[SPEAKER_08]: All right, everybody, my name's Lieutenant Canava. I'm here with Sergeant Covino, Sergeant Rogers, Chief Covino, and Commissioner, sorry, Chief Secretary is Alva Erickson, along with Commissioners, Commissioner Hunt, Commissioner McGiven, Commissioner Silva, and Commissioner Brzezinski is here. absent and I believe Brenda Pike and Sarah McDermott are here as well from the city and Todd Blake, so we just want to introduce them and introduce everybody here. That will be starting with the Traffic Commission meeting on Tuesday, the 14th at 5.08 PM. Roll call, Alba, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Todd Blake]: Here.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Here. Commissioner Silva?
[Todd Blake]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Brzezinski, absent. Chief Covino?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes. vote with the commissioner present, the roll call has been added. And if somebody would make a motion here to approve September's minutes, they are not on the traffic agenda. That's our apologies. Um, but the minutes were from, uh, September 9th, I believe is the commission minutes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Motion to approve.
[SPEAKER_08]: Motion approved, seconded by Chief Covino. Roll call, Alva.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_08]: Chief Covino? And we're not done with one absent, the minutes have been approved for September 9th. And moving forward, I believe you have some new business that we'd like to- I'd like to, Chief, may I take an item out of order?
[Paul Covino]: Sure, yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: Could we take item 2025-65 proposed on street EV charging stations from Brenda Pike so that Brenda can then have the rest of her evening back?
[Paul Covino]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you. Okay. Motion and seconded by... I'll second. Seconded by Chief Covino. Roll call, Alba.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Covino? Yes.
[SPEAKER_08]: And the motion passed for what happened to move, is it 20-65? 20-65. To the first item for new business. So Commissioner Hunt, are you speaking on it or?
[Alicia Hunt]: I know Brenda Pike from my office is here. She's been managing all the electric vehicle charging stations and she'll be speaking to this item.
[SPEAKER_08]: I made Brenda, I made you a call so you can kind of share whatever you need and uh, whatever else you have.
[Brenda Pike]: Wonderful. So I'm just sharing the map of the location that we'll be talking about here. Let me know if you can see that. Great. Um, so at the last traffic commission meeting, there was some negative feedback at the, um, Cummings Park and Capon Park locations that we'd proposed for the on-street electric vehicle charging stations. So Todd and I went back to the consultants that we were working with and looked at a few other possibilities for locations. And what seemed like the best option was this location near 200 Boston Ave. And so we're taking the 2 charging stations that would have been at those 2 separate locations and having 2 chart to charging stations at this 1 location instead. So they would be between the crosswalk to the start at the driveway here. And I can actually actually, let me share another screen. So you can see the actual locations of the charging stations. Um, in between the trees there. Okay, so this shows, um, the 2 charging stations that are an orange here, um, in between the, the trees that are in green. And then it shows the locations of the existing telephone poles in blue, and then the electrical cabinet that would go next to one of those telephone poles across the driveway from the location of the charging stations.
[SPEAKER_18]: So it would be four parking spaces here with these two charging stations.
[Alicia Hunt]: So these are kind of this close. So the idea of this grant, again, is to serve neighborhoods where people don't necessarily have their own driveways or access to driveways to neighborhoods that are lower income.
[Brenda Pike]: Or that have smaller multifamily buildings where people are more likely to be having to park on the street. Great.
[Alicia Hunt]: And so this is an area that's directly in front of a parking garage that is privately owned for a private building. And do you know if they were able to do some outreach on this? Did you put out some flyers at this location?
[Brenda Pike]: Yes. So we posted signs at the locations where the actual chargers would be and then distributed flyers nearby butters, not direct to butters necessarily, but to everyone who is along those couple of blocks there on that street. And then a robocall went out to the larger neighborhood.
[Tim McGivern]: What are the green diamonds in the diagram?
[Brenda Pike]: Those are the trees that are there, so part of what we're looking at here was just trying to make sure that we were positioning the charging stations in such a way that it wouldn't damage the roots of the trees.
[Tim McGivern]: And did you guys do some measurement out in the field as far as where these things actually will sit?
[Brenda Pike]: In terms of one of the things that we were looking at was making sure that there would be enough room on the sidewalk that it would be a compliant.
[Tim McGivern]: Clearances all out of those yellow things bollards.
[Brenda Pike]: There's they're not intended to be bollards at that location is my understanding because of the curve.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, where are those yellow dots?
[Alicia Hunt]: Charging stations. Oh, you mean the 2 yellow dots next to each.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, well, next to each 1 that just might be a holdover from another proposal that they had put together that had. Bollards there, but we're not intending to have bollards. There's my understanding because the curb.
[Tim McGivern]: Access that for this and I know you. Sent this over to engineering for review. Did those guys get back to you?
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, and what you're seeing here is an edited version of this that reflects. Owens feedback on the project.
[Tim McGivern]: And then there's enough clearance. I'm presuming there's enough clearance for the crosswalk there that your 4th space, the end of your space bank.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, yes, definitely. I don't think there's there's room there for five parking spaces, but there's definitely more than more than enough room for four.
[Tim McGivern]: Is the picture showing just three? No, it's four cars. See the existing photo in the background is that three cars?
[Brenda Pike]: I think that is three cars right now.
[Tim McGivern]: But it's four spaces, basically.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. And I can share Google Maps again, because that might be Clear way to look at it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: So, the charger would be 1 of the charges would be directly in the middle between these 2 trees. And then the other 1 would be on the other side of this tree.
[Tim McGivern]: Okay. Plenty of sidewalk there and you're in the furniture zone. Underground, you're good with the conduits. I don't know what's in the street there. But there's usually a lot of utilities.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, yep. And that was part of the feedback that Owen had about it. Yep.
[SPEAKER_05]: Sounds good. Those are my questions. Thanks, Brenda.
[Jim Silva]: Randy, can I ask a question? You said that robo call did it go out to Harris Road, Stoughton, that area? Was it in the whole Cape and Park area? Just curious.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, I don't know the exact sort of the exact streets that it went to. Let me see if it's in the email where they confirmed it.
[Jim Silva]: The only reason why I ask is there are a lot of folks who live on Boston Avenue that are not capable of having resident parking on the side streets. And as you know, Boston Avenue is a street sweeping street. So I was just curious if that had gone out to that particular location.
[Brenda Pike]: I don't have the information for exactly what streets were included in the robocall. I just know it was a larger area than what I had flyered, which was really just on Boston Ave here. So I flyered this stretch of Boston Ave from North Street to, what is the side street? Irvington Road.
[Jim Silva]: Some of the line.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep.
[Jim Silva]: Thank you.
[Todd Blake]: And if I may, as a reminder, this is the, Alternate or compromise location as opposed to the previous 2 locations in the previous meeting closer to keep in park and. The other park, right? Brenda.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, and this is partway between the 2 locations.
