and I think I found 10 variances that were approved for corner lots over the past year and a half or so. But when the 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1. that was coming in for a corner lot was approved kind of in a, you know, after some discussion. But it will save you guys, I think, a lot more time and effort and energy that could be directed in other areas. And so, thank you so much. That would be wonderful if we could get this voted.
[Jack Buckley]: I do appreciate your time and your presentation, first of all, and thank you on behalf of your petitioner. 2025-13, permit parking variance for Honeywell Ave from Rafael Zarzenak Gomes, 305 Riverside Ave, Apartment 4. Is Mr. Gomes present and could you unmute?
[Todd Blake]: He is here. He mentioned in the chat that he doesn't speak
[Alicia Hunt]: Was that Rafael?
[Todd Blake]: Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, I'm asking him to unmute now.
[Jack Buckley]: Hello? Hello, Mr. Gomes?
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Hi, welcome to the Traffic Commission. You have a petition before us. I think you're trying to find the chat message. You indicated through the chat that you do not speak English very well. What language do you speak primarily?
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, he muted himself. There, I sent it again.
[SPEAKER_07]: Hello?
[Jack Buckley]: Hello, Mr. Gomes, how are you? I'm good. Welcome.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, sorry, I tried to speak, but I think he was moved. I was leaving Summerville, I moved to Medford right now.
[Jack Buckley]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_07]: Stop. But I need to park my car, I'd like to park my car in this street, because I'm parked so far. It's possible. I have a permit to park there.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so you live at 305 Riverside Ave. That's an apartment building off of that. Did they provide you with a parking spot?
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, he keeps pushing the mute button. I hope nobody else is hitting his mute button. I sent him another email.
[SPEAKER_07]: All right. In apartment, there is just one spot.
[Jack Buckley]: All right. So you have one spot provided to you by the owner of the property. And so you have two vehicles?
[SPEAKER_07]: I can't buy. Another person is using this spot. I don't have a spot to put my car.
[Jack Buckley]: Another person you reside with? Sorry? Is it someone you live with or somebody they did not provide? Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes. OK. The apartment, there are two rooms. The people are using this spot. I don't have a spot in the building, you know? I need to park it so far. I need to walk about five minutes every day. It's so hard for me. Can I ask where you are?
[Jack Buckley]: Sorry, can I ask where you are parking?
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm parking, let me check in the maps, one second. Some days I park in Spring Street, some days I park in Bradshaw Street.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, hang on tight for one second.
[SPEAKER_07]: But for me, I saw plates, i came parking i i don't know how can i say this is a honey hill avenue right yes yes is it possible i park there
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so we'll debate that right now. If you can hang tight, we may have some further questions. So commissioners, the petitioner is requesting, because there's multiple people in his apartment, a variance for his vehicle to park on Honeywell Ave because there's no place for him to park on 305 Riverside Ave. Do we have questions of the petitioner or concerns?
[Tim McGivern]: I have a question.
[SPEAKER_04]: Commissioner McGiven.
[Tim McGivern]: Yes, go ahead. Did you realize, I guess, when you rented this place that there was only one space and that it wasn't available to you?
[Alicia Hunt]: I can ask again. He keeps muting himself. Please leave yourself unmuted if you can.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I don't know what is happening. Sorry, can you repeat, please?
[Tim McGivern]: That's okay. I just wanted to know if you knew when you were renting this apartment that it did not have a parking space for you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, I knew about it before, but she told me I can't park in 100 Hill Avenue. I asked her. She told me I can't park in this street, but I'm living one month and I'm parking on the street. For me, it's so bad. I don't know what I can do.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Jim Silva]: Chief, may I speak on for the parking permitting process. They, I believe, arrived from Somerville and assumed that our parking program was similar to Somerville's. And I think that was sort of the misconception. We did have an opportunity to speak on the way that we work, the parameters here, and coming to the Traffic Commission, hence he's here this evening. and sort of the variance rules and what is needed to actually, if it is approved to get that permitting. So again, I think during that initial rental period, it was sort of understood that resident parking was available.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for that explanation, Joe.
[Alicia Hunt]: And in Somerville, it's anybody who lives in Somerville can get a permit to park anywhere in Somerville, correct? That's surprising, you would think they'd be stricter than that. Have we given permits before? I know we've done it for other buildings on Riverside Ave in general, we've given permits for some of the cross streets, but there's not a lot of permit parking in this area.
[Jack Buckley]: That's correct, we have in the past given some in that area. It's not unheard of that we would award a variance for certain areas. The same question comes up every single time that we do this. How do we sort of stem the flow of all of these parking private, well not private, but these residential apartment buildings who provide parking but not enough park? And what is the responsibility of the city of Medford when those apartments are on major avenues that you can't park on? So time old question as it relates to this.
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, wait till they start building the actual apartments that we've permitted where we've told them as part of the condition of construction that the residents cannot get permit parking. that's been coming through the Community Development Board, but none of those are yet occupied buildings.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, and in this case, if I understand, there's at least someone who indicated to Mr. Gomes that he would be eligible to park on the side streets, but that was probably under a misconception of Somerville versus Medford parking rules.
[SPEAKER_15]: Spring Street is unrestricted, correct? Correct.
[Alicia Hunt]: I think he said that he parks there sometimes.
[SPEAKER_15]: Yep.
[Tim McGivern]: I think if buildings are, you know, building off-street parking lots and, you know, and we're having a permit street-by-street process, I think we have to be careful of granting these types of variances. It sounds like the landlord may have given this person some poor information when he was leasing the apartment.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, Tim, I was just kind of looking at what you were looking at, see what streets are available. It looks like Pembroke and Bradshaw and Spring are available, but then some of the others that are a little closer are permanent. It looks like there are a handful that are available and restricted.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I just don't want to place the burden of some poor information from his landlord on to the folks who park on Honeywell and have permits there. I'm not sure the public is willing to take on that burden when Spring Street is there available for this situation. I think we're going to see more of this too in the future because parking doesn't get, we don't get more on-street parking. It doesn't usually work that way.
[Alicia Hunt]: I would find it helpful to have a map that I kept at my desk of where the permit parking is in the city, citywide. I don't know if Todd, if I can throw that your way.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I just looked it up.
[Alicia Hunt]: You got one.
[Todd Blake]: I just looked at the park department website. For some reason, we have the list on there, but not the map. So we're going to work on that. We have a map. I have one on my wall.
[Tim McGivern]: It's outdated, but I need a new one now that we have the zone, the G zone, and some other things.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, in this case, Spring Street is pretty closed. I mean, and it has a signalized crosswalks across the street.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioners, I leave it to you. We have either further debate or to make a motion on this.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I have a question to clarify. Spring Street is fine for him, correct? But Hunnewell is closer?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, that's my understanding and I believe that is what the petition has indicated.
[Todd Blake]: Steve, if you were to walk all the way down Hunnewell and hit Bradshaw, you could park there too.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I feel like I come across as the bad person when it comes to this, but from the beginning, if there's a valid alternative that's reasonably approximate, I'm not big on giving up more city resources just to make it a little bit closer. I still think we need to do a better job with educating these building owners. Enough is enough. You need to stop lying to your tenants. So I would support a motion to deny I feel bad doing it but you know as Tim pointed out if we approve this one I was just trying to count the parking spots in the parking lot and we're gonna get ten more people who are gonna petition.
[Tim McGivern]: Yep and there's more coming we can't grow parking spaces on a tree I mean so we got what we got.
[Alicia Hunt]: I was just trying to see if I could check. I thought that was an ownership building, which would result in if a unit's being rented. Yeah, I just checked on Zillow. There was a unit sold in 2023. It's not an issue of a landlord renting all the units, it's that an individual owner is renting out a unit.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, in the distant future, if the pilot for G works, then presumably there could be a zone in this area at some point. And then that could help spread the load, just like we were talking about in the future.
[Jack Buckley]: Or the whole city.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, or that too.
[Jack Buckley]: I don't know. I don't know if that's the right way to put it.
[Alicia Hunt]: And that listing says one deeded parking spot. So it is a condo building with one spot. So whoever owns this unit said one thing to his tenants, as opposed to us being able to talk to an apartment manager for an apartment building.
[Todd Blake]: I'll point out there is an MBTA bus for 134 that goes by there that helps the tenants.
[Tim McGivern]: Is that because you're forecasting my motion to deny, Todd?
