[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I think we should have everybody here. Good evening, everybody. My name's Lieutenant Canaba. I'm also here with Sergeant Rogers and Alva Erickson. And good evening, all the commissioners. It is September 9th at 5.10 PM. And Alva, if we could just have a roll call.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Here.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Here. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Here.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Silva?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Jim, we can't hear you.
[Jim Silva]: Can you hear me now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: And Lieutenant can have a designated chairperson also here as well.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Thank you all for being here. And, uh, looks like we have a whole Sarah and Todd Blake. I'd like to also introduce Sarah. Sarah is the, um, traffic director of, uh, City Hall and Todd Blake is, um, here as well. I just Brenda, Brenda Pike from sustainability. Hey, Brenda, as well. And thank you all for being here and helping out. I know Todd and Sarah do an amazing job. And Brenda, nice to meet you as well. So thank you all for being here. Brenda, I will make you a co-host so you can unmute yourself. Sorry. Should be all set.
[Brenda Pike]: Great. Thanks for having me.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Todd, I just made you a co-host as well.
[Todd Blake]: Thanks.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: All right, somebody wants to make a motion to approve the live minutes. We will get started.
[SPEAKER_04]: Motion, unless anybody has any questions.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Good. All right. You need a second on that? I'll second it. OK, great. Thank you. Commissioner Brzezinski, seconded by Commissioner Silva, roll call.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Silva? Yes. Lieutenant Cannava?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes. And we can move on to new business unless anybody has anything else they want to add here. So for the new business, we have 2025-60, handicap placard sign for Don Antigelli, 71 Central Ave. The paperwork is in order, correct?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yes, the paperwork is in order.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I never got a chance to get down there this weekend. Okay. John, if you are available on the Zoom, if you could either raise your hand or put a comment in, because I'm just not seeing your name. I know we have some numbers here that are on Zoom. So if you're just on audio, I'm not sure if audio can message. I have a phone by the phone. Do you have a phone number for him by any chance?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: There is a phone number here. Also, Catherine, I assume it's his wife, Antoine Angeli. She has a placard too, but this application was put in John's name. So I don't know if Catherine might be representing.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I'm going to actually ask the two phone numbers to unmute because I'm not sure they can talk in the chat. The numbers I have. So 781-396-5138, I'm just- No. No, or 781-367-4961? No.
[Alicia Hunt]: Lieutenant, for the public, if you want to raise your hand and you're dialed in on a phone, you can push star nine, and then we'll see that you want to speak.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Great, thank you. So star nine, if- Hey, we just clicked on you to unmute. Are you here to represent John from 71 Central Ave by any chance?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, but you said my number, 367-4961.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, we didn't know if you were representing the first item on here. So I apologize, we just unmuted you. So what are you here for?
[Angela Murphy]: I am here to give my opinion about the EV stations they're going to put on Lyman Avenue at Cummings Park.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay. When we get to that item, I will ask you to unmute now that we have your number so we know that. But thank you. I apologize. We'll get back to you shortly. Okay. So, John, if you're here. Star six, nine, if you're a three, nine, six, five, one, three, eight, if that's you.
[Todd Blake]: And I know who that is. That's not John.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[Todd Blake]: It's a different resident for Evie as well. I think.
[Jim Silva]: Okay. Do you have his number? Oh, cool. I'll call him. Yeah. It was a number.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: We're going to give him a call. Um, if you guys are okay with that, we'll move on to the next one and then come back to this one. If you guys are okay. We need to make a motion to do that and we can do that. But we'll go to the next one. We're going to go to 2025-61 permit parking variance 143 Winthrop Street. Joseph, I believe I saw him. Marose is here.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: He had no email to forward the notice, but I hand-delivered it myself to his house. Okay.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: So, Joseph, if you are here, either star 69 to raise your hand, or if you're the other iPhone user, if you would not either mind going through the chat or raising your hand if you are here for Joseph Morose, 143 Winthrop Street. Is there somebody in the chat? I use John there, please. Okay, Joseph, I'm going to ask you on mute. She'll be all set.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph, how are you? Good evening. Traffic Commission.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Joseph, how are you? We're well, so we're We're here to kind of, you can talk on your behalf of your permit parking variance that you have applied for. So the floor is yours. Just speak on behalf of the permit that you've applied for.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I'm looking for the variance to park on 143, I mean, Martin Street.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay, is there, we're pulling up your house now on the Google Maps so everybody can see, but is there, for a reason that you do not have a driveway or?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but I have a driveway, but I- For one, only one marching. No, for two.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay. Just pulling it up for the commissioners. Sit. Thank you, Tom. That was you? Yeah, that's me. Okay, do you have a driveway in front of your house?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but I have a driveway, but I don't have enough space because I have a tenant. I need even some visitors coming. I don't have space to, you know, they can park.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay. How many vehicles do you have in the house? Oh, three. Is this your driveway right here in this house that's on the screen? Can you see the screen? Yeah. Okay, and this is the driveway that you all share?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but it's not enough. So that's why I'm looking for a variance.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Also going to ask. Natalina, that's correct.
[SPEAKER_14]: Good.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: You we're doing well. So, I know that you said that you're on the balance as well, and you live here as well. So we want to give you the opportunity to kind of speak as well.
[SPEAKER_14]: Yep. So like he was saying, it's only a two car driveway situation and I'm on unit one with me, my mom and her fiance and we have three cars. And then upstairs, which is Joseph and his wife and whoever else. And he just said that they have three cars as well. So there's not really much for us to park. There's like six cars. So we can't really park anywhere. And then also, just that my mom gets home late at night and I don't feel safe with her walking through that street just because of like the dark and all the cracks in the street and she's had a lot of like spinal issues that she's been trying to work out and she needs back surgery and things like that. I also sometimes get home late. And I've tripped on the cracks. People have been like coming, I don't know, the street off of it, off the other street. Um, I forget the name, but there's no, the, so if you went down George street and then that first left, I don't know the name of that street. I forget what it's called, but that's where we've been parking, like down there and down Winthrop place is where we walk through and cars at night are like coming down fast to turn down that street.
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_14]: So I would just feel safer with us parking where we used to park in the front.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay, so we commissioners just so we're not confused here 2025 and 61 and 62. This is Natalina is speaking right now and Joseph Morose is also speaking and it seems like they live in the same house. So I think it's just easier if they just speak at once. So we can kind of clear up two things at once. So commissioners just I'll leave it for you all ask any questions you have further.
[Alicia Hunt]: So, Lieutenant, what I read in the letter that was provided in their backup documentation is that this springs from basically that they had been parking in the street that is perpendicular to their homes off of on Martin Street. And as the commissioners may remember, the residents of Martin Street came to us a couple of months in a row petitioning to have their street made permit parking because they felt there wasn't enough parking for the residents in the street because people from all over were parking there. And it seems that perhaps a lot of the cars were actually coming from here across the street on Winthrop Street. And that's basically why this is coming in front of us now, because the conditions, it's not that these families moved into this house without parking with many cars, They've been living here, they've had parking on other city streets where they're no longer allowed to park. This seems to be a result of us not having zoned parking, but having street by street parking.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay, thank you for that.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, if I may add something, Jordan.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yep, absolutely.
[Todd Blake]: I think because winter street is no parking at all in this area. If memory serves me in the past, I believe the commission. Has at times granted variances, but typically on the same side. So, for this side of Winthrop Street, it was typically on, say, the Chester Ave. Greenleaf side. And then if you are home on the other side, Winthrop would typically be on that side. I think that's how it's been practically divvied up in the past. It looks like George is not a permit parking, not part of the G. Clark Street does not look like it's permit. And then, um, summer street, I'm not sure, but winter place is private. So it seems like, um, just wanted to add that for. Thank you.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Any other questions or.