[Alicia Hunt]: If you're since you're in Google maps, can you just zoom out a little bit so that those of us on the call and then you can just point down there. There's Cape and park just came on the screen. And there's Cummings up above. So this is kind of in between the 2. It makes sense to me as a location. Because it definitely doesn't interfere with the business there because anybody who's there for the Cummings properties is going to be parking in their parking garage or their surface parking. There would never be a reason for them to be using the street. I think we've observed that this area, I mean, I've been in that area a bunch and street parking is lightly used. It sounds like, Todd, were you saying that on street sweeping days people park Isn't it that when Boston Ave gets street sweeping, then people from Boston can park on the permit roads on the sides for that one night? Or maybe it was Jim that knew that.
[Paul Covino]: It's just one side at a time. It's just one side at a time. So, yeah, it was Larry. Yep. Yes. Park on one side of the street on one night and another side.
[Sarah McDermod]: On the other side, you might be thinking of, you might be thinking of snow emergencies and there's a snow emergency. They can park on the permit streets.
[Paul Covino]: Yeah, so I have a question. In a case go in the future, if it becomes an issue for overnight type street sweeping. can we allow the residents to park there for the overnight situation only and block those spots where they're less likely to be abused? There's only a two hour limit for the use of those, right? So in the future, if it becomes an issue for us, would we be able to allow, we put a restriction there so on those certain nights residents can park there and block those four spots if needed.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that would that would be an option there. Um, the, the requirements of the grant that we have for this, um, they're, they just require that the spaces be reserved for electric vehicles for 12 hours a day. So, if it does become an issue, we have some flexibility.
[Tim McGivern]: Okay, well, they're already be restricted for street sweeping for whatever night boss and not get swept. So, that restriction exists and then it's a snow route to so. Anyway, to what it's worth, I just figured those would automatically still be in play.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, and I'm in favor of this location. I. At the benefit of a preview of it, so. Yeah, I think we should see if there's any public comments because there was a lot of public comment on the last one. I mean, I could motion to approve pending public comment, but I'd rather and actually, I think it would be better if somebody else motions because it's from my office.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay. Okay. Well, if the commissioners are all. So with any questions, if there's anybody in the public that would like to speak against this, if you could raise your hand and or type in the chat, if you're not allowed to raise, or if you're not able to raise your hand, please do so now. And we can kind of. Seeing none in the public with their hand raised, or I can't see the chat right now, so let me just.
[Alicia Hunt]: There's nothing in the chat.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay, we got 1 hand. Sorry.
[Jim Silva]: If there's no, if there's no public feedback, then I make a motion.
[SPEAKER_08]: There's somebody raised there. You have somebody right now that has their hand raised Nina. We're just going to ask you to unmute. obviously you're spot on, so. Just ask you to unmute and then you're free to speak.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, can you hear me? Oh, I thought we were motioned in favor. I misunderstood. What's that, sorry? I thought this was raising hands in favor.
[SPEAKER_08]: We're going to get to the in favor or just against right now. So we're more than happy to see if there was anybody against. So we're going to have you speak on behalf of it. These are the motions in favor. So speak now.
[Alicia Hunt]: You have to re-unmute her again. Sorry, usually we just take public comment. We don't take comments for and against. We just take public comment.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. Sorry, I have no comment. I misunderstood. Okay. That was my fault. Sorry.
[Jim Silva]: Okay. I make a motion to approve.
[SPEAKER_08]: Second. I second. Seconded by Chief Camino. Roll call.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Kavina.
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_08]: For a pass with a four vote yes and then one is absent. The motion has been approved. Moving on to. Back to the 275-70 permit parking variant. Melissa Bowden 201 Riverside Ave. I believe it's on here. I'm just going to ask you on mute and then We can have you speak on the parking there.
[SPEAKER_21]: Hi, I'm actually on here with my landlord. I think she's gonna start it off explaining the situation and then I can kind of add on and show the Google Maps and what it looks like and everything to explain further.
[SPEAKER_08]: So we can pull up Google Maps for you here. So that way, I'm not sure if you're able to share.
[SPEAKER_21]: I should be able to. Oh, she just told me she can't unmute, so I can explain this.
[SPEAKER_08]: I can have her unmute. What's her name under?
[SPEAKER_21]: Jing, J-I-N-G. She should be on the call. Oh, I think she's unmuted.
[SPEAKER_12]: Okay, I'm here. Can you hear me?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, good evening.
[SPEAKER_12]: Okay. Yeah, so I think Melissa can share or maybe you guys can help share the screen where so the property address that we're discussing today is 201 Riverside Avenue. As you all know, Riverside is a public street, right? So we cannot like that street is just like two sides of traffic and we cannot. park any car there. And I have this property where I rented out two units and we have six tenants living there. The parking that we have on the house is not big enough to accommodate six cars. So we do have tenants like Melissa and she has to deal with the parking herself. And In the past, you know, we're able to park in the ship Avenue, which is like one street behind this, and she never had any issue. But this this year, starting from the summer, she start getting like parking ticket because ship Avenue is permit enforced and. So after that, you know, like she has been really struggling on finding the parking space and we have got in touch with the parking office and traffic commissioner book times. They recommend us to look into the marine street, which is the street that intersect with. the riverside but marine street only have four parking space so often of a time you know like it's occupied so it's very hard to find like any additional parking and then there's also instance where melissa park her car there and then she got a parking ticket even though the space is not permit enforced So we are kind of stuck here where it's really hard to find any parking stop nearby. And what we are asking is just like to for us to be able to apply for a variance parking permit in the ship Avenue, because that's the one that's closest to the house. And it's very, there's like a lot of parking space on that street. I don't think Melissa will be. you know, have hard time finding any space there. Um, so that's basically, you know, what we are asking. And I will let Melissa to add any additional details.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay, thank you, Melissa. Just I'm not sure I'm mute. Is this blue house to a one for you?
[SPEAKER_21]: Um, yes, that blue one on the left right there.
[SPEAKER_08]: I just it's to the commissioners. If I go any further for, uh, up Riverside Ave. It doesn't represent the
[SPEAKER_21]: If you want to look at the satellite view of the whole street up above, that might be a little easier, not the street view.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay, yeah, we'll do the satellite view.
[SPEAKER_21]: Okay. Because then you can also see Marine Street and Ship Ave, what we're talking about. Yep. So yeah, if you zoom in a little bit. Yes, so yeah, that's where I live at 201. Like Jing said, parking the driveway we have doesn't accommodate six cars. There's six residents. So since I moved here in 2023, I've been parking on Ship Ave, that street right behind it. And I had no issues whatsoever until recently I started getting ticketed, even though where I was parking had no signs up saying I couldn't park there on Ship Ave, that street right behind. So I started getting tickets and it was really frustrating trying to find any additional side roads to park on. There is that little short street Marine Street right off of Riverside on that left side. But the only public spots are those first four right at the beginning of Riverside and Marine. You can't park further down on that street. So that's like my only option right now is those if there's those four spots available. So yeah, I'm requesting a variance permit for ship app because that street has a lot of available spots on the street. I've noticed that the actual residents of Ship Ave have their own driveways, or they tend to park on the left side. So it's a very long street. It's a one-way street. Also, there's condos further down on Ship Ave. They have a huge parking lot for them and visitor parking. So I don't think that I would be taking any spot from an actual resident of Ship Ave by parking there. And it would solve my very frustrating problem. And I would very much appreciate a permit.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Chief, if I could just comment, and Alva can ship out, obviously, as permanent parking, but there are no signs from the boat club or yacht club after. Alva is working on it to have more signs put up.