[Todd Blake]: There it is. Spring Street is really close, too. It's less than 500 feet away. It has a safe crossing. I know. Sorry, Rafael, but that's my motion.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner McGiven? Yeah, for reasons stated, yes. On the motion of Commissioner McGiven, seconded by Commissioner Brzezinski to deny the petition for a variance for Honeywell Ave. I'll have a roll call vote, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: yes yes on the motion on the vote of four to nothing the motion is approved uh mr gomes the uh unfortunately the petition was not successful um we have uh we weigh these uh requests and balancing them against the uh rights of private say property owners and the availability of public parking, which is getting less and less as time goes by. I will state that there is availability of parking on Pembroke Street, Bradshaw, and Spring Street, if that helps. I understand it's a few minutes more walking, but I think that based on the vote tonight, that that's where we have to go. Do you understand where we are right now with this petition?
[Alicia Hunt]: I send him an unmute.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Chief, can we also advise him that if there's no emergency, he can park on the East Side Streets, where Spring Street is a major item. Mr. Galls?
[Jack Buckley]: Mr. Gomes, can you unmute yourself?
[Alicia Hunt]: He direct messaged me, yes. So I'm just gonna message him.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. And Commissioner Hantia, do you also advise him, as Sasha Rogers points out, should there be a snowstorm or an emergency? Spring Street would be off limits, but he's allowed to park on any of the side streets at that point. So he'd be free to, he would be more availability for parking in that case.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, he wrote back, I understood.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, thank you. 2025-14, no parking at a corner distance of 30 feet on Park Street at Park Street Court. Sergeant Rogers, and I believe you have Director Blake to assist you.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Chief, I've received a couple of complaints on residents from Park Street Court that when they attempt to pull out on the Park Street, the cars are parked so close that they have no view of oncoming traffic. There have been near collisions, although I looked up, there have not been any actual collisions. Speaking with Director Blake, he came up to put up a sign, Park Street Court looks more like a driveway than a desert street. That would explain why they're parking so close.
[Jack Buckley]: to it. Director Blake, I believe that is you pulling up the images on the screen, and if you could add your input into this petition also.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I think when we discussed it, we were saying how it does, even though it's a street, it may be seen as more of a, like this car on the left, Alexis, is treating it more as a driveway, two feet instead of 20 feet. So, I think we had decided if we just signed the 20 foot restriction on either side. That might help with this situation here that's shown.
[Jack Buckley]: And by reference, excuse me, by ordinance and law, there is a 20 feet no parking on every corner. It's for that safety and blind spot. And in this case, it doesn't look like it's being honored by certain people parking, but that could be directly related to the fact that it looks more like a driveway than it does look like a side street. And so Director Blake is suggesting that one of the solutions may be simply to sign what is currently the law as it relates to corner parking as no parking on 20 feet as opposed to the 30 feet. Is that correct, Director Blake?
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, if that's the case, then there really is no vote if we could just go with the 20. But if someone wanted 30, then it would require a vote beyond the 20.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, understood.
[Alicia Hunt]: Is there any reason why this intersection needs 20? If the problem is that people need 30, if we think the problem is actually people are parking right up to it?
[Jack Buckley]: Sergeant Rogers, you've received the complaints that the original petition came at 30 with 20 work.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: I believe it would, you can use Todd's line of sight phrase, but I have in trouble. The cars are parking almost up to that mailbox and they have no view of Park Street, Southbound.
[Todd Blake]: It almost looks like there was a sign maybe here at one point years ago, pre-2007.
[Jack Buckley]: So if Director Blake is suggesting that the petition could be modified to fit the current rule of 20 feet, the Traffic Commission would only really have to vote, and not that we even have to do that, but to have the corners signed appropriately to reflect the rule.
[Todd Blake]: You can also enforce, but the sign informs people what will be enforced. You work with Sarah and just enforce as well, I guess.
[Jack Buckley]: Signage and enforcement. That would be more of what we like. Commissioners, questions, thoughts, and concerns?
[Tim McGivern]: What's the sign scene like down there? Are there signs all over the place, or do you have a low number of signs? Todd, do you know?
[Todd Blake]: It does not appear that there's many signs. This telephone pole's on the opposite side of the street with signs, but it doesn't look like there's any U-channels currently out there, besides the dead-end street name sign.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Ty, can you go to your screen where you can actually draw distances? Yeah, sure.
[Todd Blake]: Sometimes it's difficult with the trees, but let's see. Yeah, so this tree is blocking up here. On this side, you kind of see 20 feet brings you measure from there, brings you like there, and we think it leaves one space between that sign and the driveway. Then same thing on the other side. I think we were trying to be cognizant of what's left over. So if you do 20, we think there's enough space, you know, another, you know, it doesn't eliminate all parking on either side. Let's see. So, trying to get an angle that shows how much would be remaining. So, in this block here, Steve, if 20 feet was restricted, there's at least one space left over before the next driveway. Same thing over here. It looks like 20 feet restricted. You might have one space remaining instead of this squeezing two in right now.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: God, where Park Street is a one-way. I'm not really concerned where that car is parked over there.
[Todd Blake]: Oh, got it. That's right. Yeah, so only we can start with the approaching side if you wanted to be.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: It's on them as they pull out to the left.
[Todd Blake]: Correct. So this spot is more because cars are traveling, as Sergeant R just said, this direction. So it's more important for this vehicle exiting to see this direction right here. So it's the spot that we're talking about. That is the side that Sergeant Rogers originally had in the agenda, so this is the focus. Yeah, so Tim, to your point, it doesn't look like there's many U-channels in the area. There's telephone poles.
[Tim McGivern]: And why can't this problem be solved with enforcement?
[Todd Blake]: Let the enforcement folks speak.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Tim, I just wanted a sign to point out the law. Because obviously they don't get it down there.
[Tim McGivern]: It's a problem spot is what I'm hearing. So one sign, go parking here to corner?
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Correct. Can we start with 20 feet? 20 feet's the law, right? Correct. 30 feet would require us. to grant a variance?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Correct, and I thought, Todd, if I'm not mistaken, 30 feet would have some issues with the parking and the driveway.
[Todd Blake]: 30, we thought it might impact that second parking space. We're trying to be sensitive, so 20 might be enough to provide the sight line and still preserve a parking space.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Can we start with just, I mean, I know it's the law, but there's a lot of laws I don't know of and I don't mind putting a sign up because I do see them through town. Can we start with 20 and just dedicate a sign? Tim, I don't think, is that an issue to dedicate a sign?
[Tim McGivern]: Well, we can't start with 20 and then move to 30 because then we put up two signs. So we should add two signposts. So we should pick one.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: 30 will allow for a parking spot? I guess Todd said no.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. I mean, I like the 20 feet because that allows somebody to still park there, but it makes it really clear that there's not two parking spots. And if you put it at 30, then you're going to have people like blocking that driveway behind them, right? They're going to try and squeeze in anyhow. And be like, why can't I park here?
[Tim McGivern]: This is something I would just ask an engineer, Todd, to tell us where to put it. 20 or 30. What's the safest? It's about sight distance and safety on that turn. So.
[Todd Blake]: So are you comfortable with approving it as me and Larry will go through and measure it and mark if we think it's appropriate?
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, 20 or 30 as measured out by the engineering division. OK.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, you're seeing one stump is better than two.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Sergeant Rogers, are you OK with that if we just give Todd leeway?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Absolutely. Again, I want 20 feet.
[Jack Buckley]: It's not an issue. Okay, before the commission's motion, I just want to make sure nobody in the public wants to speak in this matter. Is there anyone present who wishes to speak for or against this signage? Okay, seeing none, I defer back to the commissioners. And if at all possible, I formulate a quick motion on this to.
[Tim McGivern]: Motion to approve 20 to 30 feet based off of layout by engineering division.
[Jack Buckley]: With signage.
[Tim McGivern]: With signage, yep.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, on the motion of Commissioner McGibbon to approve 2025-14, giving the Director of Traffic and Engineer the ability to review the layout 20 to 30 feet and sign it appropriately. Do I have a second?
[Alicia Hunt]: Second.
[Jack Buckley]: seconded by Commissioner Hunt. Bravo roll call.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes. On a vote of four to nothing, the petition is approved.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: May I ask one question? What corner on Park Street Todd usually gives?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: It would be the north. It'd be the west side of Park Street. the north side of Park Street Court.
[Jack Buckley]: Agreed, Director Blake?