[Jim Silva]: I just have a quick question for the resident. How many folks park in the driveway currently?
[SPEAKER_14]: Right now, from what I've seen, there's two cars in the driveway.
[Jim Silva]: How many cars could possibly park in there too, per EV?
[SPEAKER_14]: Yeah.
[Jim Silva]: Thank you.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Sarah, I see you have your hand raised, but you're more than happy. Yes. You're good to go.
[Sarah McDermod]: Can you all hear me?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes. Okay.
[Sarah McDermod]: So I just wanted to throw in there that since Martin street became permitted between resident permits, as in the residents vehicles themselves and visitor permits, there's a total of 56 permits currently issued to Martin street. And I know there's not 56 spaces there and it's unlikely that all will be used at the same time, but I just wanted to throw that in as food for thought for the commission to consider.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you. Looks like a lot of driveways on Martin Street too.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. Is that total number? Is that how many are visitors and how many are resident parking?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. I guess are those all resident or visitor parking passes as well?
[Sarah McDermod]: It would take me a little time to separate that and get you a count. I don't know.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: OK. Just if you knew it, that's all. Thank you. Yeah. Sorry.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, I assumed that those were the actual vehicles that got permits and that each vehicle can also get visitor permits.
[Sarah McDermod]: Each unit could get up to two visitor permits. I'm not sure if all the units on that street have utilized both visitor permits. I'm just looking real quick here.
[Jim Silva]: Can I ask a question in regards to the number of spaces on Martin Street that exist? So if there were 50 passes given out, how many spaces actually exist on the street?
[Sarah McDermod]: Okay, so it looks like there's 24 visitor permits. So that means 24, 22, no, 27, 22 and 27, 56.
[SPEAKER_07]: No.
[Sarah McDermod]: Please spare me math. Yeah. So there's 20, 24 visitor permits right now.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay. So 32 of those are residential.
[Sarah McDermod]: Yes. That's how math works. Thanks.
[Alicia Hunt]: So, and I just, so I thought it would be useful to clarify cause it sounds like there is parking on Clark street. Um, and it's just that they're concerned about walking from Clark street back around through Winthrop Place. Winthrop Place is a private way. It's very small. It looks more like an alley than a road to their home. But I do have concern about giving out permits on a permit parking street when there are non-permit parking streets available to park on. It just, it feels like a slippery slope that every person on Winthrop Street would want a permit to park on Martin Street, wouldn't they?
[Todd Blake]: To answer Jim's question, Jim, I think there's about 26, 27 available spaces on Martin, I think, because one size restricts it.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I think you might, Todd, I think you might be right.
[Alicia Hunt]: I guess. I feel bad for people who live somewhere and the conditions have changed. I also, like, I also disagree that the spots in front of your home should be your private parking spot, and that the people who live there can say, we don't want you parking from across the street, because we've made the street permit parking. But that is the nature of the system we have here in Medford, is it's street by street and not regional. And so I don't really know what to do with that. It's like a catch-22 here.
[Tim McGivern]: Is it unregulated on Clark Street? Is that what we're saying?
[Todd Blake]: It appears to be George, Clark, and Summer, although I didn't confirm Summer.
[Tim McGivern]: And they do have right of passage through a place. It's just maybe not the best route.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. And one other suggestion that I would have is that the person whose mother has difficulty walking should look at getting a handicapped tag. that could open up options for them. Not that there is necessarily a handicapped spot right around here, but it does make things more, there are more opportunities if there was something like that.
[Tim McGivern]: Todd, how many spaces available you said, 27?
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, it's approximately 26, 27 or so. I think, did they say they issued twenty five or twenty six permits plus visitor? So, as usual, this I've said at public meetings before the on street parking doesn't necessarily match the demand. So that's hence why resident permit is popular because it limits the competition.
[Sarah McDermod]: Just FYI, Summer Street is not permitted. I just double-checked. That section doesn't require permits. It's not until Marston Street, and then even then, it's only overnight between Marston and Gourley.
[Todd Blake]: So on the odd side, the closest is either Clark, George, or Summer.
[SPEAKER_17]: Thank you.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Thank you. There's a motion on the table or any other questions. I know this is a tough one.
[Alicia Hunt]: And to be clear, if the answer is either yes or no on the permit parking on Martin Street, because all of these others are unpermitted, So there's nothing that prevents them from parking there now. They just would rather park in this other street. It's more convenient, closer to their home across Winthrop. Is Martin part of the G zone? No.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: No? Okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: It's a recently permitted street because the residents came to us, and I remember that they were in front of us on two different meetings asking for it.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah. The G zone's just kind of down just beyond George Street to the south. The interesting thing is the first street after that, Spencer, was the one street that opted out of the G zone. So that's non-perma either.
[Tim McGivern]: Unfortunately, we don't have control over Winthrop Place to make improvements, but I'm wondering, you know, if the city wanted to support sending a letter to the owners to tell them to make improvements.
[Alicia Hunt]: And is that, when I look at it, it's,
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Should be right.
[Alicia Hunt]: It looks more like a shared use path in a road. Do people actually drive on that?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, they do from Clark. They a lot good about more than you would think.
[Jim Silva]: I ride my bike on it. Right on clock left on winter place. Yeah, there's a, there's a public interest there.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Great.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I guess the parking situation is like on Clark. Is there like abundant parking or. Is it clogged.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I, I can't say that I've been on Clark street that often, but I feel like there are a decent amount of spots. I don't feel like ever any time that I've driven by Clark on the day or night that it was been over populated with vehicles parked there.
[Jim Silva]: Yeah, I've been down there numerous times on complaints and the sample parking.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I'll drop it on Clark. I was just doing the distances from the house to George and Clark seem about the same actually.
[Alicia Hunt]: And if I was gonna really, really think out of the box, my only sort of solution would be, and I don't know if we would even consider putting a handicap spot on the end of Martin Street. And then if somebody in their household had a handicap placard, they could use that, but that everybody else should be using Clark Street because it's unpermitted.
[SPEAKER_17]: Sorry, if you were commenting, we couldn't hear you.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, Mr. Rose, Joseph, do you have something else to say on that? We just couldn't hear you.
[SPEAKER_17]: This is Moe's wife. Long time ago, I asked her to put Enzika parking for me on the mountain street because I can't walk long, but they never put it.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: You said you have a handicap like it already, or?
[SPEAKER_17]: Right. It's obvious. Yes, I got it. I got the plate on my car, but I don't have. Before, my co-spot is Medford Police. He asked for me for the parking space on the Martin Street.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Todd, does Martin Street have any handicap placards?
[SPEAKER_17]: Not sure. They don't have on Martin Street. I asked to put one for me. They never put it.
[Todd Blake]: I'm not sure. Sarah might have a list handy, potentially.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if this was this more than five years ago, was this how long? Was this many years ago? Yes. Before the pandemic? Yes. Okay. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that perhaps previous members of the traffic commission would have been reluctant to put a handicapped parking spot in front of someone else's house for someone who lived on a different street. And I don't know that that's how this commission would would see that we would see it as the nearest available location. Sarah.
[Sarah McDermod]: I'm showing an accessible space issued to a resident who's not this resident at 33 Martin Street back in 2015. That's all I have for accessible spaces on Martin Street.