[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I was getting tickets when there were no signs there, and that was frustrating, but yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sorry, you are a co-host, so you can believe on yourself. You're all set, Sarah?
[Sarah McDermod]: Yeah. Actually, there are more signs on Ship Ave now. Joe and his crew put them up recently after a couple of requests from the condo people. Yeah, so just know the entirety of Ship Ave is now signed. That's all. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: So actually, um, since we have Sarah, um, I just wanted to clarify. So she's looking at ship out because that's on her side of the street, I assume. And she doesn't have to cross Riverside to get there. Um, but I actually didn't realize there was any permit parking in this area. And so maybe we should understand, um, about the parking across the street on park street and Thatcher and, um, Whether what would be the problem with just parking over there where it's allowed, although I do recognize you have to cross.
[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, yeah, so I'd have to cross the road and also I work late at night. I don't want to be walking in the dark alone across the street. Also, those streets tend to be pretty busy from what I've. Observed and ship have there is literally like, never any cars really parked on that actual street.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I have tried to, you know, park in the sorry, I forgot the name of the street, but the street that you're talking about, I've only been there a couple of times in the evening, it's very busy. So I have to definitely walk sometimes, like few blocks to find a parking space. And I think it is like, you know, for safety reasons, unsafe during late night, and then in the winter, if there's like, snow,
[Alicia Hunt]: I can agree that it may be at night crossing Riverside might not feel safe. I will tell you that Medford is very safe. And so you shouldn't be worried about personal safety. Although I make no promises around the cars.
[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah. But yeah, like I said, ship out, I've never observed it being really busy. I've never seen it completely full. I don't believe I would be taking any spots from an actual resident. Like I said, the condos, they have a huge parking lot. They also have the visitor parking across the street on Ship Ave. The actual residents, which I've spoke to and they know me by name, they all park on the left side of that street. I would just be taking out one tiny little spot and it would really help me and I would appreciate it.
[Tim McGivern]: And it's something you're already doing.
[SPEAKER_21]: It's something I've been doing since, um, up until from December 1st, 2023 until about a month or two ago when I started getting ticketed. And then now, as Sarah said, there's signs up saying that it's all permit parking. So I haven't, I've been trying my luck with Marine street and hoping that I can keep a spot in those four little spots that are available, but, um, it's very frustrating.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Uh, public comments, public comments.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, um.
[Sarah McDermod]: Sarah. Yeah, so just, I mean, acting as a member of the public who is not on the commission, but it gets, I get frequent emails from residents on ship Avenue about vehicles parking on their street that are not residents. I've gotten C, click fixes more than a couple of times a week in the last 2 months. I would say. About this vehicle and that vehicle also just. I just think we need to use some caution considering that. Unit 201 is 1 of 1 to at least 10, 15 residences between Maverick street and Marine street that all might face similar circumstances. And if we let 1 person on to ship out, who's to say that we won't get requests from all the other cars that park on ship Avenue that they then complain to me about. I know it's just 1 car now, but there are multiple cars that I get complaints about. And a lot of them just looking at their citations when they're tied in a lot of them are residents of Riverside Avenue. So that's my 2 cents. I mean, I know you guys on the commission take that into consideration, setting a precedent for the future. But I just wanted to say that I do get frequent complaints from ship Avenue residents about vehicles parking there that do not live on ship Avenue.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, we understand, but I think to Melissa's point, Sheff Avenue is never like very busy, right?
[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, it's never full at all. There's so many, so many, so many spaces. It's a long road. I've never seen it completely full. And again, I've never had any issues until recently. And I just think it would make sense.
[Alicia Hunt]: So when we were doing all the public meetings for the Clipper Ship Connector, which I assume everybody on the commission is aware goes right through there along Ship Ave and along the river, one of the big concerns that the neighbors had was that people would come and park there in order to access the park and the path. That may have been why, I don't remember when permit parking was put in there, but that was one of their big concerns was that people would crowd the street, they'd never be able to find their own parking, because people would come to use the path. Maybe that's why it's getting enforced now.
[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I could understand thinking that, but I've never seen it busy at all. And yeah, I would just really appreciate a permit
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, either Todd, Sarah, or police units. What do you guys see for capacity on Ship Avenue? I mean, I'm being told by Ms. Bowden that there's plenty of room. Does that match your experience or is it something different? I'm not that familiar with the street.
[SPEAKER_21]: If you want to go on the Google Maps too and go on the actual Ship Avenue, maybe you can
[Sarah McDermod]: I can give you a heads up.
[Tim McGivern]: I want to hear the other folks' experiences.
[Sarah McDermod]: I've been there recently to check on the signs and such, and it does usually have quite a few spaces available on Ship Ave, but I'll tell you, I have a friend who lives at 25 Park Street, and I'm there usually on Tuesdays when I'm not here, because we go for a walk on the Clippership Connector, and it also frequently has more than adequate street parking. on Park Street. So that's my anecdotal experience from those two streets. So not just Shabab. Shabab has adequate parking because they have permits required and we've been enforcing because the residents request it quite frequently. And Park Street, I park there myself. I've never had trouble finding a space from 25 Park Street down to Riverside. And that's 4.30 in the afternoon. That I'm going over there.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I think we're talking about late evening. So the experience could be a little bit different here. Um. Yeah, even though, like, you can grant us something, say, this permit is only working in after, like, say, I don't know what time 1, at least to get back home. I think that will be really appreciated.
[Tim McGivern]: or even like Jordan Larry, what about you guys? Any of your officers? What do you guys experience?
[SPEAKER_09]: So Sergeant Kavino. So to Sarah's point, there are a lot of people or a handful of people who don't have permits that have been parking on ship and we have been enforcing that. But there's also seems to be abundant parking on ship. If you go down there any time of night or during the day, there's there's plenty of street parking. Also, to Sarah's point, Park Street and the streets on the other side of Riverside Ave that aren't permanent parking do have abundant parking as well. So.
[Tim McGivern]: All right. So there's lots of parking available around here. And there's other, granted, there are people who live in those other apartments for sure. I get that. I don't know the answer to the question, and I doubt anybody does. Is there room for all of them? I'm not sure. I feel like we try not to set precedents, but at the same time, we're not bound to any precedent that we set. So anyway.
[Paul Covino]: Maybe we could do a count on the different times of day and night, how many cars we see down there, how many vacant spots we see, and then we could accommodate a certain number of additional resident parking. So it's not everybody on Riverside Ave suddenly decide, oh, I'm going to go park. I'm going to get a variance and park on ship Ave.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I think what's most relevant is actually the nighttime. Like, that is actually the most relevant, because it is true that a lot of people take their cars and leave during the day.