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, west side of Park, 20 to 30 feet north of Park Court.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. 2025-15, Salem Street Municipal Parking Lot, Designate Business Parking Only. Special Projects Coordinator Jim Silva, the floor is yours.
[Jim Silva]: Yes, we spoke of this last meeting in regards to some of the abutters that were interested in how the status of this law changed from a municipal public parking lot to a special type of status to allow parking. It's our understanding that the assessor's office denoted this as a property owned by Verizon and not the city of Medford. At that time, it was recommended that we would change the status for that special parking program, which is business slash health care at this point versus deriving income from a property we don't own. So the designation was changed. We just want an official perspective on this and on the books as a business slash or business parking lot, which allows health care folks to park in there as well.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so no real change. Just trying to memorialize the traffic commission. What is currently in place that fair enough? I didn't miss that all together.
[Alicia Hunt]: Great, I thought we'd voted on this already, so.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, I guess that's my question.
[Alicia Hunt]: Or I guess maybe I thought we were told we couldn't do it, so I may have assumed we didn't even need to vote.
[Tim McGivern]: Do we have any jurisdiction here, if it's not our lot?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I guess that's a point of clarification. It is not the city's lot.
[Alicia Hunt]: It's not our lot. National Grid owns it, but my understanding is they've given us permission to use it for public parking, but the problem is that the assessor has concerns about us making money off of something that we don't own.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Right. We don't have a written operating agreement or lease agreement with the lot?
[Jim Silva]: Yeah. We need 1, this was somewhat of a discovery. And so there was a lot of back taxes that were involved. So, I sort of. I've been waiting for a little bit of information, but again, I think we were acting prudently to not to derive income off this particular location. Certainly they provided the lot to the City of Medford. Just a special program is doable in case there's any issue or pushback.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: But the health care use, who is that? Is that for the group across the street?
[Jim Silva]: Actually, no, it's for health care workers. I believe you all voted on including health care pass holders to park in business parking throughout the city as an additional location. So yes, health care pass. So they're in a special program as well.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: But one last question, I promise to leave you alone, but we can't give the owner of the after school care. Use of a space in this lot from my understanding.
[Jim Silva]: No. I guess there could be a petition for that, but actually, if you look at the next item on the list, we've included some additional parking or some potential changes in that location that seem to satisfy the abutter. I'll let Sarah speak on that in the next step, but that seems to work for her. We had some business parking that we could not find the history of that on Salem Street, the street itself. So we pulled that business parking off there, made it just metered parking for public and moved the business people into the business. So we sort of swapped out when we made this change last year.
[Alicia Hunt]: But she and her employees could get business permits and could park there. It's just available to her clients as a public.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I see. That's right. Okay. I mean, if this is just memorializing exactly what's going on motion. Hold on. Oh, sorry, Tim.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, we don't want to preclude any potential agreement between a private landowner in the city. So we're the authority on off-street parking lots. But this is not an off-street parking lot. This is a private parking lot that has a handshake agreement between the city and a private entity. So what we should do, I believe, and I'm obviously not the only one on this commission, we should probably advise the mayor to enter an agreement if she hasn't already And then to give us her view over the parking lot in that agreement. Because that agreement can solve a lot of issues here, like the people next door and you parking that child place or whatever. So, we don't want to preclude anything that. The mayor might want to do an agreement with this other. So that's my stance on this. I don't think we have authority anyway.
[Alicia Hunt]: But I do believe that part of the problem is that they've been trying to get an agreement for a while, and National Grid actually moves more slowly than government. And somebody should be parking there in the meantime.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. So it might stay at a handshake back of the envelope agreement for a little while, but it really needs to be inked.
[Jack Buckley]: As chair, I suggest that this parking at municipal parking lots. I don't see how this falls under either.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, that was my secondary point, which I don't even think we have any authority here. If the mayor gives us authority through an agreement that she signs with another entity that says the Traffic Commission has purview over it as a public parking lot, so be it, then we do.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: But didn't Jim say that we have done something in the past on this lot already? Mistakenly.
[Alicia Hunt]: We thought the city owned it.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Now we know the city doesn't own it. Correct. As an attorney, I definitely support Tim's position. I would love for us to get some operating agreement in place, particularly that at night you can actually lease it out to all the people coming to the Chevalier, but we don't have that. To the extent it's not applicable, let's get rid of it and move on.
[Tim McGivern]: And maybe this is a question for Alva, but could we generate a recommendation through the mayor via traffic commission?
[Jack Buckley]: Tim, that's an interesting point. I actually suggest that if the mayor enters an agreement with a private entity regarding parking, she can just do that on her own and would not even need traffic commission approval.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, she doesn't need our approval. That's my first point was we shouldn't preclude anything that the mayor would do. So if we say we voted, like if we said we're memorializing this into, you know, business parking, and then later on she enters an agreement with that entity that contradicts that, then, you know, we're kind of in a problem. Or if we have to unwind that so she can make some sort of agreement, even though we don't have authority. It just creates a mess that we don't need to create.
[Jack Buckley]: Agreed. And that goes along with the, we don't have the authority type stuff, but what I suggested that the mayor did enter an agreement, she would have the authority to basically say, we can allow a business parking here. It's a non-regulatory issue for the Traffic Commission and it's private property with an agreement. So I don't know that this has to come back to us at all. Commissioner Hunt?
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, I'm just clearing my throat.
[Jack Buckley]: I mean, I'm concerned that any decision by us tonight might be set aside when this is memorialized between a private entity and the city. I mean, we can place on file and
[Tim McGivern]: inform the mayor that we placed on file? I don't know. I'll make a motion to inform the mayor that we placed on file. In other words, inform the mayor we took no action on it.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner McGibbon to place petition 2025-15 on file, do I have a second? Second. seconded by Commissioner Brzezinski.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, on the vote of four nothing petition has been placed on file 2025-16. Change the spaces in front of 36 Salem Street from 30 minutes to two hours and replace time monitor devices with standard meter heads. Special projects coordinator Jim Silva, the floor is again yours.
[Jim Silva]: This is the spaces in front of Pure Hockey that are currently the three spaces that have the monitoring devices. In the request for the abutter to the business parking lot, wanted to ensure that there was at least two-hour parking. I'm going to turn this over to Sarah. She had a conversation with the Pure Hockey folks as well.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. Director McDermott, the floor is yours.
[Alicia Hunt]: We can't hear you. Unless that's me.
[SPEAKER_04]: I can't hear either.
[Alicia Hunt]: We heard you earlier.
[Sarah McDermod]: Yeah, that's strange. Can you hear me?
[Jack Buckley]: Now we do. Yes.
[Sarah McDermod]: Okay. So I reached out to Pure Hockey, the manager of Pure Hockey, since the last Traffic Commission meeting, and they have no objection to us changing the meters, the three spaces out front from 30-minute free parking to two-hour paid metered parking, because they have so much parking in the back of their store, which they seem to believe people know about and utilize regularly. So additionally, I spoke to our meter foreperson, Mike Viola, and we do have the necessary equipment to swap those meters out and change them without any cost to the city with what we already have in inventory. And I see no reason not to make this change as it will satisfy the request of the business there who lost that lot for their customers unexpectedly and, you know, involuntarily, which by everybody. So I think it's a reasonable request on her part and I'm supportive of it. And that's really all I've got to say. Is there any questions about it? Yeah.
[Todd Blake]: We also want to add this space here.
[Sarah McDermod]: I'm not sure if, Todd, I'm all for adding that space if the measurements are correct. I don't know if we have the inventory or the equipment to add a meter there, but we can always make it something if there's enough room.
[Jim Silva]: Todd, that curb was original, just a new curb added to that location.
[Todd Blake]: Yes, it looks like there was some work done when that business was rehabbed. Yeah, the curb cut used to be right here, kind of on the edge of this parking lot we were talking about earlier. Now it is all the way over here. Wonderful. So we may be able to stripe this a little differently and fit to and add a space here. But I don't think, yeah, my apologies for jumping the gun. We were talking about these three over here, but it's related, so. So these three.
[Jack Buckley]: So commissioners, in dealing with it, let's talk about the three spaces, 36 South Street. It appears to resolve some of our before I go to the public. I see none. Does anyone in the public have a wish to address that?
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I do have a question. I'm sorry, I'm slow. Have we made this known to Pure Hockey, like all the kind of abutting businesses?