[Alicia Hunt]: And that's pretty far down on Martin. So that would be the bar, the other end of the block. I just Google mapped it.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay. So I guess when we would yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me. Yes. We live close to Martin Street, face to face to Martin Street. Martin Street. That's where we live. We live here for a long, long time, since 1999. So we never have a problem to park there. So even at night, we see no car parking. I don't know why they don't give us a variance to park there. If even some visitors come in to see us, you know, we don't have, they don't, they can pack it.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yep. We understand.
[Todd Blake]: I'll throw a plug. If, if resident permits zoned, if additional zones ever come up, I would encourage this person and others to attend and be in support of the zones. So this will help the situation.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: So I guess I'd pass it on to the commissioners that are there for the motion. I know that their motion is for Martin street, but if I'm kind of catching what Alicia's commissioner hunt is saying. potentially adding it.
[Tim McGivern]: Do we have a person that lives in this house that has a handicapped placard, and the closest available place is Martin Street, but there's no crossing, there's no handicapped accessible crossing to get over to the other side of Winthrop Street? Yeah, that's my concern.
[SPEAKER_04]: I appreciate you bringing that up, Tim. I mean, basically, we'd be encouraging jaywalking right there, and the next crosswalk would be at Clark Street where they could park anyway.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I'd almost be, I mean, if the biggest concern parking on Clark Street is Winthrop Place, maybe there's a way to work with the owners of Winthrop Place to make it a better alleyway, function as an alleyway, actually, and not a rutted out mess. I think police need to get back there. You guys respond to those, you might need to respond to those garage buildings that are only accessed by Winthrop Place, fire department as well. The community uses the path as well, the alley.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, we've passed it on to fire and the board of health and they've gone out multiple times. We passed, I think Dennis McDonald went out there a couple of times and I think passed an ordinance through them. So there's not a whole lot that we can do if they're on a private property. It's more a fire. Health issue or building block.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, we just they have to they have to keep access to the buildings available So if it's all read it out in a truck or your vehicles can't get down and then it's not up to snuff Yeah, so we write letters of the DPW writes letters to private way owners asking them to make improvements Just to kind of put them on notice like we're not planning on improving it, but you guys should so I guess the question would be if they
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: The letters, if they don't improve it, is there what is what is the other options if they don't.
[Tim McGivern]: The city does does something on its own, but that would be have to be like a mayor or city council type action.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay, so there's no consequence if they don't replace the road.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I'm just trying to think for the benefit of the community that I'll get folks like this that. are in need of parking spaces and the changing aspect of the city where rights of ways will be used for different ways. People accessing, walking, riding, whatever, driving.
[SPEAKER_04]: Tim, who would contribute to that? Wouldn't you have to face that street?
[Tim McGivern]: We have an ordinance in Medford that basically allows the city to pay for half, I think, or contribute half the costs for a private way improvement.
[SPEAKER_04]: Right. So that can happen. Okay. I just don't see that any of the houses actually front that. Like it seems like most of the, two of the houses front Clark street.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah. Adjacent borders. It's not really the address. It's the border.
[Tim McGivern]: I say front the pure word frontage. They do front on a winter place. That's a writer. They have frontage on it. Okay. So it's their road, but you know, the public uses it and has a right to use it because it connects to public ways.
[Todd Blake]: I don't think anyone's mentioned this yet, but there is a two-car driveway. So there is a possibility, not a definite, of people that are more able-bodied to park further away and allow the person with the placard to use the driveway.
[Alicia Hunt]: And to be clear, I think I heard that each household, one has somebody with a placard and the other has somebody who's having physical difficulties. And so that my suggestion was that they also get a placard if they don't have one already.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I believe Natalina, if you want to, do you also have, does your mother have a placard or she needs to apply for one, if you want to clarify that?
[SPEAKER_14]: Yep. Um, no, she doesn't have a placard, so I assume she would have to apply for one.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay. Thank you. So I guess we kind of talked about a lot of options, so I guess I'll just ask if the commissioners want to put a motion for this, or if we have to rework the motion in whatever way, if it's Martin Street or Blackart or Clark from resident parking issue or ordinance.
[SPEAKER_07]: Or if there's another motion.
[Alicia Hunt]: I guess I'm not, I could be argued, but I'm not inclined to approve the permits for Martin street. It just doesn't feel like the right thing to do. It, it does. It is us saying we approve the jaywalking because if they were not jaywalking, they would be going down to Clark street or Winthrop or they'd be going to Clark street to cross. Right. It's it feels unsafe for people to be crossing that at night, although we all do it. I mean, it happens.
[Tim McGivern]: But as a crosswalk density right here, do we have a sufficient amount of crosswalks in Winthrop Street or should we have one at Martin Street?
[Jim Silva]: I think it Goldilocks is the next West Street.
[SPEAKER_14]: There's one right at the intersection of Summer Street and then one at George Street.
[Tim McGivern]: George Street is the one. Yeah. I mean, because I'm wondering, like, if you were to follow a accessible path from the handicap, a handicap spot, either on Martin street or Clark street, you are in this situation where we might have similar paths here or Clark street might even be closer without having a crosswalk. That wouldn't treat. So the way I see it is that, you know, if the city, I think we've put ourselves in this pickle and we've kind of put the residents in this pickle. I think I feel like I can't say yes to this either because of what we've done and the kind of the master plan that's in place. But I think we could make things a little bit easier. And I think it might have something to do with Winthrop Place, making that a little bit better to traverse.
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, that would have additional extra, like, benefits to other people as well being able. I mean, we've heard that other people go through that bad air that road.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. I also that's where I'm on that's where I'm at on this, because if we put up a handicap parking space on Martin, we're not sending someone across with the street was sending them, taking it right down with the street, going to the next nearest crosswalk, going across going on the sidewalk on the other side of the street and then heading down back down the street to get to their property. So. To me, it makes a lot more sense to have a handicapped parking space on Clark Street, which is unregulated parking. And then it could be right in the corner of Winthrop Place and Clark. And then the city, and I can't speak for the mayor or city council, but it might be a worthy candidate for doing a half and half thing to put a fresh layer of pavement down. It's just an alley, so it's basically a 10-foot wide piece of pavement. So it's really not that big of a deal. The city could just do it in-house. I can't put that on the table officially, but I think we could, as a traffic commission, recommend it because of the parking pickle that we've put ourselves in.
[Alicia Hunt]: And if it's more appropriate, I would be happy to motion that the traffic commission should recommend, if I understand correctly, to the mayor or to the city council
[Tim McGivern]: I think they're both involved. I'd have to look at the ordinance, but I think the proposal has to be by the mayor and the city council votes to approve it.
[Alicia Hunt]: To recommend to the mayor that the city repave, is that too strong of a word?
[Tim McGivern]: Improve, that is generally speaking.
[Alicia Hunt]: Improve Winthrop Place in the interest of public safety.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. Due to the, I don't know, I mean, due to the parking situation that we put ourselves in, I guess, because we've approved parking, a permit parking on Martin Street, we've sort of displaced unregulated parkers that live on a street that has no parking on it. I mean, everybody knows when the street has no room for parking at all.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Kim, did you say we could not put a crosswalk there?
[Tim McGivern]: We could put 1, we could also make that recommendation. That's just not something that can happen.
[Alicia Hunt]: You know, it would be a more expensive project that would involve outside contractors for sure.
