[Jack Buckley]: Okay, welcome to the City of Medford Traffic Commission meeting. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, and the time is 5.06 p.m. This meeting will now come to order. Alva, roll call of the commissioners, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon.
[Jack Buckley]: Here.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt. Here. Commissioner Silva.
[Jack Buckley]: Here.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Here and present. With one vacancy, four to zero to one, we have a quorum. Also present this evening, Secretary to the Traffic Commission, Alva Erickson. I see we have Director of Traffic and Engineering, Todd Blake, and also Director of Parking, Sarah McDermott.
[Todd Blake]: First off- Also, sorry Chief, also Lieutenant Brennan from the Fire Department.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, welcome Lieutenant Brennan from the Bedford Fire Department. The minutes of the June 9th, 2026 meeting have been distributed prior to this meeting. If all seems to be in order, I will accept a motion to accept and approve. Commissioners. This is where it's on you commissioners. You read the agenda, I mean the minutes of the June 9th, Do they appear in order?
[Alicia Hunt]: For those of us who are not remembering, real clearly, they were sent back in mid-June. I assume I read them back then.
[Jack Buckley]: Motion to approve. I'll second. Motion of Commissioner McGibbon. Do I have a second?
[Jim Silva]: I'll second it.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Silva. Alba, roll call?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, on the vote of four to nothing with one absent, the minutes have been accepted and approved. New business, 2026-34, permit parking variance. Eric Sharp, 64 Salem Street for Ashland, Oakland, or Garden Streets. If I could just ask, we're gonna unmute you. If you're present, if you could present your petition to the commissioners. Petitioner present, raise their hand. Yes, hello. Can you hear me? Yes, can hear you now. Thank you. Welcome to the Traffic Commission meeting and your floor is yours.
[SPEAKER_26]: Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate you guys taking the time and afforded me the opportunity to request this variance. So, I, I lived for the past 2 years over on New Bern Avenue in Medford and there I had access to the G zone permit for parking and I found that the, the. on-street parking was very plentiful and it was very helpful because I didn't have access to off-street parking all the time. And then a few months ago I moved to Salem Street right in downtown Medford and then I quickly found out that I don't have access to a regular parking permit. I guess just given the specific street I live on and that it's metered parking instead of I guess, you know, resident permit parking. I don't have full time access to off street parking. And so it's, it's sometimes a bit of a challenge to figure out what to do when I don't have access to that. And so I, I think. having access to a parking variance on one of the streets, Oakland, Ashland, or Garden, which are pretty much adjacent to Salem Street, would be very helpful for myself, just so that I can always have a place to park my car and not have to worry about moving it in order to comply with various regulations. daytime hours and metered hours, et cetera. And also with the winter months coming soon, there's always the question of when snow emergencies happen and how that affects parking for everybody. And so I would certainly appreciate the opportunity to be able to purchase a parking pass for one of those adjacent streets. So thank you for your time and your consideration.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. Thank you for the petition. Commissioners, questions or concerns to address the petitioner?
[Alicia Hunt]: I saw you had submitted a letter that stated that you use public transportation during the day. So part of the problem is you're not moving your car all the time, which makes this more difficult. I personally like to reward people who use public transportation and not penalize them because they're not taking their car away. So, and the other thing is your landlord wasn't the person who rented you the apartment wasn't clear about what the parking situation was when you were renting the apartment.
[SPEAKER_26]: Well, I knew that we had access to one off street spot, and I live with a roommate so. We only have the one spot between the two of us. And I think that was about as far as it went in terms of explaining the situation. Certainly, had I known what the situation would have been parking-wise, I probably would have asked the landlord a few more questions before signing my lease. But, you know, it's sort of at this point water under the bridge. The bridge, and yeah, as you can see there, there's there's that front parking lot. It's shared with the businesses downstairs. There's a, like, a play place kind of thing. And then among the other residents, there's 4 units up above. And so it's a, it's a very tight parking lot. And then it's also used just by, I think, people on. on the day-to-day during business hours. It's quite small and we're not technically supposed to be parking both of our cars, my roommate and I are not supposed to be both parked there for our landlord's agreement. We trade off in terms of who gets to park there, who gets to go find some non-permitted parking somewhere else.
[Alicia Hunt]: I see Todd has his hand up. Did you have input?
[Todd Blake]: I think he answered. I was going to ask about the parking out front.
[Jack Buckley]: Director Boyd, could you repeat that? I didn't hear that.
[Todd Blake]: Sorry, I was going to ask about the parking out front, but he already answered that.
[Jack Buckley]: OK. The chair would like to ask the director of parking, Sarah McDermott, If the commissioners were to approve this variance, do you have a preference on where you probably have the best idea of number of spots?