[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, and like I said, I get back from work super late, sometimes at like 2-3am. And everyone's parked in a spot. So I, it's a struggle. And especially with winter coming, it's gonna get dark way earlier. And As a female, I don't want to be walking any super long distance alone at night just to get back to my house. I'd rather stick to where I've been familiar with and this would just really, really help me.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, we heard you. Todd, what do you have to say? I don't want to ruin the moment.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah. Anecdotally, in the daytime, I agree with Space. I couldn't say for sure at nighttime. One thing I wanted to comment on, because we've talked about precedent, is consistency. I'm not arguing for or against them. I'm just bringing something up that I've noticed at other meetings. This commission has approved similar situations on Winthrop Street, a street that doesn't have any on-street parking. And then I think last month, this commission may have approved a variance for someone on Main Street, near Summerville, from the major, and that street does have on-street parking. So I would say Riverside's pretty similar to the Winthrop Street section with no parking on either side. So whatever has been consistent in the past, that's what I would just throw that out there to remind folks.
[Alicia Hunt]: The other thing that's sort of relevant about the Winthrop Street one is that we made a big deal about wanting them to be parking on the same side they were living on. But the big difference there was that there was no crosswalk for quite a distance. between that home and where they would have, we would be basically condoning them jaywalking. There is in fact a real crosswalk at this location, but we did express a preference for having people to park on the side street on the same side as their home so that we weren't pushing more people to be crossing the very busy roads, particularly in the middle of the night.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Do we have a motion from the commissioners?
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I'm motion to approve.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Great, second.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you, Ms. Bowdoin.
[SPEAKER_14]: I have a roll call.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Covino?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: When absent, the motion passes.
[Alicia Hunt]: And Melissa, it looks like your landlord is not on the call anymore. Can you just make sure that she's aware that this kind of permit is for you, it's not for everybody in your building, and if she rents to somebody else, they would have to come back for it?
[SPEAKER_21]: That's okay, yeah. Thank you so much, by the way, everyone. I really appreciate it. Does that go into effect immediately so I can
[Sarah McDermod]: Well, yeah, you can, you can come by the permit. Okay, as soon as we're open tomorrow, I'm going to put you on the variance list. So, if you stop by as early as tomorrow, 830, you can buy the past from my office and you'll be good to go.
[SPEAKER_21]: Okay. Thank you so much. Everyone. I appreciate it.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Okay, moving on 2025 7, 1, permit parking variance Nina. Barcomani, 292 Boston Ave. Is your petitioner here?
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello. Yes, I'm here. So yes, I am requesting a similar variance to the previous Ms. Bowden. I live on 292 Boston Ave. I did not check the Google Maps. I didn't think to do that, but I am situated between Is it Winthrop and Piggott, and I am requesting a variance to park, ideally on Piggott. I live on the right side of, or on the even side of the street for street sweeping. And I've found since moving here in August that during street sweeping, specifically Monday and Tuesday, there isn't consistently enough room to park on the opposite side of the street for street sweeping, which has led me to need to park either in a parking lot further down the street, about a 10-minute walk, or to park much further down the street in order to secure parking. I also have a similar work situation where I'm leaving my house at about 5 a.m. when it's very dark and arriving again at about 7 or 8 p.m. depending on the day. So I, yeah, often when I arrive home there isn't parking available anywhere near my house. And I'm okay with walking, but I think more than anything, what I would like is to just know that I will have a consistent place to park that's, you know, ideally within a 10 minute walk would be nice. It wouldn't have to be, I guess if I'm requesting a variance, it would just be a permit variance that isn't specific to time. But the biggest issue is on street sweeping days, either Monday or Tuesday.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Anna, do you have a particular street you'd like to park on?
[SPEAKER_02]: Piggott.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Piggott?
[SPEAKER_02]: Piggott Road.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Okay, open that up to commissioners' comments.
[Tim McGivern]: What are you looking like for capacity on that road?
[SPEAKER_02]: The residents on the left side there typically have one or two cars, and occasionally there are a few student vehicles there, but there's always at least one or two spots on the right side. before the dog leg. I could also park further down, too. That would be completely fine.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. Thanks, Nina. I should have been more specific. I'm mostly speaking to my colleagues when I ask the question and staff as well.
[Paul Covino]: As long as there's parking on both sides of Pickett Road, it looks like there should be adequate parking. stretch with the trees there where there are no houses.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. And they have some driveways there, I'm seeing.
[Paul Covino]: I don't know if it's posted, no parking though. There are driveways that most of those houses get though, yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: I was just reviewing that the one sign I can see from Street View on Piggott does say, permit parking both sides of the street.
[SPEAKER_09]: Well, there's supposed to be no parking anywhere other than the park.
[Alicia Hunt]: But I'm only seeing one. I've only so far found one sign for the entire street in my perusal here.
[Paul Covino]: I was just more concerned with that stretch where the trees are along the tracks, if it's wide enough to park houses on both sides of the street.
[Alicia Hunt]: That actually looks wider than the park that has houses on both sides.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I see at least one driveway. Can you pan down the street a little bit? We've got driveways. Or is it street parking, some driveways?
[Paul Covino]: Yeah.
[Tim McGivern]: I'm in favor of this. I don't see why not.
[Alicia Hunt]: Can I just get clarified? So the rule is when there is no parking for street sweeping on one side of the street, there's just this expectation that everybody will just find parking on the other side of the street that night?
[SPEAKER_02]: Seems so.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. That must be dated. Yeah.
[Tim McGivern]: As I understand it though, you also don't actively ticket, or we don't actively ticket on the side streets on those nights either. I think we understand that there's some overflow. But anyway.
[SPEAKER_02]: May I comment? In my experience, the tickets happen on street sweeping. Yeah.
[Paul Covino]: Oh, they do? OK. On the streets. side streets. I know the police department, we don't go out looking for that at late at night in response to calls. I don't know about the parking department, if they have anyone overnight that makes that, but that's what Tim was referring to.
[Jim Silva]: May I ask a question of Todd? Do we know what the capacity of parking is on Pivot Road?
[Todd Blake]: I don't necessarily know if I need.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: It'll be ending November 1st anyways. Yeah, it comes back in the spring.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, Jim's question. I don't have any numbers on that, but I would say my opinion on this situation is Boston have. This has on street parking on, like, the last situation and it's unrestricted. It has unrestricted parking. So if there was a problem finding parking on Boston Ave itself, then anyone on those streets could petition for resident permit parking to limit the competition instead of immediately going to the side streets that have residents. Thank you. And then in terms of streets, even in snow plowing, just like designing a parking lot for a mall, you don't design for the worst case scenario. Although streets we've been snow plowing do have issues with parking, that's only, you know, maybe 10 times a year out of 365 days. Sometimes, you know, maybe on some outages it's more, but it's not the normal situation.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you. Well, so then there's, um, So is the issue that there's not enough parking on Boston Avenue available for you? Sorry, I'm talking to the petitioner now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Specifically on those nights, yes. And it's really a consistency problem. Sometimes there is parking, and sometimes there isn't. And I have to walk a good 10 minutes. I'm all the way down at Whole Foods by that point to get back to my house. So there often is, but it's really a consistency problem.