[Tim McGivern]: Okay. And I'm not sure if it's warranted. I don't think Todd chimed in because we have 1 down at the bagel shop and then we have 1 down near Marshall street or George street.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, the spacing was between winter and George is about 750 feet and, you know, it's sort of. Somewhat normal for a road like that, I would say for ramps, you know, if we had enough money to do a lot more, we could consider that with crosswalks through this commission. But I would also say that there are many other potentially higher need areas that are. have needs as well. So as usual, it's even if you have the money weighing which one's next in line, how many people it's serving type of thing.
[Jim Silva]: I'd also like to mention this might be an opportunity also to look into zone parking. Specifically, we're creating environment where, as Todd alluded to, there are 27 spaces and potentially 34 passes, et cetera. So we're creating a bottleneck. This gives us an opportunity to add this as something we should review specifically based on the need here and others.
[Tim McGivern]: I mean, I'm not going to make the motion though, just so you guys know.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I guess the motion, I don't think we just can we table it till we can ask the mayor and city council, or is this something I think that the commission should make a formal motion to the mayor about it.
[Alicia Hunt]: Um, that it came from the whole group and it's not like just.
[Tim McGivern]: one person asking, um, but whether we should, we should disconnect it from this particular issue, but this particular issue is evidence that we should do something.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. Would that change our decision on this? these variances.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I'm not sure that I'm not sure that you can make a decision on these two motions until you understand what the mayor and city council is going to say, because if they deny it, then the decision that you all make tonight may be different than if they approved it.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, but I can't get to yes tonight, so I'm not gonna vote to approve this.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I think it might be easier to table it until, would an answer be able to be done by the next traffic commission meeting, I'm not sure.
[Tim McGivern]: I'm not sure we're gonna grant the variances onto Martin Street though, because the numbers don't work.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would rather, if the petitioners would be okay with it, would be to table their requests, and then us as a group make another motion to city council and the mayor's office to look into this and improving Winthrop Place. Because otherwise, I agree. I can't just approve a parking spot across the street that you're going to risk your life getting to. We can table theirs and then come up with a new motion as Alicia pointed out.
[Alicia Hunt]: Does that give them the impression we might approve it later?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I'm not sure that that gives an impression that it's going to be approved later. I just think that you'll have more information on whether or not you're. I mean, is the decision going to be different from the commissioner's if they don't approve any improvements on their place?
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I would think the minutes would support the idea of why we tabled it. It wasn't necessarily that we would approve it. I'll be clear, I can't support this on Martin Street, but I would love to help them get better access to a street that does have the parking that they need.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, so I string them along. I don't think we're ever going to get to yes on this because the numbers don't work unless it was a handicapped parking space. And I think we probably then, because we put ourselves in this pickle, need to come up with something to at least help mitigate the impacts. And that could be making some improvements to Winthrop Place. Or it could be putting a crosswalk right there across Winthrop Street with proper ramps. I think those are, but I think neither 1 of those solutions involves granting variances for permits on Martin street. Unfortunately.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I'm trying to illustrate here that regardless of what happens with winter place, there's a good condition sidewalk on winter to get to George, which is ultimately it looks longer, but it's only like 50 feet more than going winter place to Clark to get parking. So his 400 to George and here's. here's 400 to Clark or the first space 350. It's not actually that much different. Winthrop Street conditions are good sidewalks, if that helps any.
[Jim Silva]: Sorry, can I ask a question on the corner of George on that side of the street between Clark and Winthrop, isn't there some conditional parking as a bus stop that's specific to that as well on that first block of Clark?
[Todd Blake]: You may be right. So let's check. I mean, I'm just in relation. It's not like thousands of feet longer is what I'm trying to say, you know, but, um, but there's a bus stop immediately there, but I measure it to this block, I think. So this 1 is, um.
[SPEAKER_17]: Talking about a permit of 30 minutes.
[Todd Blake]: Oh, so the first block of George actually is permit. It's not part of the G zone. So yeah, it is a little longer, but thank you for that, Jim. Stan corrected. This side of the street, it might have that same stipulation. So apparently the first block of George is permit.
[Tim McGivern]: And that would actually be a more appropriate spot for a handicapped space because the condition of the sidewalk is better from there to the house then along with the place as it currently stands. So even that would help maybe.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I bet you that would probably be just as close as monastery as well.
[Tim McGivern]: That doesn't have to be 30 minute parking. I don't know why it is, but it could be a handicapped space.
[Jim Silva]: I think there was a legacy from, there used to be a store on the corner where the bus stop is, and that's no longer the case.
[Todd Blake]: Right. So. Yeah. So there is a bus stop on both sides of the first space on each side of that George. But then after that, yeah. It's closer than Martin. Yeah. Good call.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I guess we would pass it back to the residents if we made a variance or the commissioners if they made a variance for a handicapped placard to be replaced the 30 minute parking for a handicapped placard. And then if the other residents mom would like to apply for a handicapped placard could have another alternative there.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_14]: Hi, sorry. I'm going to speak. I don't know if he's going to speak yet, but I can see if my mom would like to do that. But I feel like one of the, like another main concern is that if Clark street does eventually get packed, let's say in a few years, if they start wanting to permit that too, are we just going to keep having to move further and further away?
[Alicia Hunt]: And this is where we as a traffic commission would rather see a zone. And if there was a zone created, then as Winthrop street residents, you would be eligible to get permit parking in that zone. Okay. So if you're at all familiar with the G zone, so it's a little bit closer to the green line. That was the first zone ever in the city of Medford. And at that time, we actually tried to pass two zones, the G zone close to the spots, to the T stops, and another zone that would have incorporated your area that's around that area for permit parking as well. Only more residents showed up saying, we don't want permit parking on our street. We don't want zoned parking. in those areas and so that portion didn't get passed. And so now we're seeing the results of not having put in zone parking there. And so partially I'm trying to raise your awareness because this issue isn't going away and exactly what you're predicting, what we're hoping is that people like you would come and show up and say, actually we'd like a zone, not just street by street parking.
[Tim McGivern]: I think we can try to remember too. And maybe if we can put a note somehow on Clark street. So when it does come up, we should be aware of that. Cause we need to advocate too, as a commission for the zone parking. And I think ultimately we get to vote on it. It just needs to be engineered and presented. Yeah.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay. We definitely talked about a lot of options, so I guess, sit back to the commissioners if they have.
[Tim McGivern]: I'm going to move to deny the proposal. And then I want to then make a separate motion for a recommendation. But I also kind of want one of my fellow commissioners to step in on that recommendation, just because I'm with the DPW and I've laid out some options that I think are practical. But let my colleagues pick it. But my first motion is to deny the motion, unfortunately. That's the position we're in.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Okay. Both motions 61 and 62. Yeah.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: So just to clarify both motions, you'll be denying 61.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. The same address, right? Same requests. Yep.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: If I can package them together, that would be, or we can. Yep. Okay.
[Tim McGivern]: It's nothing personal.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: There's a denial motion by commissioner McKibbin, seconded by. Second. Commissioner Brzezinski. Roll call alpha.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McKibbin.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt. Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Silva.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Lieutenant Canaba.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes. So to the residents, the motion has been denied and we will make another motion that Commissioner McKibbin was speaking of that may alleviate some of the issues for your parking meter.
[SPEAKER_04]: Once again, yeah. I'm happy to make the motion if you could just help me with the language. What are you actually, what are we looking for?
[Tim McGivern]: I think it's what we want to do if we want to present a palette of options. I think we can say things like, you know, the parking demand on Clark Street is increasing. Therefore, when their place is becoming more important as an alleyway, and please improve it, it could be proactively putting a handicapped spot on George Street where that 30-minute parking space is, because we know that this person has a handicapped placard, and that may be helpful to them. What would need to go to the mayor's office?