[Sarah McDermod]: I think the greatest availability is going to come from Oakland Street or Ashland Street. Garden's a lot smaller. Both Ashland and Oakland, if I'm not mistaken, are one-side parking only. So either one isn't going to have parking on both sides. So I think either of those would be best if our parents were granted rather than guardians. I think there's one side parking as well. I think all three of those streets are.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'll say as someone who bikes down Oakland very frequently in the morning, it doesn't seem to be very crowded with cars. Permitted cars are allowed to park in all those spots that say no parking 9 a.m. and noon, right? or eight to nine. Am I misread? No, yeah, it's Oakland. Yeah, I think that those went up to prevent people from parking there and taking the bus into the city. But there's a lot of those signs. Oh, yeah, it's permit parking.
[Todd Blake]: So it's not during those other times. Yeah, so. Right.
[Sarah McDermod]: Yeah, it's only it's only in the mornings. For probably the exact reason you mentioned to keep computers out and then, I mean, we haven't had any the only objections I've had from Oakland Street regarding parking are they want to park the wrong direction and we've. Been up there many times so Eric, if you're granted a variance for for Oakland Street, just make sure you park with the flow of traffic because you'll see cars up there parked in the wrong direction and they may be cited. So don't follow their lead. But yeah, I mean, I think of the three, if I look at Ashland, I think Ashland is 24-7 permitting. So I think that Oakland would be the best bet. Yeah, Ashland is 24-7. So Oakland would probably be the best option if a variance is granted. I think it's actually a little bit closer than Ashland too.
[Tim McGivern]: I got a question. Where is the closest non permitted parking? I think there's a little bit on Brookside Parkway. You know, unrestricted parking.
[Sarah McDermod]: Yeah, I'm not sorry Eric.
[Tim McGivern]: I didn't know who that was directed to Tim because I know that we all probably have, you know, maybe you do Sarah, maybe Eric knows because he parks there.
[Sarah McDermod]: So, yeah, Brookside Parkway doesn't have restrictions except for that 1 area. That's no parking to allow a turning radius for vehicles. And then if you go north of hall have on 4th street and governor's there's unrestricted parking up until Lawrence road. So, between hall and Lawrence road on both. 4th street and governor's there's no permits required.
[Tim McGivern]: And Eric, you said you have visited the Brookside Parkway parking before. Have you been to Forest Street or any of those?
[SPEAKER_26]: Not the latter. No, I have parked on Brookside Parkway, and that certainly is a helpful option. My one concern is with the winter months coming and with snow emergencies in certain streets, I'm sure there are some arteries around there that then get blocked off for parking, which I would imagine then drives residents or people who normally park there to then
[Tim McGivern]: Park on places like Brookside Park when I see it, we're not going to, you know, we basically kick everybody off of the main drags. So, and we're not ticketing at that point. Anyway, there's no emergency.
[SPEAKER_26]: So, yeah, so I assume that the parking gets. You know, slim to none in terms of availability on there.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, you just at that point, you just if you say we're parking on 4th street, you'd want to governors. You'd want to get onto a side street and just find a safe spot to reside throughout the storm.
[Alicia Hunt]: Permit parking is not enforced during. Snow storms, so emergency snow emergencies.
[Tim McGivern]: But anyway, yeah, I just wanted to get that information out there. So, you know, those are obviously longer distances from where you live than if you were to say, get a permit on Oakland.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Silva, any thoughts or concerns?
[Jim Silva]: I think just in perspective of driving down Oakland Street or walking down Oakland Street, there really isn't a lot of cars that are parked on the street. A lot of people park in their driveways. So I think this availability is probably pretty acceptable. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: The other thing I think worth noting is that while there appears to be plenty of parking on forest, I don't know if this has gotten any better, but we've heard reports that when there are shows, it becomes almost impossible to find parking over there.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood. All right, before I go back to the commissioners, does anyone from the public have a comment on this either for or against the petition? Public comment? Just gonna raise your hand. Okay, I will say seeing none, I'll go back to the commissioners for a motion, one way or the other.
[Jim Silva]: I motion to approve for Oakland parking on Oakland variance.
[Jack Buckley]: Second. And the motion of Commissioner Silva to approve a variance for Oakland Street seconded by Commissioner McGibbon. Alba, could you give us a roll call vote please?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of four to nothing with one vacancy, the motion, the petition is approved. I appreciate your time and effort coming before the commission and you can report to the parking department and they will handle that for you. Just give us about a day or two to make sure all the paperwork is filed over there. Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_26]: Thank you very much, everyone.
[Jack Buckley]: 2026-35 on the petition of Gota Avra Sarala, 239 Boston Ave, for a variance on North Street. Is the petitioner present? Raise your hand, it might help us find you, and we will unmute you.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: Jim, do you see she has her hand up?
[SPEAKER_25]: Hi, good evening. Can you hear me?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, please. Good evening. Welcome. Thank you. The floor is yours. Please revert your petition.