[Sarah McDermod]: Sarah. Yeah, just to chime in, like, I did for ship out. It is not 1 that we get a lot of complaints about. It's not something that I'm consistently hearing from residents saying, get over here and enforce. I think they have. Based only on that adequate space. More so, I mean, ship out to 2, but they were more, maybe a little more territorial. Who knows? But. Yeah, and I will say too, if you go too low on Boston Ave, like if you go below 195, you end up in Somerville. So there is a possibility too that people moving their cars for Medford street sweeping may end up in Somerville by accident and then get a Somerville ticket. But also I wanted to clarify that we do still enforce, we have one overnight parking control specialist who works starting at 3 a.m., and he's not changing his route based on street sweeping. So we will enforce permit parking overnight still during street sweeping, even if the streets are adjacent to those being swept. Just to be clear on that, because it seemed like it was not clear. But yeah, not a lot of feedback from residents of Piggott, so that's my two cents on that.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I just like to add this area in particular, because it's in Hillside, sort of close to Somerville. It's similar to the main street situation that was described in my mind last month, because their main arteries in residential areas that are unrestricted. So there's a lot of competition. So anyone that doesn't want to pay a Somerville permit, or has an out of state, you know, or has a plate situation that they don't want to change the insurance to garage and Medford or Somerville. you know, they're all going to Boston Ave, so a way to fix that in our toolbox is to make it residential. Or in a lot of major arteries in cities like ours, they'll have two-hour park in daytime, except by permit, resident permit, and then that kind of limits the competition. during non-business hours.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, it almost seems like a better way to go, Todd, as far as dealing with this issue, because it doesn't have regulated parking now, so eliminating some of the competition for, what's her name, Miss Quattromonte on Boston Avenue. It's a different way of looking at the solution and granting a variance, but anyway. I don't know how other commissioners feel about that. Does Boston Avenue need some residential permit parking instead of granting variances?
[Alicia Hunt]: It would come into the next zone that we're talking about. I think that, so I'm of two minds here. I don't think we should just put off this residence problem because I think we're going to solve this in the next six months to a year. But it could take us a full year before we do. But this is the area that we are talking about with having one of the next rounds of doing a zoned parking. And if we did zoned parking, I think we would include Boston Ave with exactly what we're describing here. And that would solve her problems. But I'd hate to see her have to get tickets and walk 20 minutes, more than 10 minutes late at night. while we spend a year doing that. Because to do the public process right, it takes at least six months. It's not just that we're slow. It's that we want to really need to approach it and do a good public process.
[Tim McGivern]: That's a really good point. Makes it less important for us, I guess, because we've got to dispose of it at that point anyway.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. And at which point, her permit would then, of course, be valid because it would allow the regional and she'd be able to park on Piggott under the new system.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I'm in favor of this one.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, me too.
[Alicia Hunt]: We already have a motion. Tim. All right. Somebody motion to approve.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: We can open it up to the public first. Oh, did I?
[Tim McGivern]: I'm going to reinforce my motion.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Bold. All right, do we have a motion?
[Paul Covino]: I'll file a motion. Give granted.
[SPEAKER_05]: Somebody, I'll second.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: There we go. Commissioner McGiven?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Covino?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yes. Motion passes 4-0 with one absent. Nina, you're all set. Thank you. Sarah, is she going to see you?
[Sarah McDermod]: Yes, she's on the variance list. And if she stops by our office anytime during City Hall business hours, you can purchase a permit, a permit variance for bigger roads. Okay, am I able to do that digitally? Or do I need to show up in person? Unfortunately, variances are not available for purchase online, you have to stop by the office.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I'll be there on Thursday. Thank you very much. Have a good one.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Moving on 2025-72 permanent parking variance, Edward Freeland, 343 Main Street. Is Edward available?
[SPEAKER_09]: I don't see him on here. Edward Freeland?
[Alicia Hunt]: Do we want to table and come back to this in case he joins us? Also, is somebody able to have the map of permit parking available when we look at this one? I was just looking to see if I had a copy on my desk.
[Jim Silva]: Yes, I believe it's the G zone. It's between Princeton and Bowdoin. Am I correct?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Correct. Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: I have a copy of that.
[Jim Silva]: Unlike the Boston Ave situation, Main Street folks are in fact in the location of the G-Zone. We issued, I believe, the next door neighbor a few months ago a variance for the G-Zone.
[Alicia Hunt]: But main street itself is not in the zone. Sorry, I'm not looking for, you know.
[Jim Silva]: But they're on that side of the Princeton and Bowdoin, Yale. Well, she's. All right, so this is.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: In fact, a new point where he could park anyway he wants. No, he can't.
[Alicia Hunt]: He's not in the zone.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: I thought he was on the G zone.
[Jim Silva]: He's on the side of the G zone on those streets. If you were to move the variance to they are G zone streets.
[Paul Covino]: There is someone there on. Hi, I'm here for the road permit. Okay. Okay. We'll get to you. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_16]: Did he say he'd be.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I sent him an email. Okay. Well, I'm here. This one's yours.
[SPEAKER_09]: Matt. Yeah, it's on. I'm on mute. So I asked.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: We have issued variance to the house aside.
[Paul Covino]: Household wasn't transferred to their cell phone number. There's a household. I must have transferred to their cell.
[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: never going to know do we want to table this yeah it says you have to be here to pass it or should we just table it do we place on the file the table no you wouldn't place it on file you'd have to give them a chance to come to the next meeting okay okay so table
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, one month table until we can contact them.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Table to the next meeting.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: All right, councillors, I have a motion to table this. I will not be able to get ahold of Edwin till the November meeting.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I'm inclined to table it unless he shows up in this meeting later, I would take it back off the table. Because I do, you know, we have to, why is he using the parking in this house? I assume he's not allowed, but, and we don't have an email on this, do we? Sorry, I didn't, I don't remember everything that was in the packet we were sent.
[SPEAKER_20]: Do we have an email on him? Do we have an email address for him?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes. Oh, Edward Freeland. We have an email from him. Recently moved in. This makes me ineligible for residential permit parking. Parking, right. So we all have this email. Parking for my home is not practical. There is a bus stop directly there, and the nearby spaces are limited to short-term convenience store parking. I'd like to request your guidance on how I might apply for an exemption that would allow me to park on Princeton Street or an alternative nearby with a residential parking permit.
[Paul Covino]: He was emailed an invitation to this meeting from Alva and a letter with his options to send a letter in or electronically attend the Zoom meeting or send a letter in to us. He hasn't sent the letter, right? The only letter I have is his request for the appearance. So I would say we table this until either he shows up tonight or we address it the next meeting.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, I think somebody may reach out to him and explain that he has to come to the meeting to help us understand the situation.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Alicia, you making a motion?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, she did. I'll motion to table it.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Second?
[SPEAKER_14]: I'll second. Chief Covino? Alva, roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[SPEAKER_14]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Covino?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yes. By vote of 4-0, 1 absent, motion passes. 2025-73, permit parking variance, Tom Jennings, 400 Main Street, Apartment 3. Is Tom here? Yes, sir.