[SPEAKER_04]: It'd be Winthrop Place, right? Winthrop Place is spending money on Winthrop Place, yeah. The other thing we could do just by, I mean, if this homeowner came back and petitioned for a handicap spot on George, would we accept that given the proximity issue?
[Tim McGivern]: Or we, I mean, that's how it works. I mean, if you look at this and you say, okay, what's the closest parking space that's available to this property for an accessible space? And it looks like to me, it would be George street. And that's just the way it is now, but we could also say. can have engineering look at putting a crosswalk at the intersection of Martin Street and Winthrop Street. But like Todd said, that just goes in a queue for every other request that we have and wouldn't necessarily rise to the top because from a city perspective, we want to have the right density of crosswalks and we're not looking to individually put crosswalks in to benefit certain individual pathways. We're looking at it as a connectivity map.
[SPEAKER_04]: So if he made a motion, like who would put the presentation together to talk to the mayor's office or city council about it? I don't wanna, that, you know, if I made the motion, I wouldn't prepare the proposal. So would that be your office, Todd's office?
[Tim McGivern]: Okay. Yeah, exactly. I guess my point is, is what, you know, what does this commission feel like is appropriate for this particular, you know, day, this situation that we're presented as a piece of evidence to say, okay, well, What do we do here? I would recommend the idea if the resident is open to it today, proactively voting on approving a handicapped spot on George Street, if that seems helpful to them. And then also ask the engineering division to look at the recommendation for connectivity using Winthrop Place and potentially an additional crosswalk on Winthrop Street.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it'd be a motion for public works or transportation to work with the city on coming up with a solution to better improve Winthrop Place to provide access for Winthrop Street residents to Clark Street. Yeah. All right. Alva, did you get that?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yes, I think so.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would make that motion. I think it's worthwhile if we have a street like that, or an avenue like that, or an alley like that, to not have use of it as not in the best interest of everybody.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I'm with you. It seems like it's just a connectivity thing. You look at Clark Street and where it is, and it's kind of got this weird curve. It's not really connected to Withram Court. So it's weird. It's almost like they didn't finish this chunk of the city.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I also like the idea of a handicap placard on George Street. I think a lot of the residents on George Street would benefit from that area, and I don't think a 30-minute parking sign is beneficial for anybody on George Street. I feel that that would be a great area and spot for that as well.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I think at one time when that 30-minute
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: a candy store or something like that. Yes, and it was a real estate building as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think I'd be okay with that. I'd like to make that as a separate motion though. I just don't, I'd like to submit to the mayor's office and city council exactly what we would like for them to look at. And I don't necessarily think approval of a handicap spot on George is something they would need to look at. Yep, I agree. Okay, so I would make the first complicated motion Then I'd make a 2nd motion on the handicap spot.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay, I'll just have read it and if that's good, we'll make the motion. for what you have?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: It's not gonna be worded exactly right, but the increase in parking demand to review Wentworth Place for improvements for connectivity to Clark Street. The handicapped spot on George Street, replacing a 30 minute parking space that's presently posted. Have engineering look at the possibility of a crosswalk on Martin at Winthrop Street.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would like to just break those up. Whatever needs to go to city council and the mayor's office, just include that, which I think would just be the Winthrop place. Todd, do we need something to trigger your group to look at the potential for a crosswalk? I mean, that's like, I feel like sending something complicated to the mayor's office or the city council might bog this down.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I think you said that, that, that keeping it simple, like each thing segregated. So like, I think Tim's suggestion was the only thing to the mayor and the city council is to spend public money on a private way, like up to half, you know, that's, that's the focus. Everything else should be separate. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we could just clean that up to just be the first part to potentially. Spend city resources and time to improve went through a place to provide connectivity to Clark street from 1 through. Yes, correct. Yes, so that would that would be my motion.
[Todd Blake]: I would suggest the word safety be included in there somewhere to improve safety and connectivity.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay, I think we have that first motion by Commissioner Brzezinski. If we have a second for that. I'll second it. Commissioner Silva, roll call Alba for the.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt. Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski. Yes. Commissioner Silva.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Lieutenant Canava.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes. Okay. So I think we've passed that motion.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I'd like to make a second motion to provide for a handicapped spot near the intersection of George Street at Winthrop. Should be location to be replaced. What do we usually give it to? Do we give it to Todd's office to determine location or Tim's office?
[Tim McGivern]: North side, do you want to rescind the 30-minute space and put it on the north side of George Street?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes. So a motion to put a handicapped spot on the north side of George Street location to be determined by public works?
[Todd Blake]: I would say it's the first available after the bus stop. I can give you a dimension if you want it. Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Whatever gives you leeway to put it in the best spot.
[Alicia Hunt]: It looks like it'll just go in front of somebody's house that's there.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, it looks like about north side of George, about 73 feet east of Winthrop, which, as Alicia pointed out, is in front of number 175. Shouldn't they be notified?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I mean, there's 30 minute park there, so we're not there. Where was that 30 minute spot? 30 minute spot where Todd said is 73 feet east of Winthrop Street, in front of 175 George. I think that motion was, are we good with that motion? Commissioner Brzezinski, anybody second that motion? Seconded by Commissioner McGiven.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Silva? Yes. Lieutenant Canava?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes, second motion is passed as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then the last motion would be for Todd's group to visit the intersection of Martin at Winthrop to consider the implementation of a crosswalk. Is that right?
[Tim McGivern]: Yep. That's correct.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay. Second. I'll second. Seconded by Commissioner Silva. Roll call when you're ready, Ella.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Silva?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Lieutenant Canava?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes. And it seems all these have passed. Commissioners, thank you for working through that and for the residents. Hopefully the solution helps in the future.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, click in there.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: So I think we're going to go back to 2025-60 Handicap Sign. I believe Caitlin, are you speaking on behalf of the resident here at 71 Central Ave? I'm going to ask you on mute if you are.
[Angela Murphy]: Hi. No, I am not.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: OK. All right. Is there a Catherine? Not a Catherine here.
[Jim Silva]: She said she could hear us, but we can't hear her.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: The Catherine or John, if you guys are able to hear us, if you can type into the chat and or hit star six, nine, it should be able to make you raise your hand so that we can see.
[Alicia Hunt]: I think it's just star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute and or type into the chat. Once again, star nine to raise your hand, star six to unmute.
[SPEAKER_07]: Nothing in the chat, no.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: We will move on from this. If something changes, we can come back to it. We have other items to move forward to. So we'll move on to the parking variance. I see Daniel here for 612 Main Street, 2025-63. I will ask you to unmute.
[SPEAKER_03]: Good afternoon, commissioners. Good afternoon. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me and thanks for the opportunity to speak. I'm here to respectfully request a variance parking permit for Henry Street, adjacent to my new residence on 612 Main. Reason being, while Main Street itself does not require a permit, I've encountered some challenges with evening parking availability. This is compounded by nightly street cleaning restrictions. which also further limits the parking and give Henry Street's proximity to the residents. I would appreciate the freedom to also park there.
[Alicia Hunt]: First question is about parking driveway. Why are you not parking on the property?
[SPEAKER_03]: There is outdoor space in the back. that could be used for parking. But yeah, we would have to give up outdoor space. That's one thing. The other is there's the two of us. We need soon a second car. And there's only one parking spot per residence. So it's three residences, three apartments, and one parking spot for each.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Pulling it up on Google Maps right now. So everyone is able to see. Because I'll just share it right now. You guys all able to see that? Is this your residence, Daniel?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, that's the one. Used to be commercial space and they just flipped it. So right here? Yes, yeah, the store.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is your parking lot?