[SPEAKER_25]: Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to present our request. I'm here with my husband, Jesse Rackeson. He's also on the call. He can raise his voice and as well if need to be unmuted. But I have his permission to speak on the behalf of the both of us. We're requesting a parking variance on North Street for two of our vehicles. We recently purchased a property on Boston Ave where our residence is. Our property currently doesn't have a dedicated off-street parking or a driveway. So we parked on Boston Ave. We purchased the property in June of this year. and we really enjoy living in the Medford community. However, we are having to continuously move our vehicle during street cleaning and we were also worried about the snow emergencies and Whenever we had to travel, we had to move our vehicle around quite a bit. And to be compliant, it has posed significant challenges for us. We're the first residential property at the intersection of North Street and Boston Ave. And it was informed to us that if there is if you are at the intersection of North Street, there may be an opportunity to get a permit parking variance. Unfortunately, right next to us, there are just commercial stores and we are the first. Yes, that is the one. And we just wanted to request if there is an opportunity to give us permission to obtain parking permits to park on North Street for two of our vehicles.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. And I appreciate the petition and you're out. Commissioners, questions, concerns to the petitioner?
[Alicia Hunt]: I was trying to understand the need to move. I understand needing to move for street sweeping, which I believe is once a week on Boston Ave. And I do wonder where people put their cars, because everything around there is permit parking. But I'm not clear I understand what else you mean by needing to move frequently. And as you heard us say in the last petition, like snow emergencies, you just need to park on the correct side of the street. But it doesn't matter if it's a permitted street.
[SPEAKER_25]: Yeah, I do commute to work every day. I take public transportation, but I have to drive to the train station often. And by the time I come home, it is often very late. And by the time I come back, there aren't many spots available sometimes. And that causes a lot of trouble for me to try and find something. Oftentimes there have been when I had to come back home from work really late. I couldn't find anything at all. There was no place for me to park on either side of Boston Ave. So I had to drive to a friend's home and park it in their driveway because I did not want to break any street parking regulations and rules. I've, I continuously have to do that. Um, uh, and I, I've had to do this a few times and I, and that, that was, that is sort of one of the bigger challenges that I've experienced, uh, since moving here.
[Alicia Hunt]: I found it beforehand. I was just looking for my, my map of permit parking. Um, North street doesn't, Go that far within Medford at that point, does it couple blocks.
[Sarah McDermod]: Yeah, because about 3 blocks, 4 blocks lines at about 120. it's right about Hamilton have 120 North street is where it turns to Somerville. Well, it's tricky because of some of the properties beyond 120, as you'll find out later on a different resident. Some of the properties are Medford, but the street becomes controlled by Somerville around 120 North street.
[Alicia Hunt]: Is there I mean, is there space on North street for another permit? It seems counterintuitive that there's more space on North street than on. Boston have. And are both ends of North Street, like, if you went the other direction on the other side of that bridge, I mean, it's kind of far at that point, but. Is that also permit parking down there? North Street. Because North Street crosses the railroad tracks and continues.
[Sarah McDermod]: It's only permit restricted from Boston Avenue to 120 North Street. Okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: Because I don't want the couple to be misled to think there's plenty of parking because pretty quickly you hit Somerville.
[Sarah McDermod]: I don't know how busy that street is with parking.
[Tim McGivern]: I have a question for Ms. Avasarala. Do you look on North Street? Yes. So, okay.
[SPEAKER_25]: So that's full too when you're... North Street has spots when I see it. And unfortunately, because I do not have the permit, I cannot park there.
[Tim McGivern]: Do you know how those spots on the unregulated side or the regulated side? In other words, the side that requires permits or the side that doesn't require. It sounds like one side of the tracks is one thing, one side of the tracks is the other.
[SPEAKER_25]: Yeah, oftentimes on both sides. I forget which one is the regulated versus on one or some of the requires permits.
[Tim McGivern]: Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: The one by your house that part. And then, yeah. past the vacant lot across the railroad tracks. That's unregulated down there.
[SPEAKER_25]: Gotcha, okay. But the immediate North Street, as soon as I turn from Boston Ave, make a right, that street almost always has spots at night or evenings especially.
[Tim McGivern]: Sounds like maybe because that is permit parking is probably why there are some spots. Okay, thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Silva, thoughts or concerns? And then I'll go to Parking Director Sarah McDermott if she has concerns.
[Jim Silva]: I think clearly there's some flexibility here with spacing, but I think that Sarah alluded to that yesterday.
[Jack Buckley]: Director McDermott, any other? I mean, I appreciate the responses so far, but any other concerns over this petition?