[Sarah McDermod]: your hockey right now is the only a budding business. There's no other business in the building where the village play spaces. Um, and that's the only other building or the only other business on that block.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Thank you. And they have no objection repeating what you said earlier, correct? Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. Yeah. Does anyone in the public wish to speak to, for, or against petition 2025-16? Seeing none, commissioners, I leave it to you for a motion for further discussion.
[Alicia Hunt]: I would move to approve these as two-hour spots and include the additional spot if there is, in fact, engineering agrees the space is there. I think they just said, but I know.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so on the motion of Commissioner Hart to approve 2025-16, which would change the spaces on 36 Salem Street from 30 minutes to two hours parking, and replace the monitor devices with standard meter heads, and to include the one or possibly two additional parking spaces just forward of them. Do I have a second?
[SPEAKER_15]: Second.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner McGiven. Outlaw, full call, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[SPEAKER_15]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes. On the vote of four to nothing, the motion is approved. 2025-17. Chief, could we take 2025-19 out of order because the petitioner needs to leave to go back to work? We shortly end on the request of Commissioner Hunt to take the motion on order 2025-19, permit parking variance from Mr. Richard Koenigsmann, 23 Burgett Ave. Welcome to the Traffic Commission. Hello, thanks for having me. How are you, sir? Thank you for coming and presenting before us. Do you want to give us a little description and understanding of your request?
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes, thank you. So I am running an internship in Boston and in the Boston church. And I got a car from the Boston church, which is a commercial car, but it is unlettered. receiving multiple parking tickets I realized that I'm not allowed to park an unlettered and a commercial car overnight in Medford. So I would like to request a parking variance in Medford.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Thank you for presenting that and I'm going to go to the commissioners if you could just stand by potentially answer any questions they might have. To the commissioners, the petitioner has presented his certificate of registration. It is on a 2014 Ford Focus. It does have commercial plates, but as the petitioner has indicated, there are no other markings indicating traditional commercial vehicles. So,
[Alicia Hunt]: Is there any question about permit parking in this area or is this simply an issue of being allowed to park overnight? Because this is a permit parking street. A resident permit.
[Jim Silva]: I believe he said he had a commercial plate or a commercial vehicle.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. But is it registered in Medford?
[Jack Buckley]: it is registered technically out of Framingham.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. It's this problem, right? It's both that it's commercial, but it's not just commercial plates, it's that he's parking in the G zone. I think that just granting the commercial isn't good enough, he also needs permission to park in the G zone. And this is exactly one of the type of reason that I've brought up that we ought to have some rulings to allow commercial vehicles because sometimes it is your transportation. It's not like it's a commercial truck that ought to be kept in the parking lot of your business. It's provided to him to drive between his business and do his internship.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah. If I may, there's also the question, if it's in framing or something, not being a Medford registration, we don't get this excise tax. Also, it looks like that host has a driveway. So is there a reason why they can't use the driveway and whoever doesn't have the commercial park on the street?
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, Mr. Collins, can you speak to that? As director Blake indicates, there appears to be a driveway. Can you park in the driveway? Is that a possibility?
[SPEAKER_12]: No, parking in the driveway is not a possibility. The house I'm living in, the household, is divided in two apartments, and the driveway is only accessible for half of the apartment.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, thank you for that response. To the Commissioner, this is an age-old question. We keep getting, you know, here and there we get these requests for people to park their commercial vehicles on our streets. We have had a long-standing rule against commercial, no overnight commercial parking. Does not make this an easy question for debate.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Did we have this last week? Or last month? What does it look like on Boston Ave or just trying to look at the agenda or the minutes?
[Alicia Hunt]: This has come up before. There was a young man who had an actual work van with tools and stuff and he lived at his parents' house. His parents were like, we need the driveway and he needs to park on the street. I feel like we approved that one. I'm sorry.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: No, I was just going to say, I mean, didn't the gentleman from last month, I want to say we denied it, but I'm just trying to straighten the table a bit.
[Jack Buckley]: This is the gentleman who lives on his corner house on Holton and Hobbit and he has that big driveway and back, and he has his commercial vehicles. We did table that for similar concerns. I will add to Commissioner Hunt, because you actually reminded me of something. We did approve that, and that was probably maybe two years ago, but it turned out to be a problem because I believe the parking department was not able to do what we had approved. So based on that, I'm going to see if Director McDermott could weigh in on this. Is it possible to grant the variance to a commercial motor vehicle plate for resident permit parking? I believe that's what... prevented us from doing it the last time, and it was a very much debated issue either way. And I know you're new here to the city right now, but I don't know if that's a possibility to the system. Could you put a commercial motor vehicle that's registered outside of the city into our system and give them a resident private parking pass?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Can you hear me, Sarah?
[Todd Blake]: Sorry, we can't hear you. Sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello? Now we got you.
[Sarah McDermod]: I don't know what's up with that. Sorry, everybody.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now you're very low. We can barely hear you. We can hear you, but it's really low.
[Alicia Hunt]: I can tell you how to raise the volume on it if you don't know, but.
[Jack Buckley]: We have one note.
[Sarah McDermod]: things maxed out. My microphone is at the highest volume.
[Alicia Hunt]: The fraction of an inch you leaned in, you got much louder.
[Sarah McDermod]: I guess you're just going to have to stare at my face. Can you hear me now?
[Jack Buckley]: We have you now, yes.
[Sarah McDermod]: We can issue a permit really to any car. It's just a matter of not doing it because it's setting a precedent and that's going to be the one exception It's going to be a car that isn't garaged in Medford. It's going to be a commercial vehicle getting a variance. It's got two variances it's requesting. Because generally, if we're issuing a residential permit, that car is garaged at a Medford address. The person doesn't have to live in Medford per se, but that car has to live in Medford. So we can do most anything. I could register a car from Florida with a Medford permit, but we don't as a general rule.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for that clear explanation. I want to go back.
[Todd Blake]: Also, I think it may be maybe a third permit to Sarah, like Alicia was saying, there's also the resident permit piece of it. So even if you got past the garage code in the commercial, they can park on St. George Street and non G zone. But then if you want to G zone on Burgett, then that's a third thing. Because George Street, I was trying to highlight on the map, it's only about 400 feet away. It's non resident street.
[Jack Buckley]: but G-Zone would allow this commercial vehicle to park anywhere. We've already sort of ruled on it if we grant this petition.
[Jim Silva]: Chief, is there an ordinance that was passed by city council that says specifically that you can't park a commercial vehicle overnight? I'm curious about that. I think we try to do a little bit of research in regards to that. And that was the argument in the past.
[Jack Buckley]: Correct. We have an ordinance in place that does not allow commercial motor vehicles to park overnight in the city.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Passed in 2002.
[Jack Buckley]: Coordinator Alva passed in 2002.
[Todd Blake]: I mean, practically, even though he said the driveway space is associated with the other unit, he could potentially have a private conversation between the two units and work out some deal. you know, because there wouldn't be an issue with the other unit getting a G zone permit if it's a residential car.
[Jack Buckley]: Valid point, Director Blake. Let me do some business here. Is there anyone in the public here who wishes to speak for or against this petition? Just raise a hand, wave. Seeing none, I'd like to go back to the petitioner. Do you understand what's been said so far and the concerns that the Traffic Commission have? And do you have any questions of us at this time, Mr. Collins?
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes, thank you. Yes, I do understand everything. And maybe to answer the question that was posed, having a conversation with other people parking in the driveway, be helpful because I believe the other household has, I think up to five, and my household has five people as well. So there's no spot for me.
[Todd Blake]: The other thing I'd offer is, or for consideration for the commission, And I'm just stating what I think may contribute is someone having, you know, generally not the specific, someone having a vehicle given to them by any business that they work for in Medford or elsewhere. That's like a perk for that employee, right? So some things are positive, like a perk to have use of a car that you don't have to pay for yourself. And then there are some negatives like this, like maybe not having somewhere to park. So that's something just to consider. In terms of in general, because it could be precedent setting type thing. You know, it's it's a perk to get a company car because you save on gas saving on all these other things. So maybe. You know, I don't know if that outweighs the perk of paying for private parking somewhere or not, but something consider.
[Tim McGivern]: This is an ordinance, right? So I'm not even sure if we have an authority to grant grant variance to an ordinance. We can grant variances to traffic rules and regulations and parking rules and regulations and stuff like that, but not. from my understanding of our purview, if it's an ordinance thing.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, I don't disagree with that. I would still suggest we would have to deny the petition based on those facts, but... Commissioner Kavinsky, Commissioner Hunt, any further questions for discussion of the petition?