[SPEAKER_03]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is sidewalk.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not allowed to park there. No, in this alleyway here is this that's the driveway that leads to the parking in the back where we have one spot for each residence.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: How many spots are back there? 3.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, when we look from above, it's a hardscaped backyard that looks like if it was commercial, was used for parking, but you're saying you're trying to use this open space now?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, ideally, we can use it for outdoor space. And once we have a second car, then we would definitely need the variance.
[Todd Blake]: Would it, excuse me, I missed it. What is the variance for? Cause for Henry street, main streets, unregulated right off front, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[Todd Blake]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: The challenges there in the evenings, um, past, let's say 8 PM, it's almost impossible to find the parking spot in close proximity. And then on Tuesdays, I think from 12 AM to 5 AM, there's street cleaning and it will have to move the car.
[Todd Blake]: So you being the resident of Main Street, one option is you could petition for resident permit on Main Street. And then that night situation may change.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[Todd Blake]: I didn't know that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. It's the idea, though, what Todd means is to petition is that you would get more than half the residents on Main Street to sign a petition saying we want nighttime permit parking. I think that I'm not clear that in a look, is this how commercial is this part of Main Street? If we would do daytime permit parking on a commercial street. I'm trying to see how far down.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, we should be residential this area. That's a good point, Alicia, that there are options for that. Like, I think just like the block over on Medford Street, where they were, you know, the dental office, there was, you know, something like either two or three hour, except by permit type thing for the daytime to be sensitive.
[Jim Silva]: I will mention also, I think in this area, he's one house from the Somerville line. At night, the people in Somerville who are not participating in the resident parking program are parking on Main Street, creating a bottleneck there. Both Street is G Zone, which is across the street behind the building to the left from where we're looking currently. So it is creating a problem at night. You see that it's problematic with the parking, the summables spill over.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I want to mention that the situation on Henry Street is usually good. So there's always something free day and night on Henry Street, in my opinion. I live on Edward Street right now, so I pass through there all the time.
[Sarah McDermod]: Yeah, just like with I'm sorry, Todd, just like with Martin, I checked the number of permits on Henry street and Henry street, I think has both side parking and is significantly more parking spaces than Martin. And they've got a sixty two between visitor and resident on Henry street.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, so I was just going to mention that this is why each street, Henry, whatever other street goes for permanent parking, because they're trying to displace some of the overflow from Maine or Somerville or whatever. So it's just a domino effect. So, yeah, I think the Main Street, given Somerville, as Jim said, is people that don't have permits are going over here. That might be one of the potential course of action. And possibly the commission, if it's up to them, if they'd consider instead of the whole length of Main Street, just maybe several blocks stretch even.
[Alicia Hunt]: And this really plays into, I think we need to have a couple of different zones. The original proposal had been to do one larger zone outside of the G zone, but like this end of South Medford should have a zone. And then that other area that we were just discussing should have a zone. Clearly, they don't need to be part of the same zone that confuses people.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, there was a study out of the planning office that had a draft of that as well. Something similar that had maybe four zones throughout some South Medford hillside. Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: We should be. thinking about whether we want to resurface that and bring it back up. That said, what are we doing about this one? Because I do notice, I actually do have that map in front of me that shows all the various permit streets. And there are a lot of permit streets in this area. I'm sure it is dealing with the Somerville overflow. The only unregulated street around here is Dexter, and that's a long block up. I don't have any good solution for this resident other than their request to get a permit. And the difference here, though, is that they actually do have allowed parking in front of their house. It's just they can't even get at it because other people beat them to it. As opposed to if there was no, I mean, to be clear, to parallel this to what we were talking about just before, if there was no parking on Main Street, the logical solution would be to give them a permit on Henry. That would be, but in this case, there is parking on Main Street. That's why this is different from the previous situation.
[Tim McGivern]: Can we get the idea corroborated from our police force, maybe, the idea that Somerville folks are parking on this section of Main Street? Because then, I mean, this guy's fighting them for a parking space on Main Street, and he's a resident of Medford. He doesn't need to cross any streets. Henry Street has capacity. This is what I'm hearing.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Right.
[Tim McGivern]: But I don't know. Traffic Sergeant, are you guys familiar with this effect with Somerville?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, we, I just tried to look up how many citations we have for this and this area. There's a decent amount of spillover kind of like commissioner silver set up.
[SPEAKER_07]: Great.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, so it's a different set of reasons and Henry street has some capacity. So, I mean, I'd be okay with this, but I also, you know, it comes with an apprehension, um, to, you know, again, to move towards zone quicker sooner rather than later, as quick as we can.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Well, I guess, would you, would that be a motion to approve?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I motion to approve it. Sure. How many is he asking for before we go forward? Oh, yeah. I was thinking on here.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Daniel, that's correct.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm interested. Could you repeat the question? Apologies. You're just asking for one vehicle. One vehicle. Yeah. Once we have a second one that can park in the back.
[Tim McGivern]: I'll second. Jim's second. Okay, good.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Roll call, Alba. Commissioner McGiven?
[Tim McGivern]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt. Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Silva.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Lieutenant Canava.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes. Motion passed. Um, thank you. Daniel, just, just give us some time and then you'll be able to go down to, uh, proof that parents.
[SPEAKER_03]: Perfect. So you'll send them a note and then I can, you can, uh,
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Sarah, who's runs that department and is on this mission as well. So in this meeting, so she'll just, Sarah, I don't know how much time you need for it, but.
[Sarah McDermod]: No, no. I mean, I know he's granted the variance. I'll put it on the variance list. So even if I'm not in the office, the parking clerks will be able to help you out, Daniel. They'll see your variances approved on our list of variances. So you can stop by City Hall. That is one, unfortunately, that you would have to stop by City Hall to obtain. But that's really the only hindrance at this point. So whenever you want to stop by.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, everyone.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Thank you. Moving on to 2025-64, request to address permit parking issues on Porter Road from David Palermo, 12 Porter Road. David, if you are here, you can raise your hand or enter in the chat or it's star six to unmute and star nine to raise your hand. David for Porter, or if you're under another name, please let us know.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: If no phone number on his request.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: One last time here, David. Sorry Palermo for 12 Porter Road. You're here, raise your hand or type in the chat if not, and you're calling from a audio number. Star six, I believe, is to unmute yourself. Star nine is to raise your hand.
[Jim Silva]: Is this, excuse me, is this for resident parking on Porter because it is already a resident parking street?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: The motion is request to address permit parking issues.
[Jim Silva]: Thank you.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: This issue was the issue with permit parking variances to the apartments, Bradley Road apartments for Porter Road.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I would just let me know that the issue was that you're bringing forward was that the variances that were granted for Bradley Road for Porter Road are causing an issue, I believe. I don't really think the commission can really make a request on this. move on from this one. If he is to come back before the end of the meeting, then we'd hear it, but I don't think that we can really make a motion or anything like that without hearing what his complaints are. So let's move on to 2025-65. One second.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a quick question for Todd. It sounds like 65 may be a little contentious. It seems like that was the majority of the people who are here. Is Todd's a little quicker so we can get that out of the way and then leave the rest of the meeting to 65, or am I the only one thinking that? I think so. I'd motion to move 66 up just because it seems like a simple just approval, and that way we can leave the rest of the meeting to 65. If no one supports that though, I'm fine as is. I second that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Only as long as it's quick, I'm paying Brandon to be here through this whole meeting.