[Sarah McDermod]: Now that I can really justify, I mean, I'm concerned because I know there is another variance request for North Street later on the agenda. So if we grant two for this person, and then there's another person who actually lives on North Street just beyond the Medford street owned part, that's potentially three cars were adding to that street. In 1 night, um, I do know that between North street and Quincy street, I want to say on Cape and there's not permit requirements. I'm sorry between North street and Adam street. There's no permit requirement. So that's. An option for anybody who doesn't have a permit in the area. There is signs up between North street Quincy street, because apparently we thought it was permit parking only, but I went back and forth with alpha. I think earlier this year. And we determined that from North street to Adam street on capon is not permit restricted. Just throwing that out there in the meantime, it's as a spot that anybody could use, but I don't, I can't, I can't say that. I know the occupancy of North street well enough to say that 3 cars is going to make a break or 2 cars. We'll just focus on the 1 person for now that 2 cars is going to make a difference.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, thank you commissioners say any further questioning or watch I'll come back to you. Let's see if there's any public comment either for or against this petition. If you are a member of the public and have a comment or this petition, please raise your hand. Okay, seeing none, I'll go back to the commissioners for any further questions or a motion in one way or the other. Can we bring it up on the map just to look at what we're talking about? Yep, Director Blake, your hand on the map, please. It looks like you're trying to get it, but it's not up yet.
[Tim McGivern]: What I'm looking at on my phone, I just wanted to show everybody, is it looks like there's parking on both sides. I mean, when the Google image was taken, it looks pretty sparse as far as cars on it. You know, I count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. You know, maybe 20 cars or something like that. It looks like double the amount of spaces open. So it's the order of magnitude-wise. I don't know, once you get it open, if you can maybe comment on that too, just as far as what the space looks like that we're talking about here. Because three cars, thinking of it that way, you know, is there plenty of room or should we try to limit, you know, to one variance a piece?
[SPEAKER_16]: Can you see that?
[Todd Blake]: No. No. No. It says I'm sharing on my end.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, it says you're trying to share. It's just not showing. Oh. I mean, yeah.
[Jim Silva]: Can you double click on the image?
[Alicia Hunt]: Do you want me to try sharing? And I was just to see if it's.
[Tim McGivern]: Team cars. Yeah, a lot of ways to looks like this driveways.
[Todd Blake]: Let me click the screen and it says it's sharing. I just I can't see what you guys seen. Sorry.
[Tim McGivern]: Well, describe what I'm looking at on my phone about 18 cars in that stretch from Boston Ave to number 120. Just on this Google snapshot, it looks like about that's about 50% of the space available on the curb. If I'm being generous. And then, you know, it looks like it's hit or miss with driveways. It looks like some properties of driveways. Others do not.
[Alicia Hunt]: Is this showing for you guys?
[Jack Buckley]: It is now. Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right. So just approximately what you're seeing. So this is the corner. And then you can go up.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, in the future, we want to clean up that parking on what should be the sidewalk.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. So this will get narrower if and when we build sidewalks here. And then I'm not sure how far. This must be in Somerville by now. I'm not sure how far. That's just shot forward.
[Jim Silva]: No, you're still OK. Green signs Medford, blue signs Somerville. Still OK.
[Alicia Hunt]: So it looks like there's plenty of parking. I would move approval for the variances on North street.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Thank you. The motion of commissioner hunt. Do I have a second? I second. Seconded by commissioner Silva on approval of 2026 dash 35 for parking variants on North street. Alba, can we get a roll call vote?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes, on the vote of four to none, four to zero, one vacancy, the motion is approved. To the petitioners, thank you for your participation. Just give us a day or two and you can check in with the parking department.
[Sarah McDermod]: And that's just for clarity for my clerks, that's for both the husband and the wife's car?
[Jack Buckley]: Or is that for just one? The petitioners for two vehicles.
[Alicia Hunt]: And the applicant has her hand raised again. Should I unmute her?
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, please. If she could help clarify that question.
[SPEAKER_25]: Yes, the petition is for two people, me and my husband. And thank you so much. I really appreciate your consideration and approval. Yes, my name is Goda Shravya Rao Avasarala. And my husband's name is Jesse Rackison. Can you spell his last name for me, please, real quick? Yeah. R-A-C, C as in Cat, U, S as in Sam, E as in English, N. Very good. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, I mean, that's all I needed. I don't know if he'll wait on me.
[Jim Silva]: Chief, you need to unmute.
[Jack Buckley]: all of that without that. So probably the next one would be 2026-36. But I would ask while we handle this that we consider taking out of order 2026-41, 2026-47, 2048 and 2049. They sort of are around the same subject matter and some of them crossover, we have North Street, Osgoode and Cape and et cetera. And it will allow us to address the city matters all at once. So let's do 2026-36 first. And after this, I will take a motion from a commissioner if they feel my suggestion is worthwhile. 2026. dash 36 handicap parking sign Patricia good 63 Linwood Street is the petitioner present and we will unmute you and if you could put set to your petition.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes my name is Patricia Gordon and I'm looking for a handicap sign in front of my house. I have ALS that was diagnosed a year ago July I presented with my doctor's note. I do have a placard, but I'm looking for a sign in front of my house.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. Thank you. for your participation this evening. Alva, all the paperwork is in order. We've received everything we need. I appreciate your willingness to, but you do not have to give us your personal, your medical history, et cetera, but you know what I mean? You could keep that private and personal. Standby for one moment. Commissioners, do we have any questions or concerns of the petitioner?