[Tim McGivern]: Sarah's point about the car, not the person, was really salient to me because if this person, say, goes away and this car is then, you know, retains ownership, then they may assign it to somebody else in Medford and then we lost track of it. So I think that's a really important point. So we gotta get our act together. I think we're in the same position. We gotta get our act together before we can grant these types of permissions in general, if we have the authority. So I would motion to deny at this point.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, on a motion of commission, I'm gonna give it to deny petition 2025-19 for permit parking variance for commercial motor vehicle. Do I have a second?
[Unidentified]: I'll second.
[Jack Buckley]: seconded by Commissioner Brzezinski. Alba, roll call, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: For all the reasons stated, yes. On a vote of four, nothing. The petition is denied. Mr. Kohnsman, you indicated that you did understand Your request comes with many variables that would be contrary to the rules, plus we have an ordinance in the city that would deny this. So with apologies and my thanks for you presenting this evening and being eloquent and understanding, I wish you a good night and I'm sorry that we could not help you out. 2025-17 Clippership Lot Agreement for Solid Waste Storage and Pickup. Commissioner McGibbon.
[Tim McGivern]: Sure. All right, so this is similar to what we did in Haines. That one actually didn't end up panning out, but if I could share my screen, there's a lot called the Clippership Lot, and there's a building owner by the name of the Hamilton Company. And if you can see those four dumpsters there, those are not, I guess, they're not really legal. They're not under any sort of agreement with the city, but the parking spaces are public parking spaces there that the dumpsters are in. This is a part of our public parking arsenal that isn't really used all that much. If you can see over near that white van, there is a parking kiosk that you can't see on the other side of that van. Let me just show you this at a couple other angles. So basically what's happening is Ebisuya, which is the Japanese market, it is in this building. It creates a ton of recycling boxes, basically. If you've driven around the square at five in the morning on a Tuesday, A morning, you know what I'm talking about. It's like a mountain of boxes. So they want to put another dumpster back here during that process. It was discovered that. These dumpsters here are not under any sort of agreement. And it is a city lot, so I would like to ask permission from the commission to enter an agreement with the. with the building owner to use this area for trash storage. They have no other area, by the way. This building is sort of landlocked. They have an easement in the back. In this picture, actually, we're looking at the easement. The easement goes out a little bit. It is a geometric easement. In other words, it's drawn on the plan, but the text of the agreement is actually what's more important because it allows the building to have access to the parking lot for deliveries and access to its site. For what it's worth, it's kind of like this land that is used for both public parking and the use of the building. As you can see, there's a loading dock that goes through here, goes through the public parking lot. So, let me just go look at this one more picture here. There you go. You can see the loading area here that they use. That is actually public parking lot area. The property line kind of Goes through here right here. I guess you can't see my cursor, but it's off about 15 feet from that wall that you're looking at.
[Jack Buckley]: How many spaces, Tim, would you be using in the public lot?
[Tim McGivern]: So, I don't know exactly how many spaces, but it's probably three or four, so I put the picture up that I think best shows that. I'm not even sure if they're striped for spaces, and I'm not really sure the full history of this spot, but I know, as far as I can remember, there's been dumpsters here. The CVS, I think, had a dumpster here when CVS was there. So what I'd like to do is formalize an agreement. I'd like to see if I can get some screening up. I'd like to see if I can get, to get it to look a little bit nicer.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, Tim, it looks like back to 2011, it was always used for the dumpsters. So it's as far as back street view goes.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, and like I said, it's on the edge of their easement land, which basically gives them access loading, unloading, drive-through connection to Clippership lot and all that. So I think the building owner has taken it upon themselves to just use the area for those purposes. So, I just want to formalize it into an agreement because it is partially lying on city public parking lot and see if I can get some screening up and make a nicer agreement for the for the city.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, from another angle to my verify that since as far back as 2007, it's been used as you're describing.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I think it goes all the way back to when. Basically, when it was created when the easement was created.
[Alicia Hunt]: Is that area actually big enough for parking spots? I was looking on Google Maps, and just another angle makes it look like maybe not nose-in spots, but parallel spots might, one or two might fit there. Because I guess I'm wondering, are we really losing spots?
[Tim McGivern]: Well, the thing is, is it's been used for garbage disposal and pick up for so long. And this is a kind of a underused section of our clipper ship lot here on that wall.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. I can't imagine anybody actually ever parking there unless they lived in that building. Is this also part of the city's waste program in our effort to get things containerized? So part of this request is to memorialize these, but part of it is to get Ebisuya recycling into dumpsters?
[Tim McGivern]: Correct, yeah. Right now they have a giant pile of boxes that they put out on Riverside Avenue that waste management picks up. And it takes them like 15 minutes to get it into the packer truck. So what the recommendation is, is for a 10-yard recycling dumpster to be put somewhere. There is no somewhere on their private property. So this is what they have been using or the building owner has been using for dumpsters. It seems to be working out okay. We want to see if we can either consolidate those four into, maybe there's still four, but maybe there's also recycling in there as well, because I think those are trash.
[Alicia Hunt]: They have residential there, although I understood the residents were moving out. They say they ought to be having recycling as well as trash.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I think to Alicia's point, it looks like it's too short to park head in like saying Alicia from what I could tell.
[Tim McGivern]: So maybe, I mean, it might've been built for dumpsters. We, I just don't know. There's no like history.
[Todd Blake]: We'd have to go back in time and yeah, see losing zero spaces or if it was ever spaces, maybe two parallel. I don't know if an aerial view might help, but can pull that up.
[Jack Buckley]: While you pull it up, I'm just going to take time to invite the public. If they have a comment, does anyone wish to speak to this petition for or against? Just raise your hand, indicate. Seeing none, the aerial view is up and we can see the issue as described by Director Blake. Do other commissioners have questions or comments to Commissioner McGill?
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, I'm in favor of getting our businesses into dumpsters and getting the trash off of our streets and the recycling off of our streets. And I am aware that there are some situations where the businesses literally do not have the space to do that on their own properties. They weren't properly designed. And this is one way we can collaborate to make that happen.
[Tim McGivern]: Design centers back then didn't always take into consideration solid waste removal. So we're ending up in, you know, not a lot, but a handful of situations where we've got to get creative for the way we do things today. This is one of those spots. Yeah, they don't have any property to do this, which I understand the language of the easement, and I'm happy to share with folks if folks want. But basically, at some point, this land was deeded to the city. It was part of that building lot to begin with, deeded to the city with the idea that a parking lot would be built, with the idea that clippership would be built. And then what the agreement said was basically, we're not gonna, you know, we can guarantee you that we're not gonna remove these access type things to your building. So vehicular access around the building, the loading area that you saw, the operations of the buildings such as dumpsters, and this is the spot that they're in. But like I said, it happens to be on the side of the line that is deeded public land.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood. Commissioner, do you have a motion?
[Alicia Hunt]: I would motion to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: And seconded would most likely have to be Commissioner Brzezinski since it's a petition of Commissioner McGiven. Seconded. Seconded by Commissioner Brzezinski. Alba, can we get a roll call vote, please?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven? Yes. Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes. On the vote of four to nothing, the petition is approved. 2025-18, no parking any time. Yes, please.
[Todd Blake]: If I may, I'll offer to bump my item back because I see Mr. Hartman and then Lisa Crossman have been waiting patiently, number 20 and number 59, but I can't make a motion because I'm not a member.
[Jack Buckley]: If a commissioner will agree with Director Blake, I will move to... Happy to move this to the end to take the patiently waiting people first. Will do. 2025-20 permit parking variance, Mr. Ryan Hartman, 72 Sharon Street. Mr. Hartman, could you unmute yourself and present your petition? Welcome to the Traffic Commission. And thank you for your patience.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you for your time as well. It's similar to the motion before mine where I have a commercial vehicle that I park on my street that I'm trying to get permission to park on. I have accumulated multiple tickets for it. It is a vehicle I use for work every day. I do not have a driveway at my location. So I'm unable to park it off the street anywhere. The other alternative I know of is the Walgreens parking lot down the street from me. That costs some money to pay for, I think it's like $19 for five days or something. I'm just trying to avoid continuously paying either parking tickets or parking for my vehicle. As much as I don't even like having the thing, I do need it for work.