[SPEAKER_04]: If it gets contentious, we'll shut it down.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, we don't need a roll call for that. We're just going to move 2025-66 up in front of 65. So Todd, you have the floor, crosswalk, daylighting, Placetet Road at Irving Street, all yours.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, so this is it right here in the street view. So it's the crosswalk that leads from the neighborhood to the communal station. There's no parking after it, but before it, this commuter parking all the way up to the crosswalk. So we just want a daylight like we've been doing elsewhere. Um, in this case, I was recommended 30 feet in front of this crosswalk so that someone exiting the train station isn't blocked when they're trying to cross street by the park car.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: If I could speak on this, we had a detail over here for at least a month for McCourt and multiple occasions somebody was crossing this area with a car parked up on against the crosswalk, nearly making it impossible to see the pedestrian trying to cross. So I would highly make a high recommendation for approval on this as it was near impossible with this area with construction and the amount of foot traffic that comes out of this area. Somebody has to almost come 10 feet outside and really be cautious of the surroundings. If they're not from the area, it's near impossible to car park there to make a really safe crosswalk crossing stuff that helps start.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's the only the only question I have. I know with the crosswalks on high street. In front of governors, can you sometimes when the commercial vehicles park in those spots, it's still almost impossible to see the people is I mean, what's the largest you can make these.
[Todd Blake]: It's a good question. 20 feet up, we've been operating as the minimum. That's one car space typically. In some cases, it does warrant more. I was recommending 30. I thought 30 would be enough here, but you could go As much as 50 100, in some cases, but 20, just to be, as we just heard with other items, we're trying to balance the needs of on street parking too. So, usually I'd start with the minimum or in less in this case, I recommend it more, but. But yeah, once we have it situated and we have it painted and possibly even cones, then we could take it from there. But yeah, you're right, Steve. Sometimes that first car in this image, that the one that's still there, if it's a big vehicle, could still present a problem. But we're trying to, again, balance the number of on-street spaces with all the need there is, right? So that's why we're trying to do this safety improvement. But then because of that, I just came up with the 30 I thought would be sufficient.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I would support that. Because still, like I said, if the vehicle is tall, you still can't see him to the last minute, unfortunately. I would support a motion just for the 30-foot buffer there.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: I'll second. Great. Second will be roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Brzezinski?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Silva?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Lieutenant Canava?
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Yes. And this motion passes. And now we're going back to 2025-65 proposed on EV charging stations. Brandon Pike, Office of Planning and Development. The floor is yours. You can unmute yourself as well.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay. And I can share my screen as well. So you can see the map of where we are talking about. Um, so the city has received a state grant to install on street electric vehicle chargers, um, at various locations around the city. Um, we did some outreach, um, including, um, a survey and, um, that we distributed online and in person at some events to pin down exactly where in the city we might want to do this. And that's how we narrowed into these five locations. So it's Cape and Park, Cummings Park, Berry Park, Magoon Park, and Morrison Park. And the park thinking is so that they wouldn't be located directly in front of somebody's house. that there would potentially be more room there. When we install these chargers to make the two parking spaces adjacent to the charger, EV only while charging.
[SPEAKER_04]: Is there a cap on how long you can be there?
[Brenda Pike]: So with the current EV chargers in city parking lots right now, there is not a cap on how long that you can be there. What we have done is the pricing for charging includes an extra charge if you're there for longer than four hours. So the pricing is sort of doing that job
[SPEAKER_04]: So if you park there 24 hours with the charger in your vehicle, do you have an idea what the charge would be? What the cost would be? I mean, is the extra charging trying to prohibit you from being there? Or is it affordable for me just to use this spot 24 hours a day just by plugging my vehicle in?
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, so if you're not charging, if you've already completed charging, so you're no longer charging, then you are You can be fined $50 according to the current rules for EV chargers.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Brenda, is the rate $1 an hour?
[Brenda Pike]: The additional amount is $1 an hour after four hours.
[Alicia Hunt]: $1 an hour whether you're charging or not. Yep. Great. Sorry. I know I was part of approving that, but I didn't remember. So in theory, if you plugged your car in for 24 hours, you would get charged a minimum of $24 or no, $20, but you would get charged. So, so everybody is clear. It's the public is clear while you're plugged in, you get charged for the electricity. Like there's a charge for the rate you're getting. Your car is charging.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes. And that's 35 cents per kilowatt hour. And that $1 per hour after four hours is additional to that.
[Alicia Hunt]: So something that I might add, I know, I think that most of the members of the commission are familiar with this, but just as a general, just sort of for the record, there are different kinds of car charging and this is a level two charging. So it's not what one would consider destination. As you can see from those green markers, the city already owns a lot of these around the city. And there are private ones as well in a few places in this area and in Medford. Um, so this is not something that would be considered a destination. Um, if you're looking for a charger of this speed, obviously, and you live in West Medford, you're not going to go down to Cape and park. You're going to go over to the West Medford parking lot or the Brooks school, right? Um, there's high speed charging, high speed charging. Um, you can find right now in Medford at BJ's in the Wellington center Plaza, or you can go down to Somerville to assembly row, um, or you can go over to Arlington. So that's where somebody could charge their car in 20 minutes and get a couple of hundred miles on it. That is something that people put in their GPS and they search for those. And they, where, where can I find that within 15 or 20 minutes of my, of where I am? This is a neighborhood, this is intended to be a neighborhood situation.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. For these level two chargers, the average, On average, people spend three to four hours charging at them. So it tends to be places where they're already going to be like at home or at work. It's not as appropriate for a commercial location. So that's why we think that these would be more likely to be used by residents of these neighborhoods who are probably going to use them more overnight or on weekends.
[Tim McGivern]: Can we see the actual spots? And are these head-in spaces, or are we doing parallel spaces?
[Brenda Pike]: So these are all parallel spaces. Let me zoom in on Morrison Park first.
[SPEAKER_07]: Just to read from the chat, Caitlin said, can you share which streets they would be located on? So I think that's kind of a question we're getting kind of.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I'm drilling down on the spots themselves.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, so can you see the Morrison Park location here? Yep.
[Todd Blake]: Okay. Yeah, and just for the commission, I did assist Brenda, and we scoped it out with the vendor, each one of these locations. And as everyone knows, there's pros and cons with different locations, and these seem to rise to the top with the survey and the logistical capabilities. Perfect.
[Tim McGivern]: And so, like, for this particular spot, you put the tower in between 2 parking spaces.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, exactly. So they'd be parking. They'd be parallel parked there and the charger would be between the 2 of them.
[Tim McGivern]: Got it. In the furniture zone of the sidewalk.
[Todd Blake]: So Tim, I'm working with DPW to stripe a line where the walkway would be next to the fence, in general, to keep cars away from parking right up to the fence. This is one of those locations where there's no sidewalk along that park. So we're going to stripe a double white line. To indicate a walkway, so that white man would be maybe pushed out 1 foot or so to accommodate the walkway and that's that's separate from this, but it would help. You know, define where the would go sure.
[Brenda Pike]: Should I move on to the next park? So you can see that street too.
[Tim McGivern]: Sure. Who actually ends up owning the device or the facility, Brenda?
[Brenda Pike]: We would.
[Tim McGivern]: We would?
[Brenda Pike]: OK. Yep. So this is Pembroke Street next to Magoon Park. And it would be right here.
[Tim McGivern]: And would your office manage the ownership of the devices?
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, in the same way that we do for the existing city-owned chargers. And we have an EV charging revolving fund set up so that the fees, the charges that people pay to charge at the stations goes into a fund to maintain the stations.
[Tim McGivern]: Yep, wonderful. Cool. Those are really all my questions.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, I'll move on to the next part.