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I was just curious, do you have a driveway or anything like that? Can you explain a little bit more about why this will be helpful to you?
[SPEAKER_10]: It's a two-family and I do have a driveway, but because of this disease, I get tired very easily, so it's better for me to have a parking space right out front for me to get into the car.
[Tim McGivern]: And you know, it won't be, um, exclusively for you. Uh, if we grant it, it can be used by anybody with a handicap placard.
[SPEAKER_10]: Sure. I understand.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you. That's all I have.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Silva, questions, concerns.
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, that's, that's my typical question.
[Jim Silva]: I'm all set.
[Jack Buckley]: Uh, I'll entertain a motion from a commissioner on approval or
[Jim Silva]: I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: I move to approve.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve. I move to approve
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, on a vote of four to nothing with one vacancy, the petition is approved. Ms. Gordon, thank you for your participation this evening. It will take us a few minutes to get everything, a few days to get everything in order and to get working on that side, but you have been approved and it will go up in short order. Thank you very, very much.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Appreciate it. Back to the commissioners. On my thoughts of 2026, 41, 47, 48, 49. Do we wish to take those out of order? So moved.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. The motion of commission of a given seconded by commissioner Hunt. I have a very quick roll call.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Silva?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt, sorry.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, you went out of order. I'm sorry, yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, on the vote of four to one vacancy, the motion is approved 2026-41. On petition, Kermit Park and for Quincy Street between Osgoode and Capon Street. Do we have an original petitioner, Alva, who could present this for us?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Andrew Milne.
[Jack Buckley]: It was the original petitioner. Is Andrew Mill present? If you could raise your hand, we will unmute you. You can present the petition on behalf.
[SPEAKER_22]: Hi, thank you for, am I unmuted? Yeah, we can hear you.
[Jack Buckley]: Welcome to the Traffic Commissioner. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_22]: Thank you. And thank you for listening to our concerns. And Alba, thank you for helping us through this process. We are Quincy street and we're from Osgoode to Cape and we are the only block that is not permitted. Uh, if you cross Quincy, uh, going, uh, the other way up, uh, across Osgoode, it is permitted. And then it turns into Somerville quite quickly. And then in the other direction, if you cross Cape and it is permitted. And what has happened over the years, especially because of social media, we have a lot of cars of residents that don't live here. On an average night, we have between nine and 10 out-of-state license plates. And especially in the winter, it becomes more of a problem. I do know on tough social media, they do post that Quincy Street is available because it's not a permit parking. We have had people that come and put chairs out that don't even live on the street. And then you ask them, do you live on this street? Um, and, uh, eventually if you ask like, what home do you live in? They say, no, we have several people that walk from the Somerville side that don't have permits and then park here. Uh, we have in certain times of the year, a lot of storage of cars, especially when Tufts, uh, goes out for the summer. I'm assuming students park their cars here. And so we have to call the police to come mark them and then eventually tow them away. And that's quite frequent. To augment the difficulties even more, most of the homes here are owned and the residents, the owners live in the homes. We have a few homes that are rented. And a couple of those, they rent out the driveway to other people. So the residents of that home don't live there. The home, some of the homes that are rented have over six cars. In one case, four of them are out-of-state plates. So it's a bad situation. If you come down our street now, pretty much every spot is taken. You'll see somewhere between nine and 10 out-of-state. And then in the wintertime, H.S. becomes a really, not a nice place. And we're a small street that the neighbors know each other. And unfortunately, especially in the winter, it becomes, an ugly social situation. So we would like to have the same rules as the other streets. When I go down Adam Street, that one block, there's usually only one out-of-state plate on that street. And we just want the same rules as all the surrounding streets. That's all we're asking for.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. Thank you. I appreciate your presentation and the petition. I do note that the petition has included a number of names that are signed on to his petition, and it looks to be about 20 different names, probably associated with about 11 or 12 different residences, if I counted quickly. I know the commissioners have this in front of them. I just point it out for the record. Commissioners, any questions or concerns of the petitioner at this time?
[Alicia Hunt]: Usually we want to know what the comparison is to the number of people who've signed on to it and the number of actual properties on it to make sure that it's more than 50% of the homes on the street have signed on. And whether there's anybody who's against it.