[SPEAKER_17]: What, what just happened? Oh, thank you. So I just, I just moved back to the area 400 Medford or 400 Main Street Medford. I lived in Somerville for four years, Cambridge for four years, Arlington for two years. Uh, so I, like when I signed up for the lease, I didn't think anything of the parking because I never had a situation like this where it wouldn't be available based on the location. Um, and unfortunately the landlord never explains the parking situation. Uh, so I'm hoping for an exception in this case, just because I have a job where, um, you know, I'm a lab and facilities manager. I'm on call 24 seven. So I could get called in for, you know, building emergencies, like a leak or, Safety issues like someone gets hurt And I have been walking, you know, I moved in only a couple weeks ago but on the streets that are adjacent to 400 Main Street, it's Bonner and Alexander I've noticed, you know at night and the morning the same spots and are typically available. I think I've seen like, you know, five or six openings at least on either side. And then also, um, you know, like give or take in the surrounding areas. So I just wanted to explain my situation, see what you guys thought about it and, um, see if you need anything more from me to make a decision off of that.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Thank you commissioners.
[Jim Silva]: Yes, I'd like to ask you a question. Do you have parking, off-street parking? There seems to be a driveway to the right of your house, looking at the front of your house.
[SPEAKER_17]: Yeah, and that's the only thing that was explained to me, that I would not have access to that driveway.
[Alicia Hunt]: And Jim, again, I don't have the maps, but isn't this, this is, is directly across the street from him is the G zone. I need a map. Sorry. And on his side is one of the areas that are, is under consideration for the next round of zoned permit. That's where we talked about making a South Medford zone. And in theory, if we did that, his side of main street. So that's what I don't understand. Why wouldn't, The left side, the even side of Main Street be part of the G zone, and then the odd side of Main Street be part of the quote South Medford zone.
[Paul Covino]: The other way around, the odd side.
[Jim Silva]: The G was within the green line proximity. So that's how they looked at it. So that's how we sort of adjusted it. The other streets are for the secondary, as you mentioned, the South Medford. I think the process was based on either you were East or West, and you would fall within that criteria. So those on the West side would be G, those in the others would if variants were approved would be on those streets that have got names.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah and one other thing to note in these g-zones or any future zone is in this g-zone we kind of did an experiment with two different scenarios. Main street is not included as part of the g-zone but part of Medford street is included one side with a three-hour except by permit. So if we were to go forward and include the major streets I would Think that we would model it after the Medford street portion. Either 2 or 3 hour, except by permit, so businesses could have turnover because right now, the section of main street is unrestricted just like that boss now, except there are some. Like, nail a cautious and some other short term parking, but outside the meter zones, it's essentially unrestricted. I mean.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. It seems to me that if we put the zones in, we would need the properties on main street to be in one zone or another. Like, it wouldn't be fair to them to be like, yeah, but now you can't park anywhere. So I'm, I'm good with this one too. It makes sense to me. Oh, we need to decide. So he would not get a G zone parking though. We would, because we're on the same side, it would either be Alexander or Bonner and we would have to choose. Is that correct? Um, and therefore I guess we need, uh, our professionals to weigh in on, um, does one have more space than the other?
[Paul Covino]: That would be our next step. If we give him the G Zone one, which is across the street, he's got several streets to pick from. If we keep him on his side of the street, he's either Bonner or Alexander in that area. Does anybody have an idea of how busy those streets are for parking?
[Jim Silva]: Jim, I asked a question about Alexander Avenue, the resident parking. Is it only during the day on that stretch from Maine to Willis?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: That's a good question. No, it's overnight. It's overnight.
[Sarah McDermod]: Yeah, Jim, it used to be only between 5 PM and 8 PM, but that changed in, it looks like, 2019. To, oh, no, I'm sorry 2024. it's the North side from mystic to pierce. There's different sections. There's not there's none that are just in the morning.
[Jim Silva]: It's like, it's my block. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think, yeah, go ahead.
[Todd Blake]: Alexander closest closest to ground to cafe is not permanent in the daytime. Because I frequent the area for lunch. It's only nighttime. Whereas Barner is full time, I believe.
[Sarah McDermod]: And additionally, just both of them, as you get closer to Mystic Ave, become resident or business permit parking. So they both have a section that accommodates both types of permits as you get down to Mystic Ave.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Gee, if I'd say Barner is more busier than I was in.
[Paul Covino]: Why don't we look at where him and what's the next one going towards the park there around?
[Jim Silva]: Maryam and Wareham are both the G-Zone, so it's a little bit different. I will mention as Todd alluded to, when the zones were implemented, the pushback was from the community on Wareham, Maryam, anything close proximity to the business because of the overflow already.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: So we're looking at Bonner, is that what you said, Bonner? Bonner's more residential. Alexander, you're going to have the overflow also for the residents.
[Paul Covino]: Okay. And he actually has been looking, so he said Bonner and Alexander, there seems to be adequate space for him, so let's just pick one. Oh, yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: We'll pick Bonner. I said Alexander.
[Jim Silva]: And can I ask the resident quick question is this you find that parking is during the street sweeping time that becomes problematic.
[SPEAKER_17]: Uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's a combination of that. Again, I just moved to the area, but it's making sure that I'm properly parked in the area that I'm supposed to be. Um, and just not like, you know, parking somewhere I'm not, and that's, you know, whether it's, you know, trying to park on the main street and play the game of like taking up spots in front of the businesses. Um, I just want to ensure that like, I'm, I'm where I'm supposed to be and that's okay that I'm allowed to be there.
[Jim Silva]: I know it's a little bit different than what you've experienced from other communities, but we're in the process of doing the zone parking in the more urban parts of Medford. Unfortunately, it seems a little disjointed at this point, but again, hopefully, we can put you somewhere where you can park.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: That'd be great. I said you're not going up to public. Do you have any comments? I have a comment. Yeah. I don't think anyone's raising their hand. All right. Seeing none, does the commission is having motion? Alicia. Did you make a motion?
[Alicia Hunt]: I would motion. Oh, we just need to know which side did. Sorry, I didn't follow that. In the end, did we decide that Alexander was better? Yeah, I apologize. I didn't quite process.
[Jim Silva]: Alexander is closer than Bonner, I would believe, and might be more practical.
[Paul Covino]: People are telling us that Alexander is probably a little more space on it.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I had motion to give him a permit for Alexander.
[Jim Silva]: I second.
[SPEAKER_14]: Alva, roll call roll, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes, with the caveat that we look at the zone option for this particular location.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Chief Covino? Yes. Vote for zero. One absent, the motion passes. Tom, can you see the parking department at City Hall, and they'll take care of you. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_17]: Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Moving on, 20-25-74, one petition, permit parking 24-7 Pickham Road. Do we have someone to speak? It was so important.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. That telephone number one, five, six.
[SPEAKER_16]: Hi. Um, so I did not, um, like sign the per, um, the petition or submit it. Um, I I'm a resident of Pinkham road. Okay. Could you have your name and your address please? Jenna Boland, uh, 23 Pinkham road. Okay.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: petition because the petition was presented before she moved into that home.
[SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, but I reached out because I was having issues finding parking on my road in the evening. So I tried to get a permit and was told that because it was non-permitted street, I couldn't get a permit, but a petition had already been filed. So I am for Pinkham Road being permit only.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Okay, thank you. Do we have anyone else to speak?
[Alicia Hunt]: I see Michael Hickey is raising his hand.
[Paul Covino]: Yes, unmute.
[Alicia Hunt]: Did you send him the message to unmute?
[Paul Covino]: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Who are the two people that sent us letters that were against?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: There's a negative? Yeah. I received two letters in opposition. Would I go? Names. The name is, name's Kathleen Beebe.