[Tim McGivern]: I know you've been working with Todd, and we got some good layouts.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep. So with Berry Park, this would be on College Ave. And as Todd mentioned, our considerations included technical considerations. And so we would have preferred to have this installed on Gurley over here. But that has single-phase power as does the street out here. So college was really the best option because that does have three-phase power. And then Cummings Park. It would be on Lyman Street on the side of the road next to the park. And then Capon would be directly in front of the park on Capon Street. And that's the five of them.
[Alicia Hunt]: Of all of these, I was just noticing Capen Street actually has permit parking, but I assume that we usually, when we have permit parking, the area in front of a park is not permit parking. I just kind of wanted to flag that. I don't have the others. Cummings is not permit parking over there. I would assume the others are not.
[Tim McGivern]: But do the existing stations see a good amount of traffic? What kind of traffic do they see?
[Brenda Pike]: They do. It depends on where they're located. So there are some places like City Hall and the library that are almost constantly in use. But then there are other stations that see 30% to 50% usage.
[Tim McGivern]: Do we have any projections for these?
[Brenda Pike]: We don't, because we don't have a way to know exactly how many people with electric vehicles currently live in the neighborhood or would purchase electric vehicles if they had chargers nearby. In the survey that we did, something like 32% of the respondents said that they didn't have electric vehicles, but they would get one if they had a charger nearby.
[Tim McGivern]: Oh, OK. It's promising.
[Todd Blake]: Brenda, I just answered someone in the chat. But if you confirm, it's saying, how many charging spots per location would be added? I said two.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, that would be two at each location.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: We have a couple hands up. Brenda, if you're OK, if we have Opened it up to the public and they can ask some questions and answer them. Great. If you're not.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, absolutely.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Christine, you have your hand raised. I'm going to ask you on mute.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hi, so I'm a resident at Cape and street. I actually live directly across from Cape and park. And one of the items we constantly struggle with is speeding and cars racing down to the end. So the end of Cape and Park where the EV chargers would be, and inherently I'm not against EV chargers whatsoever, it's a dead end street. So there's six houses in the park from Hamilton, I'm sorry, Harold, to the end of the street. And as people use GPS, they're constantly getting directed to go to the end of the street and they can't cut through to Route 16. So a concern for us is the safety of the children and the playground. So we have added a second dead end street sign on either side now. So when you cross over onto that last section of Capen street, there's two dead end signs. So it most certainly has slowed down the traffic, but one of our concerns and one of the neighborhood concerns is, and I know you said to your point, you're not exactly sure what the traffic is gonna look like when these EV chargers get installed, but increasing traffic in that portion of the street, Um, because if they do anything like Googling, like, they do right now for directions, the traffic is horrendous and the speed that they go down those streets. They turn around at the very end our neighbor at the very end constantly they're turning around in his driveway. And they're coming back up. So that's our first concern is like, what does the traffic look like? If perhaps it does get put there. And then the second piece, I know Alicia just mentioned this is that it is permit parking. So another piece that we constantly struggle with is when people are at Cape and park, they're parking on the side of the street that is permit parking. So now if you take additional spaces away, they're going to continue to park on the permitted side. And we have difficulty finding parking spaces nearby without having to walk pretty far down the street.
[Alicia Hunt]: Todd and Tim, isn't there something that we can do about the maps, the GPS, that think that this is a cut through? I'm stunned that they haven't autocorrected themselves.
[SPEAKER_13]: So one of our, sorry, I don't mean to interrupt. One of our neighbors has reached out to, um, many different platforms and they continually still send people that way. So in a credit and a thank you to Medford for putting a second sign up that says dead end, because when it was on one side of the road, they weren't seeing it. Now that the dead end signs are on both sides of the street, at least it is backing some traffic. you know, down, but what they're doing is they're stopping short and they're immediately taking the turn so that they don't go fully down the street. But again, we, and we don't have any little ones in our house, but we are constantly seeing kids, you know, crossing the street, going to the park, there's afterschool programs, there's all sorts of stuff at the park. And just the thought of additional traffic coming down the street and for good purposes, don't get me wrong. Um, but the thought of just additional traffic coming down the street is, is somewhat disheartening, to put it any other way.
[Brenda Pike]: And I would add, we did receive four comments specifically about this park. Two of them were supportive of it. And one person had said that there was usually plenty of open parking. And then two were not supportive of it. And one of them was the person at the end of the dead end street who said that people tend to turn around in his driveway.
[SPEAKER_13]: Oh, it's constant. Within an hour, you could get 15 cars turning around. And to your point, right where that marker is, where it shows where it is, that's actually my car right there, sitting right in front of where that marker is. Because earlier in the day, there was no parking. So I park on that side if I can't get parking across from my street, my house.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, this is Todd Blake. Hey, I'm glad the dead ends are helping a little bit, but it doesn't seem like the extra sign's doing more than that, but at least it's something. Yeah, if this street were designed today, it wouldn't be designed as a dead end like that. It would have either a cul-de-sac or at the very least a hammerhead to be able to turn around. So this is what ends up happening when it wasn't designed properly. It doesn't just exist in Medford. It exists in other cities, unfortunately, too. So I do feel for the person at the end, each house at the end, that the driveways are used as hammerheads to turn around. So we could continue to try to work with the community to improve the situation as best we can. But I don't know how that factors into the current proposal or not. But we definitely hear your concerns about that. And we'll continue to try. Maybe we'll try larger signs or something like that. We'll definitely try.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: Sorry. We could use one of those message boards over there, maybe midway up. They're a lot larger and kind of definitely should alleviate some of the issues, not make it perfect, but... Put it by Harris Road, maybe? Yeah, we could put it by Harris Road, if you think that, Christine, if you think that would be a good location. These message boards are pretty large. I don't think... Very, very unnoticeable. Sorry, very noticeable that the drivers should hopefully get the hint.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, and again, I totally appreciate that you don't know how much this is going to bring in people that come to the street. But just the idea of more traffic on the street is of concern.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you.
[MCM00001829_SPEAKER_08]: OK, if we could just see if there's anybody else that has a comment. I thought the 391 was at 5. or all of this, I'm just going to ask them to unmute. 37813674961, are you here for this 2025-65 EV charting station? Yes, this is 3674961. I am talking about Cummings Park.
[Angela Murphy]: And I am not opposed to having EV stations. However, I think having them on Lima Nav, as you've been talking about, there's very limited parking in the neighborhood, especially in this hillside neighborhood and the streets surrounding it. I live on Cotting Street. And to specifically put two parking spaces for an EV vehicle to use. When I'm sure you didn't come to this neighborhood and find out how many people had EV cars, it will take away valuable parking. It's so congested that if I have more than three people come over and each one takes a car to come to my house for some gathering, they have to park down at Whole Foods because there's no parking at all. My neighbor has six cars on her second floor. and three on the bottom. I have four cars myself already. To specifically make these spaces for EV cars to use when the majority of cars on the road in this neighborhood are gas or maybe hybrid. I mean, if you were to put them an alternative within a couple of blocks away is Whole Foods are at the, the part of Auburn Street that has no cars that you can put them there. I mean, that would be convenient because then it's near a place, a business. They could be short-term charges. They don't need to be long-term. Then another concern is that in the wintertime, we had odd and even parking on the streets. If they're on the odd side, and then it's the even side to park on, who's going to shovel them? Does that make sense? It doesn't make sense. Plus, there's only one side parking on Conning Street, which makes it difficult. It's been that way for 69 years I've lived here. Like I said, I don't think it's feasible.