[Jack Buckley]: Let me probably pull it up and take a look. I did a very quick look prior to this. I counted no more than 21 residential houses in that area. And it looks like we have, again, 20 petitioners. And out of that is at least 11 or 12. You have that in front of you, actual of the residences there. To your point of is there anyone against it, I did receive an email Brian Heatherman, Applicant OLIV, Applicant OLIV): And i'll read it for the record, the particular seat person cannot be present Hello, my name is Brian heatherman I own the condo at 45 quincy street I received a letter from the city about making the block of quincy street between as good and capon into private parking I will be. unable to attend the traffic commission meeting. So I'm ready to inform you the commission that at this time, I am not in favor of the petition and would like to keep the pocket situation as it currently is. That is the only person who has come forward after we have sort of notified the residents and the owners of the property who is against the petition.
[Jim Silva]: If we have someone in the audience with their hand raised,
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, before I go to public, I just, is there any, do the commissioners have any other questions or concerns before we just open it up?
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I was just wondering if Mr. Milne, if that's how you say it, sorry if I mispronounced it, could just maybe describe that a little bit on his own about the number of people that signed his petition versus how many people live on the street. I know we just, Chief, you went over it. Thank you very much. I just want to hear what his take is on it.
[SPEAKER_22]: Oh, well, I've lived here almost 40 years now, so I know most people on the street and I believe we have the majority. I know 45 is a rented building and I don't believe that person actually is a resident of the street if I'm not mistaken.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. And, uh, uh, if Commissioner McGiven, if you do have any further in the chat, there is another resident who is, uh, indicating their approval and did not sign the petition. So that would add one more in favor. Why don't we open up to those in favor of the petition. If you're in favor of the petition and would like to speak briefly to the commissioners, please raise your hand. We'll try to get through you quickly. All we need is your name, address, and your brief comments in favor of the petition. And then we'll go to those not in favor. So please raise your hand in the public if you would like to comment.
[Jim Silva]: Simon, you've been.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. Hi there. My name is Simon Lace. I am an abutter at 46 Quincy Street. I'm down towards Capon Street and I found this. I never heard of this petition before getting the letter from the city. And last week I took a video down the street and in the late afternoon. And less than half of the spots were taken, possibly even less than that. And I personally almost always find a spot right in front of my residence down on 46 Quincy Street, and if I don't, I get one of, you know, within 50 feet or so. I just feel it's unnecessary, especially earlier in this meeting, it was said that our cross street, Capon Street, between North Street and Adams Street, it was determined not to be permit parking earlier this year, if I'm correct about that, if that was said earlier. It just feels like an undue cost and inconvenience to have our cars permitted. I also, I'm an artist, I'm a musician. I teach some students out of my house, just people that come by and come for a lesson briefly, and also we have some rehearsals with my other roommates. And the last thing I want to say is that it's possible some out-of-state cars could be students that are renters and are residents here, but aren't able to get permit parking because their cars were owned by their parents. I know back when I was in college, that was an issue for me, even though they should legally get their car registered. But they are residents. But yes, I'm against this position. That's all I have to say. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your comments. Anyone else? Again, I want to be clear. Let's take those in favor of now so we can add to the conversation and then we will seek out those against. Raise your hand. Next.
[Adam Knight]: Hello. Can you guys hear me? Yes, welcome. Awesome. Sorry, I don't have my camera on. Camera is busted. My name is Jared Graber. I'm a resident at 61 Quincy Street. I'm in favor of this petition. Last year we moved, not last year, we moved in March and before it wasn't much issue, but over the summer there became more and more cars taking up more and more spaces. That is crucial for people who do not have a driveway on some of these cars, some of the residences. And because of that, a lot of the Tufts students are taking them up. And I know they're Tufts students because I see them walking from Tufts University, walking over to their car to drive away afterwards, which is not problematic if it was only during commuting hours, if they were only from 9 to 5 during class times. However, I see a lot of them parking overnight. And the weekends, it does get crazy. There's been quite a few times that I was not able to find a spot with ease, especially with a larger car. That being said, my main concern really isn't necessarily in the fall or summer. It's actually in the wintertime when there's going to be more tough students commuting in because of the winter with their car and more snow on the ground causing lower parking space as well. So because of that, I'm in favor of turning this to a permit street parking. But was there a comment saying that there is also more permitless parking around this area too? I don't remember hearing about that. Otherwise, good morning.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, thank you for your comments. There was some comments when we were discussing North Street and Gator Street there. There are some smaller claims that do not have permanent parking at this time. Anyone else in favor? Speaker, please raise your hand in favor of this petition.
[Unidentified]: Welcome.
[SPEAKER_27]: Hi, I'm Rachel. I live at 67 Quincy Street. I am unmuted. Sorry, my husband is next to me chatting. I'm at 67 Quincy Street, clear on the other end from 45. We see the tough students come and park here and then go not just to class, but also for parties and stuff. You'll see them and then you'll hear the party on the next walk over. A lot of times one school is in session where I can't find parking right near us at all. And it's just plain full of stuff. We also have like, there's an after school program that's like on the corner of us. And so like people are also using that to stop and pick up their kids. And it's not a big deal, but it's just an extra thing where there's like, you know, 30 parents picking it up in the day too. And then the tough students and it just does get very crowded. down here and sometimes completely full. And it's definitely gotten worse in the last 10 years that I've been here. Like it's gotten significantly worse once they figured out that this was the free parking.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. Just to be clear, you are in favor of the petition?