[Jack Buckley]: Can I confirm that you have a Nissan van? It has commercial plates and it's registered out of New Hampshire? Correct. To the commission, we dealt with this issue earlier.
[Todd Blake]: I'd just like to point out for folks that one minor difference from the last one is Sharon Street does not appear to be resident permit for whatever that's worth. But it still has to negate the other issues, I guess. Yeah, we're in a tough spot for things like this.
[Jack Buckley]: Yep, they seem to be growing a number.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, and I don't want to keep tabling them, so.
[Alicia Hunt]: I feel like we should talk to the City Council about whether we want to change the ordinance. I'd like to understand how other communities handle this. Is this something I should go have an intern look into? Is this thing Sarah knows about? But my instinct here is that we need to deny this, but we ought to keep a list of who these people are. And if we change the rules, we should let them know that the rules have changed.
[Jack Buckley]: I understood. You said a couple of things that intrigue me. One, the first one is the answer. We do keep track of these. to reach out and contact with these petitioners. Two, I do think we have to start doing some research on this matter. And if you did have an intern, I, as chair, would love the opportunity to see what they could do to kind of research what other cities and towns are dealing with this. This problem is, or this matter is not going away, and they seem to think it's only gonna grow. Well, the numbers of petitions are going to be growing. We have an ordinance. We can't really act well beyond that ordinance, barring, I guess, unusual circumstances. Mister Hartman, if you understand what's happening, you were here earlier, I believe you've already indicated that you were and you saw that there's an ordinance that prevents commercial vehicles. It limits what we can do here as a traffic commission. But there's enough of these petitions cropping up that we are gonna start doing some research to see what we can do to help you out in the future. If you want to add anything to that, I'll allow that now at this time, and then I'm going to go back to the commissioners to take a vote. So the floor is yours if you want to add to this and throw anything out for us.
[Alicia Hunt]: You need to unmute. Oh, sorry. I'll send that. And part of, I think, what's helpful for us to understand is like, how did you end up living in a place with no parking or where you're not allowed to park the vehicle overnight, but you live here? Like if you had a driveway, that would be the solution.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes, it would be. I initially lived, I lived in Medford for a few years now, and I used to be able to park in at the end of my street, because for some reason it was allowed at the end of that street. That is now four or five blocks from my house. I don't particularly want to walk a 20-minute, 30-minute walk every day.
[Alicia Hunt]: It's more likely that we were enforcing the rules differently at the time, honestly. I can't imagine that there's any place in Medford where the rules are different, unless it was a private way?
[SPEAKER_13]: No, it was a main street. I just never seemed to have any issues there. I'm not sure, maybe it was just different, but I never had a problem over there. But now that I've moved, I do have a different issue, which is the car. So it's a smaller vehicle than my last one, but it is still a commercial vehicle that I use for work.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood, and thank you. Commissioners, I present the petition back to you for resolution.
[Tim McGivern]: motion to deny.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: One thing I'll say, again, I hope as our city grows, Chief, I like your idea. We just got to start letting the elected officials know that we're running into issues like this. Unfortunately, I agree with Commissioner McGivern. I would vote to deny it, but I do want people to understand it's something that we're looking into to hopefully fix in the future. Yeah, we have to. So with that, second.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner McGivern to deny petition 2025-20 for a parking variance to 72 Sharon Street, seconded by Commissioner Baczynski. Albert, roll call vote, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of four to zero, the petition is denied for the reasons stated above. And I will add that we will start looking into this and make it known to the city council and Commissioner Hunt, I would appreciate any services you could provide by way of internship to do some research into this.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Chief, if I could just address Alicia and the commissioners. The reason for this law in 2002 was because of eight taxi cabs that were parking on LSF. I feel that they were not looking at single cars, it was commercial, but yet it was a taxi company that was parking on LSF, and that was the reason for this ordinance.
[Todd Blake]: I mean another thing to consider this particular one's also an out-of-state plate so if and when the council or this commission ever considered commercial overnight perhaps there's still somehow to get them garaged in Medford it might be a compromise of some sort because those other things complicate matters and I wanted to also I don't have Jim's Commissioner on Parking Policy and Enforcement in front of me, that they may have already done some research on what other cities and towns do. Jim, do you recall?
[Jim Silva]: We did. We did the research for some of the surrounding communities, and we looked at Somerville and Cambridge, I believe, in regards to their commercial vehicle. In addition, I think as Todd alluded to, the out-of-state plate issue with the Chapter 90 chief or something of that regard, in regards to if somebody lives in this community, it's an out-of-state plate, how is that handled in regards to the Chapter 90? There's some other issue that might be in addition to just an ordinance that is in place in this regard.
[Jack Buckley]: understood and I think it's high time we do a little bit trying to do some research and investigate this come to some terms with we've been doing a lot of work on parking in the city we'll put the effort into this one also. Based on the request of Commissioner Hunt, 2021-59 has been, last month we removed it from table items placed on this agenda. 2021-59, handicapped signs, West Bedford Community Center, Arlington Street. In September of 22, there was a request for two handicapped signs for the West Bedford Community Center. the traffic commission approved one sign and we set up a review for six months for an additional side. Well we will be on those six months and we've untabled it for discussion. The petitioner was present earlier. Ms. Crossman is still available. We will ask you to unmute. I know that she has shared some emails and discussions with Director Blake
[Todd Blake]: as well as Francis.
[Jack Buckley]: And Francis also. So Ms. Crossman, if you'd like to present the petition again, we understand that it was sent here for originally 2022, and then I will move to both Todd and Francis on this matter. Welcome to the Traffic Commission.
[Crossman]: Thank you. So we are requesting that we move forward with the second space. We have The ride that comes to deliver folks to our activities. So oftentimes the ride is dropping off in the space and another person with the placard is pulling up to park. We have several folks that have the placard and are in need of it as people age or they have a fall or different issues. And we'd like to have access from the street to the door. Yeah, we think it's time. We have plenty of folks that would utilize the space. We're challenged with folks who misuse the space and don't have a placard but are parking in the wrong direction, or they're a delivery driver and they're dropping off. whatever. So we would just like to secure those two spaces for the folks that need the access. As we do more events, as we do more activities, that space becomes more in need.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. I think you have my concern as well. that since we have instituted the one, there is still a need or an overwhelming need for an additional one. I'm going to let you speak to that, but I think you already have.
[Crossman]: Yeah, absolutely, because the first time around it was requested, I was first coming on to the organization, and that was post-pandemic. Everything, it was so dead at the center. Nothing was really happening. Nothing was in motion. And now, flash forward three years later, we're doing events all the time, activities. We have a more diverse group coming through the door. We're working with the city health department in doing different health awareness activities and that's drawing different folks. So as we do more rentals and things like that, we have more people who need that access. And so, yes, we've ramped up since then.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, if I may, I just wanted to point out that the second one would still be within the, not that it has to be, but it would still be within the frontage of the community center. So it wouldn't be impacting in front of anyone else's house nearby. And I'd also like to point out that It doesn't sometimes the question comes up, but there are other handicaps spaces in the area. Would there be too many? It doesn't appear that there's any in the general vicinity besides this. So, it doesn't seem like it would be too many for the 1 area. And obviously, they'd be available for use by any of the. Residents in the area, especially during non community center hours for someone to park overnight that may need it as well. Probably go right here.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Director Blake. I know that Director Nwaje is also present. Would you like to speak on the matter? And if so, please unmute yourself and welcome to the Traffic Commission.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you so much. I'm just here to advocate for the second space to be put up as quickly as possible. I think that one of the things that we sometimes don't always understand is that one party may be making a request, but that request is actually a benefit to an entire community. I do stop by the community center on a regular basis and I observe and I notice the demographics in that neighborhood. Not necessarily all attending the community center per se, but just in that neighborhood. I see those two spaces as a benefit to people who might need them and who would already qualify for them, which is not our jurisdiction. They would already have received that placard. I see those spaces as a benefit to helping people aged in place. So, I look at it on a much broader level, a little saddened that 1 was given and it was come back for the 2nd 1, but I wasn't here for that. So I can't speak to that. However, I would like to see this move forward as quickly as possible.
[Jack Buckley]: you know, participation, Director Nwaje. Commissioners, before I go to the public to see their input, do we have questions or concerns of either the current petitioner, Director Blake or Director Nwaje?
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I just had one point that what we approved going on three years now, it was basically To review, it's not like we denied it, right? We just wanted to give them one and then see if they needed another one, correct?