[SPEAKER_09]: Anyone else raising their hand for this?
[Alicia Hunt]: And that was Andrea Ganji. Hello. Oh, this is the gentleman whose name is on the petition. Thanks.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I was one of the two people who went around the neighborhood to have people sign the petition. And I want to thank you for allowing me to speak and for also considering our petition for resident sticker parking only. It's been a long while that we've been able to park all the time on our street. A lot of people from Boston have park on our street and from surrounding areas. And so it's been very difficult for us to find places to park. And the majority of the people on the street would love to see this resident sticker parking only so we know we can have places to park when we come home at night or we get home from our jobs.
[Alicia Hunt]: Alva, I saw the message that he sent a petition, but were we, was there a separate email that actually had it or all the signatures or whatever? I'm not finding that, but maybe it's just lost in my email.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: We didn't email it. I didn't send the signatures on the petition. You have them though? I have them. Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, okay. So it didn't get scanned in and emailed to us. Exactly. Exactly.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: One of the third page.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. We're told to just drop it off at the police station. So my partner dropped it off after we completed it.
[Paul Covino]: Yeah.
[Todd Blake]: She's just talking about the members in the, yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: So could we get some information from the police station about, you know, how many people signed the petition? Are they, you know, represent how many house, how many addresses on the street? That's what we usually look to see if there's at least 50% of the street is signed on to something like this in the past.
[Paul Covino]: We have 18 signatures. And I sent 35 notices.
[Alicia Hunt]: And does 18 signatures represent 18 different households?
[Paul Covino]: I'm done now, Alicia.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, thank you.
[Jim Silva]: Mr. Carey has his hand raised.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Michael, how many houses are on the street? We have 14 different households.
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, we went to 18 different households. We didn't do it. We just did it by, um, street numbers.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: And I sent 35 notices and I take them as from the ward book.
[Paul Covino]: Yeah. There's two or 32 or three is 134. That's three.
[Todd Blake]: It looks like 16 facing Pinkham. And if they're all two family, that's 32. So it sounds about right.
[Paul Covino]: Yeah, 14 of different addresses. Some of them may be in the same house, but they're different addresses. 18 signatures, 14 residences.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, thank you. And it's just because I think we've said it said before that it's important. The last one that came in front of us, one of the things that we asked for was to make sure we had good turnout from or that we'd heard from a majority of the people on the street.
[Paul Covino]: We do have two people that emailed us about that. They were against this.
[SPEAKER_09]: This gentleman, Paul, has been waiting to talk to you. He's, I think he's one of the petitioners. Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm, my name's Paul Carey. I also just recently moved to the area. I'm living at 23 Pinkham Road and I moved here after the petition. Had I been here at the time that it was circulating, I also would have signed the petition just to put that in there.
[Paul Covino]: All right, so there's two more people that would have signed this petition.
[Alicia Hunt]: So one of my concerns and actual reasons why I would support permit parking here is because we're very close to the Somerville border. And it seems to me that it could very well be that people who can't park in Somerville and anybody who lives in Somerville and registers their car in Somerville can get a parking permit in Somerville. And anybody who lives in Medford and lives on a street with permit parking and registers their car in Medford could get a permit here. The key is registering your car, which means that you pay the excise taxes to the city. But I do feel like it's only appropriate for us to have heard from the neighbors. I think that passing this is going to put more pressure on Boston Ave. But I think that this is, again, another area that we really need to move this process forward of looking at zone parking.
[Tim McGivern]: So was the result 50%? We have 50% of the households signed on with those added to? Sounds like it.
[Paul Covino]: Yeah, if you count those houses, the end ones seem to be on Caden Street and Boston Ave. So you've got one on my right side, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. go across the street, again, the N1 Boston app, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and the next one's on Capon Street. So there's 16 houses. We have, with the two people who just signed in and supported it, we have 18 signatures with 14 different addresses. And the two additional ones would make up the difference. So I'd say we're number one with 50% of the residents there. Also, the biggest problem up in that area is there's many tough students that have out-of-state plates. They don't want to register their cars in the city for whatever reason. So, again, is it gonna cause a problem in Boston? Of course. Those people are gonna have to find somewhere to go. And there are many people that do. We've had an issue over the years where people who live in Somerville, again, college students or what have you, they don't register their car in Somerville It appears that we've got well over 50% of the street for support.
[Tim McGivern]: Simple numbers for me, so I'm in favor. I was back at it.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: We have no one else to speak on the phone. I'm going to just double check that no one's in the chat.
[Paul Covino]: Two emails that came. the email that those two people sent in that were opposed to it. Do you have them? Can I see them? I want to see what they're asking. Not seeing it. Okay, just for the record, we have two emails that came in from two different people, and one basically lives at 15, And the other one is someone that does not have a driveway access and needs to park on the street. Most often can't find this on street parking. So the other person, it seems, parks there but does not live right on that street. So that's it. Those are the two people that emailed us that were in opposition to this.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I have a roll call vote, a motion on the table. I didn't get who motioned.
[Tim McGivern]: I motioned.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I don't know if someone seconded that. I did get that. Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes, with the caveat that zone parking needs to be addressed in this area within the next year.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Chief Covino? Yes. The vote of 4-0, 1 absent, motion passes. Congratulations, Michael and everyone.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you very much. I really appreciate your listening to us and your time and energy and what you do in the parking commission.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Thank you. Thank you. 2025-75, permanent parking variance for Sarah Rebecca Gaglio, 465 Broadway, apartment 4.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: She's not in attendance. She called me and she's had to work late tonight.
[Paul Covino]: Okay. We have gone back and forth with this woman. Her only question is she has a mother that comes from out of state to visit and wants to be able to get her a parking spot. This woman lives at the infamous 25 Sherbrook Court where there is no parking. She has no car. She just wants to get a barriers for a park permit so her mother can park on Braymore? Braymore or Strathmore? Strathmore when she comes here. She couldn't make the meeting tonight because she's working.
[Alicia Hunt]: Was this the letter that says the problem is that the house is literally the front of the house is in Somerville. So Medford doesn't recognize Broadway as a street to give her a permit. And Somerville doesn't recognize her as a Somerville resident because she technically lives in Somerville, in Medford.
[Jim Silva]: Pretty much the street is some of all the address is Medford. So, the buildings in Medford, their Medford residents, they pay Medford excise taxes. They are. Within the zone, and they do have permit parking. I believe this individual is asking for a visitor pass and we don't issue. It's my understanding. We don't issue for sure born court visitor passes because of the limited parking on the streets that you mentioned, including both street.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you.
[Todd Blake]: I would concur with Jim. The consistency from this commission has been to grant variances for the permit holder, but not for visitor on the side streets usually.
[Alicia Hunt]: If this is a visitor on Broadway, there is plenty of visitor parking on Broadway, isn't there?