[SPEAKER_27]: Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, excellent. Thank you very much for your comments. Anyone else in favor of the petition? Again, we're just going to unmute you if you raise your hand. We have none.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will ask- Bill McCormick is raising his hand in the video.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Can you unmute? Hi, how are you sir?
[SPEAKER_21]: Welcome. Well, thanks. I'm in favor of the petition. I live at 62 Quincy Street. I've been here for 15 years. And it's especially the long-term parking that I object to, you know, cars that are abandoned here for a week, even in one case, there was a car outside here for three months, just abandoned. So that's what I object to. It's not really the short term parking, but so I'm in favor of the position.
[Jack Buckley]: I very much appreciate it. Thank you for your comments. I very much appreciate your participation. We'll go back to the public. Anyone else in favor? Raise your hand in some manner. We'll get you and you up. I see no others. Anyone who wishes to speak in opposition of the petition, please raise your hand and make yourself known.
[SPEAKER_00]: Howdy, just Matt Bachman also at 67 Quincy. Yep. Welcome. I am in favor of the petition. I don't have a whole lot to add. The only, the main thing I notice is when there's like a party nearby, you'll just suddenly see our part of the street fill up with cars as people sort of park and then walk over to where they're actually going. And yeah, that's, that's really, I mean, I think other people have already said most of the other reasons.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, but in favor of the petition, thank you very, very much for your participation and your comments. Again, anyone else who would like to comment on this, we'll just leave it open now. In favor or against, raise your hand, make yourself known. Okay, seeing none, I'll go back to the commissioners. You've heard from the petitioner and some other residents. some in favor and there's one present tonight who's against and one who has filed their comments. online for an email with us. So I send it back to the commissioners.
[Todd Blake]: Chief, this is Todd, not a commissioner. I just had something to add for the, so it looks like there's 21 structures on that block of Quincy. And I count about nine of them are two family. So that would suggest a potential 30 households. So in terms of if you're trying to figure out what percentage signed the petition or not, I think there's 30 potential households to contribute. And then when you get a chance, can you make me a co-host again? Because I logged off and logged back on. I will do that.
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, it looks like other than 12, that 12 different households signed this. Assuming that anybody who has an apartment number added it. I was just counting the street numbers. And I feel for them, and I get it, and this close to Somerville, it actually makes a lot of sense that you need parking, because we've heard repeatedly that people from Somerville find spots on Medford streets. I would hope, I don't know, Chief, if there's any guidance on this long-term storage of vehicles. I personally feel that our 48-hour rule is too short. But clearly, if somebody's leaving a vehicle there for more than a week, it's a problem. Um, which is actually what I think the other we've hearing from people who go away for a week, but can they register the car with the police or Sarah, if they have only on street parking and they're going out of, you know, away for two weeks?
[Sarah McDermod]: Yes. Yes. We recommend they do that so that they don't get a ticket for 48 hours. Um, and I actually looked up how many 48 hour violations are on Quincy street and I don't see any since 2025. So, if y'all see cars parked on the street for longer than 48 hours, you can reach out to my department, the parking department, and we can issue a citation. If the vehicles parked there for over 48 hours, and we can't take your word that it's been there. We have to set a timer and come back and issue a ticket. If you contact the police department, they can do the exact same thing, but they can also potentially tell. Based on whether the person, you know, lives, we're not trying to tell your neighboring knows if they're on vacation, but they use their discretion to determine whether it's always appropriate. My department does not tell. So, please reach out to me or the, um. The traffic division of the police, if you see vehicles that you think are abandoned, or have been there for an extended period of time, and we'll try and mitigate that as much as we can, especially if the entire. whether or not it passes, regardless, if the motion passes and there's still vehicles there, even with a permit, you're not allowed to park in one space for more than 48 hours.
[Jack Buckley]: And I will second those comments and add that both myself and Director McDermott are in conversations about modifying the 48-hour rule and bringing it up to a different standard. But that will be a little bit down the line when we complete our rules and regulations. So it's back to the commissioners on a motion on what you prefer to do in this matter with the petition.
[Tim McGivern]: So we have 12 signing the petition and then two here that are adding their names to it. Totaling 14 representative households on the street with 30.
[Jack Buckley]: We have 20 signing the petition representing what I see about, like I said, 11 or 12 actual structures. And that added the additional gifts. It's not all the way it was presented. I didn't see how many were two families, but Director Blake adds, says nine of the 21 structures are two families. So I think in that case, we only add about four and a half, not nine, right? Because we would have already counted them in the original 21.