[Frances Nwajei]: The wording from what I saw stated, you could have one, and it was basically evaluate and see if you need the other one. So when it comes to accessibility, there really is no evaluation. Just by way of the person coming forward, that person is already presenting that they have a need. Because how would you evaluate if you were not the one that has the needs? Do you see what I'm saying? So as we continue to have more people aging and aging that attend the community center, but people in that community that resides there that are aging, I feel like it's really time to either say we're gonna put the second space or say we're not able to put the second space.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I appreciate your comment. The point I just wanted to make, I think we were evaluating whether that was the proper space for you. I don't think there's anybody on the group who would deny it. It was just basically, was there a better option for you? But if the other handicapped spot is the better option, barring anything from the public or from my fellow commissioners, I would go ahead and approve this. So I think that was the point I was trying to make.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Commissioner Wisniewski. to approve 2021-59. Handicap sign a second handicap sign for the West
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Commissioner Brzezinski? Unmute. Yes, sorry. I appreciate your time.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. 2025-18, no parking anytime south side of Fulton Spring Road from Fulton Street, a distance of 50 feet east of Fulton Street. Sergeant Rogers, Director Blake, who would like the floor first?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Sergeant. Chief, we've received complaints in that this area that the school buses cannot make the turn off of Fulton onto Fulton Spring Road because of parents parking on the other side. I take it waiting for their children. I also went up on off school hours and residents of Fulton Street in this area where there is no parking on Fulton Street are parking in the same area. So I don't believe it's a school hour issue. I believe it's a 24-7 hour issue. Tara and I have come up with a plan where there'd be no parking on the south side of Fulton St. Road from Fulton St. 50 feet.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. And Director Blake, I see you put that up. Could you just kind of explain to the commissioners plan visually on your map?
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, the thought is that 20 feet just doesn't cut it at this particular intersection. Fulton Spring Road is kind of tight for parking on both sides and two-way traffic, but we want to be sensitive to parking elsewhere, and it's really just the throat at the intersection that appears to be the problem, not further down the block. So we wanted to start with one side, 50 feet, and see if that rectifies any issues clogging up this area, particularly during the schools, but during all times. And then if this didn't remedy the situation, we'd come back and potentially modify it at a later date. But this is what we came up with at this time.
[Jack Buckley]: I understand. Thank you. Commissioners, questions of Sergeant Rogers and Director Blake?
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I'll ask my standard question. Have we notified the abutting owners?
[Unidentified]: We don't have to. We don't have to.
[Todd Blake]: It's a good question. Just so the residents in this area or some of the parents in this area that are aware of the issue, the ones who contacted us, not necessarily the direct abutters.
[Jack Buckley]: There are really no houses here. Director Blake, let me ask a question. The two corner houses there, are they residents of Fulton Spring or Fulton Street?
[Todd Blake]: This one here looks like Fulton, and they do have a driveway up the page here, right here, this driveway. And this house does appear to be a resident of Fulton Spring, but they also appear to have two current residents.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, and to both you and the sergeant, to answer Commissioner Brzezinski's question, the neighbors of those residents at a minimum haven't been notified on this. I don't believe they need to be.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I support all these safety changes. I just think as a courtesy, we should do a better job of notifying the people that are affected by this. If nothing else, tell them we're doing it. It's a safety issue. We hope you'll understand. But I just don't like our habit as a city of not notifying people of things. That's all.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood. Commissioner Hunt, Commissioner McGiven, questions, comments?
[Tim McGivern]: I'm glad we're doing this. It was kind of like on my radar as far as fixing this issue because I used to live up here and it's not just school buses, it's landscaping trucks, it's a garbage truck every now and then. And I think this is a good first step. I was even thinking, you know, expanding it and making it parking just on one side. But I think this is a good incremental step to see if this solves some of the issues up there. So I'm in favor of it.
[Jack Buckley]: Seems like a reasonable safety thing to me. go to the public. I don't know who's left here. Anyone in the public wish to speak for or against this petition? I can't even see who we have left here.
[Tim McGivern]: It's just Mr. Viola hanging out.
[Todd Blake]: Mr. Viola's riveted by our actions here.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, seeing none from the public, I send it back to the commissioners for a vote. From the chair, I would suggest that however this petition falls out, I would recommend that my sergeant, traffic sergeant and director Blake, do some outreach to the naval with regard, whether it passes or doesn't pass in this. to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve unless I got those all wrong. Alva, vote, roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes. On the vote of Ford and Upton, the petition has been approved. Skipping ahead, 2025-21, crosswalk daylighting. First one, High Street opposite Boynton Road. Second one, High Street opposite Potterhouse Road. Director Blake, the petition and floor are yours.
[Todd Blake]: Sorry, I'm just trying to pull up a graphic here.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Chief, if you'd like to remind the commissioners that we had a child hit at this location two weeks ago.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, luckily it was no injury, but it just highlights the fact that we need to circle back. We've been doing it kind of piecemeal, and this one's near a school. So we're trying to restrict parking ahead of a crosswalk. So prior to a crosswalk coming from Winthrop Circle towards Medford Square, this is in the vicinity of the school. So it's next to the gymnasium there opposite Boynton Road. This is probably a better view. So there's a crosswalk here right at the end of the gymnasium. When people park right up to this crosswalk, it really impacts the sightline. Um, so we want restricted. Tim will appreciate this to this existing pool here and swap out the sign with different science and no new pool. Um, and then we have hatched it, although it was raining that day. So we'll see if it lasts, but the paint and we've had put cones there as well to try to really highlight that. Um, DPW graciously also installed led flashing signs already. So we're just trying to do our best to improve these crosswalks wherever we can. And the second one that's listed on the same item is also near St. Joseph's School on High Street, opposite Powder House. This is Powder House here. There's a driveway before the crosswalk, but we need a little more than that. And that will be on an existing pole, so not a new channel either, a light pole. So this light pole here. So it's about a half a parking space and then a driveway. What's that? You're on a roll. Yeah, that's cool. So that's the request, daylight, these two crosswalks. The other direction, there's a street on Boynton and there's a bus stop already, so it's really only the eastbound direction that we're looking for.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Director Blake. Commissioners, questions or concerns related to the petition?
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I have a question about the striping of the crosswalks. Is that something that will happen automatically? Are we waiting for something? I mean, I don't know if the picture is accurate today, but they look faded.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, when the weather turns in the spring, we usually do a round of paint. So whatever is faded now, it just won't, temperature and wet weather, rain or snow, it just won't adhere. So we usually try to do it spring, summer, fall. This one in particular looks very faded, yes. But we have, if you drive out there, I have other photos where the LED signs really make the crosswalk pop up too.
[Tim McGivern]: They were quick. So those ones, I think, we do once a year, the ones on High Street. So the answer is yes, they automatically get done.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. And then one last question, how many parking spots are being lost? Any?
[Todd Blake]: It looks like one and a half at the Boynton location and then a half of space at opposite parts.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: And just for the record, I'll ask my standard question. Did we notify the abutting homeowners of what we're doing?
[Todd Blake]: In this particular case, we did not notify this apartment building with a half space, but the school is aware because the folks running some of those programs, the young girl was walking towards a basketball practice. So it was the parents of the school as well as some of the administration of the school that asked for it. Yeah. So it would really impact them the most, that one-and-a-half space.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I live in that area. I live on Grandview, and that's a poorly lit area, particularly at night, and the kids just dart all over the place. Again, to reiterate my point on the last, I encourage us to continue to notify the people affected by this, but the safety issues, I'm all for it. So when we're done with discussion, I'd be happy to put a motion forward.
[Todd Blake]: Steve, your point about the lighting too, we did check all the street lights. We checked the street lights in the area to see if they were working properly and at the highest illumination, so that was a good point, Steve.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Hunt, comments and questions?
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, it seems like a safety thing to me, so.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, let me go to the public, since we still do have a number. Does anyone in the public wish to speak for or against the petition? Seeing none, I send it back to the commissioners for a resolution. Commissioner Brzezinski was about to make a motion, but delayed.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Presuming no other comments from the other commissioners, motion to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner Brzezinski.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: And one point of clarification on both, if we need to approve both.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood. Okay, on the motion of Commissioner Brzezinski to approve 2025-21 crosswalk daylight for both one High Street opposite Point Road and two High Street opposite Potterhouse Road. Seconded by?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Black History Month. The first is by Andrea Campbell.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner McGibbon. Alva, roll call roll.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon? Yes. Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley. Yes, on the vote of 4-0, the petition is approved.