[Jim Silva]: Unfortunately, the signs in Somerville, it's permit only between 8 and 2.30 AM or something. crazy in front of, if you look at 465, you can see what that sign is. But Medford Street, two blocks down on the east side is open parking in Medford, as well as Main Street, two streets the other way, which is, with the exception of street sweeping, provides open parking. Broadway at Trump Field is open, even though it's insummable, it's open without any restriction.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, and I want to point out to everyone in attendance that Somerville is hosting a public meeting tomorrow night regarding. a redesign or planning of Magoon Square, which is this area. So any Medford residents should attend that meeting and could contribute to questions like this about providing more visitor parking on Broadway or whatnot, whatever people feel. But I wanted to make people aware of that public meeting happening tomorrow. Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: So it does sound like she's having overnight guests is her problem, is that it's overnight guests that are coming, not just daytime visitors.
[Paul Covino]: They don't get it.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, so, at that public meeting, you could discuss anything under the world that someone might need or want, you know, as an issue.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yes, I'm having in public comment. I don't see it. Seeing none, we revert back to the commissioners. Does someone have a motion?
[Paul Covino]: Oh, I think we're going to have to come up with some sort of a.
[Jim Silva]: I call the motion not to approve.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Seconded.
[Alicia Hunt]: You mean to deny it?
[Jim Silva]: Correct.
[Alicia Hunt]: I think you're right that we've denied these before and that there are options for visitors. Like this wouldn't be eligible to buy like one of those three day visitor passes. You're shaking your head. No, they're not.
[Paul Covino]: I think again, I don't know what the rule is out there. There's always been not much parking up in that. So no, I'm inclined to say I'd love to see this person get a visitor pass for when her mother comes to visit, but The other idea is, you know, where do we draw the line? And to brought up a valid point that we've denied people access to these other streets before. So I'd like to say, sure, it's only gonna happen once in a blue moon, but do we know that?
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I'm noticing a lack of accessible parking spaces on Broadway, Somerville. So I'm gonna make a note to email Somerville about that. Because no matter what city or, you know, business district something's in, there should be adequate, you know, every once in a while, accessible parking. So if that existed in this case, this visitor could use an accessible park space that would be open to anyone, not just Somerville residents, right? So I just looked up and down Broadway, and it didn't seem like there's any accessible spaces on either side of the street for quite a distance. So that's something that could be fixed potentially by Somerville.
[SPEAKER_14]: Have a roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Tim McGivern]: Yes, it's a deny, correct? Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Cabino?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: The 4-0 vote, one absent. The motion is denied. The guy in the corner, Braymore and Broadway, has a letter I can describe. Moving on, 2025-76, no parking outside the south side of Lewis Street from the corner of Fulton, extending approximately 25 feet east of Fulton Street. This is Todd Blake. Just for the commissioners, we do have numerous complaints coming from Lewis Street just for this reason and other reasons. So, Todd? Was it? No, I pulled 25 feet from 25 feet from the intersection. You'll see a full street on Louis Street. Yeah, where it intersects with full correct.
[SPEAKER_14]: Right.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: God, you're up.
[Todd Blake]: Sorry, I'm trying to. Having difficulty sharing my screen. Can you pull up Lewis Street, please, near Fulton?
[SPEAKER_09]: Todd, do you want to pull it up now? We took ours off, so you should be able to pull it up now.
[Todd Blake]: I may be, okay, here we go. Can you all see this Lewis Street?
[Alicia Hunt]: It's still loading. Can you hear me? We're having internet issues.
[Paul Covino]: All right, I'm going to stop sharing.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, please. I think it's overlaying my system when I'm trying to share and speak at the same time, I guess. So, Lewis street is basically that I got a, I got informed of a situation from a council city Councilor. who informed me that the residents had experienced an emergency vehicle trying to reach Lewis Street and had difficulty making the turns. So myself and DTW representatives, Highway Foreman met with Metro Fire to check the turns from Fulton Street onto Lewis. And we determined it would be helpful to them to sign and no parking, hit a corner. uh, on the South side, Lewis, 25 feet from the corner. Normally 20 feet's already approved. In this case, the extra five didn't take away any other parking to the next driveway. It's still afforded the space for two parking spaces. So that five feet, you know, was, was good to help the Medford fire department. So, um, that's where this originally, and that's what the reason is for. So it's only five more feet than the standard 20 feet, and we're signing it as well. But it doesn't take away any parking, because there were only two spaces that could fit between the 20 feet and the driveway anyways on the south side. Yeah, so it would be that right turn from Fulton Street onto Lewis if it was the fire department coming from Salem Street, and if it's the one coming from the Heights, they'd take the left turn.
[Alicia Hunt]: And it's pretty much a public safety thing. I would move to approve.
[SPEAKER_14]: Second.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Tim McGivern]: Yes, indeed.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Tim McGivern]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Covino?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yes. Before nothing vote, one absent motion is approved. Tim, just one thing. Could we get hash marks maybe painted in this area? It really helps at some point.
[Tim McGivern]: With the no parking lane, you mean?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Correct.
[Tim McGivern]: Okay. I'll think about it. All right. I'll talk to Todd about it. I'll see what makes sense. I'm reluctant because it's, putting paint on a side street, but anyway.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: All right, moving on. 20-25-77, Daylight Crossing, higher picture. Posted no parking north side of High Street from crosswalk extending east approximately 32 feet and no parking south side of High Street from crosswalk extending west approximately 32 feet. Todd Blake, this area we have been getting complaints. And the city councils have also chimed in on this. Go ahead.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, a resident reached out and pointed out that it's difficult to cross the street coming from behind a parked vehicle. And it's in line with what we've been doing elsewhere with daylight and crosswalks for improved visibility, improved safety. So the 32 feet in this case, roughly, if you look at a high street, would go from the crosswalk to right about the walkway for each of these houses. And one, we needed to go a little further, 32 versus say, 28, because there was a utility obstruction for the physical pole. So 32 feet on high street prior to the crosswalk would help with visibility, just like we've done elsewhere. So that's what we're asking for.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Commissioner, no one has an issue. I'd like to combine 77 and 78. 78 is stop sign on Pitcher Ave at High Street. Todd Blake.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah. So while I was looking at this situation and pre-marking some crosswalks that we hope to paint across Pitcher, I noticed that Pitcher does not have a stop sign entering High Street. So it would be helpful to have a stop sign. We're going to, next time we paint High Street, we hope to paint, Edgelines on picture to to kind of guide people to the middle of that road. That's the most advantageous for sight lines. So, with the new painting, the hopefully new crosswalk soon and stop signs and the daylighting this theory, we hope to vastly improve the safety for everyone in the area.
[Tim McGivern]: Motion well, I'll let someone else motion.
[Alicia Hunt]: Approve second sounds great.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I have a roll call vote. Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Steve Covino?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yes. With a 4-0 count, one missing, motion is approved. We have one more, 2025-60, handicap sign, john answer joey 71 central lab alva has informed us that um i believe john has passed away so whether we place this on file we save and place file do we need to vote for that yeah all right so we're gonna place that on file uh that concludes our meeting um first of all i'd like to introduce sergeant chris gavino He is now in traffic replacing Jordan Canava. And he will be chairing the meetings.
[Alicia Hunt]: Now that you know how to do it.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, so thank you everyone for having me.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Motion to adjourn.
[Tim McGivern]: Yes, so moved.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Todd Blake]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Covino? Yes.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_06]: Motion passes 4-0, one absent. Thank you everyone, nice seeing you. Thank you.