[Todd Blake]: Thank you. The Mayor and Councilor Scarpelli had requested that we do something in that regard, so it will be appreciated. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Director Blake. To the two final items, I'm making sure I didn't miss anything with the jumping rocks. The two final items on the business tonight were our tabled items that we brought forth to the agenda. I will start with 2023-47, no left turn, Emerson Street to Main Street. This was voted on February 13th, 2024th meeting for a three-month review. For those of you unaware, Director Blake, if you could pull this up. My guess is that as a result of a lot of the work that we've done at the South Street, Main and South Street intersection, Emerson Street became a larger cutthroat and we were seeing an increase of traffic accidents. The Traffic Commission had put up a no left turn and put some barriers across there. And to this point, I think we've seen a high success rate of very few, if not Did we have one accident, I think, someone, the research did since this time?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yes, Sargent. I believe it was one.
[Jack Buckley]: And there were several that were.
[Todd Blake]: Before the change, there were several, right?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, one.
[Jack Buckley]: So this petition is brought forth for the three-month review. So I don't know if any of the commissioners have questions of either Sergeant Rogers, Director Boyko, or myself as to how it has been working out.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I just have a question about is this is what we've put up? I know there's supposed to be a redesign of this area long term, but are we going to leave in place these pylons? Is that the end result? Are we going to extend the The curve in the middle or the whatever that is, the flower bed.
[Todd Blake]: I haven't discussed it with Tim, but I would suggest we leave these in place until the mass DOT long-term plan comes into place, because then we wouldn't spend city money to do something that we know is coming up by a different entity.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: Discussed. I agree. have a motion to approve. Yeah, just more of a point of clarification. But I mean, no other comments from my colleagues. I motion to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay Uh, the most of Commissioner Brzezinski to approve 2023-47. No left turn ever the street to Main Street after it's three months for fuel to make permanent. Do I have a second by the
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven? Yes. Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes, on a vote of four nothing, the petition is approved. In the same fashion, we have 2024-37, the G-Zone only six-month pilot review. This Traffic Commission has voted in the G-Zones six months ago. It is set for review in the January 2020 fifth meeting. We have now put it to the February meeting. I will start by reporting back. I think part of the pilot approval was the response
[Jim Silva]: Subsequent to the pilot beginning, there have been two reports of issues. One of them was regarding the two-day and four-day pass program in the G zone and an explanation of that. And the additional one was a Dexter Street resident who was concerned because they had been receiving tickets because of the 48 hours they were going beyond the 48-hour process, they happen to be in the G Zone. Both of them have subsequently been responded to. As far as the traffic at Medford Police Department, there have been zero reports of the G Zone, according to Sergeant Canava. The parking department also has had zero reports of any issue with the G-Zone. We had set up a C-click fix for G-Zone reporting or issues. There is zero there as well. So it was a very limited amount of feedback that we had, and most of it had been clarification. We have, I have submitted to you all some of the numbers for the LPR visits and ticketing over a six-month process for our focus streets. We have a little bit of a addition to that. The LPR technology is just used by the parking department and not the police department to rules that they have in place moved out to privacy, et cetera. So the numbers that we have is, for the LPRs, over 2,000 visits to the G Zone itself and 749 tickets written by the LPR technology. Subsequent to that, we seem to have additional tickets that were issued on Alfred Street, a total of 37, Bow Street, a total of 317, Neal Street, 354, Marion Street, 108, Stanley, 93, Birgit Av, 94, and Stearns, 25. So over a six-month period, the enforcement has been there, either in the LPR technology, also the foot patrol, more managing them differently. I don't know the number of visits. That's not part of writing the tickets, but we can assume that that visit number grows dramatically. I think that's a good point. Thank you. Thank you. push out the parking problem versus variances are limited to that specific street and encumbers people who live on that street. This sort of gives a little bit of equity for folks. We're not telling people to park on one location. We're actually giving them an option to park on multiple locations in an area. So the feedback has been positive from conversation, from reporting. People just generally do not report good issues with the mayor's office or parking, et cetera. But from just conversations informally with people, it seems to be something that folks are a little bit happy about going forward. In addition, because of the G zone, some of our main streets, Boston Avenue, Winchester Street, Harvard Street, and also have become resident parking streets helping folks in those communities, in those areas. Excellent.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for that presentation. Commissioners, questions of Mr. Silva?
[SPEAKER_15]: I don't think it's working the way it should be.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I appreciate your presentation. I think I'm probably the one who asked for the six-month review or pushed it. I appreciate the information and I appreciate your presentation. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: I'm sorry I'm seeing no public participation. Director McDermott the floor is yours.
[Sarah McDermod]: So just to be clear going forward I am I a member of the public in these meetings or that's why I always wait for that that the request for the public because I know I'm not on the Commission so I feel like that's my role here but anybody else wants to talk first that's fine.
[Jack Buckley]: You are like that we need to depend on to address some of our issues. So if you have anything, you can either wave or interject. Director Blake will show you how to do that.
[Todd Blake]: I think the chair missed asking you first before the public sometimes.
[Sarah McDermod]: It's okay. It's really just a recent thing that we noticed that is a benefit of the zoned parking. I met with Owen in engineering about, and we talked about this a little bit earlier in the parking implementation team meeting, about when engineering issues an on-street permit for construction and that street is permitted, then the residents of that street are displaced and communicating where they can then park. So if they're parked on If they usually park on one street and a big chunk of that street is given away for construction to occur, then the communication to the public as to where they should then park is not always clear, and it's hard to communicate to them. In a zoned parking situation, that negates that issue. If somebody in the G-Zone, Winchester Street, a big chunk of it, a few blocks is taken up with construction, then they can park anywhere else in the G-Zone and it's not going to get them a ticket. We don't have to worry about giving them or you have to park on this street because then inevitably somebody is going to say, I don't want that street, I want this street. The zone parking negates that issue for the most part and makes displacing people from one street a lot less of a burden on the citizen.
[MCM00001809_SPEAKER_04]: I have nothing more. But again, Jim, thank you for the presentations.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm glad that it's working out. Do we have lots of residents who live on these streets who are complaining and telling us that it's horrible and they wish we would take it away?
[Jim Silva]: Not for the police department. Great. Not for the mayor's office.
[Alicia Hunt]: And those residents, and they may not know we're discussing it tonight, but they knew that we said it was a pilot and we would evaluate. And in fact, we've taken a long time for it. We've given them extra time to tell us if there were problems. So that's good.
[Jack Buckley]: So we have to take a vote.
[Alicia Hunt]: We do. Move to approve it as permanent.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, on the motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve 2024-37 to make the G-Zone program a permanent part of the city of Medford parking practice. Motion by Commissioner Hunt, seconded by... The letter that was written by... Commissioner McGiven? You're fading, but we're almost done. Alba, roll call, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski? Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm happy to state that we got through three more table items moving forward. I would like to have maybe Sgt. Rogers, Director Blake, Sgt. Canava take a look at any of these other table items that we could present for you. to be able to get through it. With that, I will accept a motion to adjourn, and I thank you all, as usual, for your participation and your assistance in this matter.
[Todd Blake]: Motion.
[Jack Buckley]: Director Blake, did you have a comment?
[Todd Blake]: Mr. Vail, is that what you were waiting for all this time? Just make sure.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, he can't unmute himself here. He's friendly.
[SPEAKER_11]: I wanted to hear a little bit more about the zone parking and I think it's been working wonderfully to be honest with you. So, and let me say, it's another thing. It's great to have the parking clerk attending the meetings too. I think that's going to be a benefit for everybody. So. And thank you all for tonight, I appreciate it.
[Jack Buckley]: Take care. We do see the advantage in the pocket, Clark, and I appreciate your advocacy. Director. Director, sorry. And thank you, Mrs. Erickson.
[Sarah McDermod]: I don't get to say anything. I don't mind. My clerks work hard. I don't mind being compared to my clerks.
[Jack Buckley]: It's late.
[Sarah McDermod]: It's quite all right.
[Jack Buckley]: Several hours. With that, a motion to adjourn. Yes, motion so moved. Motion by Commissioner McGiven, seconded by... Second. Commissioner Brzezinski. Alba, one last roll call for the... Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt. Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Vote of nothing. The motion is approved. Thank you, everyone. I appreciate your help and your advocacy.