[Todd Blake]: Well, I'm going by basically the addresses and if a house has two front doors with two addresses on it, so it would be 21. Yeah, so it would be 21 plus nine structures with one more each. So 30.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Yep. Got it. Potentially. Yes. So still about 50%, but if this helps or not, I would say.
[Todd Blake]: You know, it's very rare to still have a street like this. And I think in my professional opinion, working in both Somerville and Cambridge in the kind of insurance station parking fields, I'd be surprised if the street, even if it didn't pass tonight, it's like the last domino to fall in a particular neighborhood or surrounded by all resident parking streets. Then, you know, eventually I think there'll be enough momentum. It eventually happens in this case, in similar cases in these two cities, so.
[Alicia Hunt]: Can I actually take this opportunity to ask the neighbors something that you may be familiar with is the green line zone that is quite near you that allows people in a region to park on the various streets. One of the problems we find with this street by street is that everybody is kind of forced onto only their own streets. And I feel like the more of these streets that become permit parking only is the stronger argument for why we should have a region over here. And if that would change any minds, I feel like it's still a problem for the person who has people come and visited very frequently and is going to have to constantly give out a visitor pass. You can get two visitor passes, but like those music students, you're going to have to run downstairs and throw the visitor pass in their car. And that's going to add, you know, time and effort into stuff.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, and I'd like to add that the out-of-state thing, if you're here short term, that's one thing, but if you're here for a whole school year, the whole, you know, the reason why Medford would prefer to switch your vehicle to Medford registration, because then you pay the excise tax in the city or the town that you're actually housing the car for the majority of the year instead of keeping it in the Cape or out-of-state or wherever the parents have it registered elsewhere.
[Tim McGivern]: Do we usually do this by block or, I mean, I feel like we usually do this by whole streets.
[Jack Buckley]: It's our preference, but in the past it's been done partial, so I imagine this has been done in the past.
[Alicia Hunt]: And do we is this is the other block not. Permit parking, I do not have a permit parking map in front of me.
[Sarah McDermod]: I currently Quincy street is permitted from Boston to Cape and from good to the Somerville line. So their portion of the remaining part.
[Alicia Hunt]: Then I would move approval because I think it's silly that one block isn't permanent parking and the others are. And so what that tells me though is that these three blocks, they would all be able to park on each other's sections, but just them. And if the other two blocks and they're the missing gap in front of it between it, then that's even more nuts and I would move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, the motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve 2026-41 apartment parking for Quincy Street between Osgoode and Caveman Street. Do I have a second? I second. Seconded by Commissioner Silva. Alva, could we get a roll call vote, please?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[SPEAKER_14]: Is it a hard and fast rule that we do that 50% rule or what? There's no hard and fast rule at 50%.
[Tim McGivern]: I'd like to see a majority, so I'm going to vote no.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of three to one to one vacancy, the motion is approved. To all the petitioners present tonight, and those who have showed up in opposition of it, I do appreciate your participation and your comments, and I thank you for your time this evening. 2026-47. Permit parking variance for Wellesley Street from Jill Van Diddy, 310 Main Street, Corder Hall. If you could raise your hand and make yourself known and we will unmute you. Petitioner present, wave. I don't see either.
[SPEAKER_21]: Okay.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, I am going to go to 2026-48. We will come back to that and make a decision prior to what we want to do. 2026-48, permanent parking variance for North Street from Connor Baston, 132 North Street. If the petitioner is present, please, we will ask you to unmute yourself. And I thank you for participating and coming tonight and present your petition to the commissioners. I know I saw the petitioner.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I saw him too.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi, good evening. It was not letting me, um, unmute. Um, however, thank you for having me. I'll keep this short and simple. Um, I am actually on the North 132 North street, which is actually parallel to the, um, uh, What was the last street we were just talking about? Quincy Street. Quincy Street. Yes. So I'm parallel to that exact street that just passed for the residential parking. And practically, I'm in a situation where half of my block is allowed parking permit. So it goes to 120 North Street. And then everything after that until Hillside Community Church is non-parking permit. or non-parking permit, so I'm not allowed to get a parking permit in the case that between 140 to 120 fills up. So I'm looking to potentially park past 120 North Street down continuously until Boston Avenue in the case that our little section is packed for the night.
[Todd Blake]: I think this is a section that Sarah was mentioning that the Somerville-Medford line is peculiar here.
[Alicia Hunt]: I've never heard this before and I'm looking at this going, the houses are in Medford, but the street is in Somerville, so Somerville won't let you park in front of your own houses. But Somerville residents can get permits to park in front of your houses. Can we not work this out with the other city?
[Jim Silva]: Can I just add something to that, please? I think that side of North Street is actually Medford. Hillside Church is Medford. So from Osgoode down on the side that he speaks at, it's just not permitted. It's open, so everyone's parking there. When he comes home, he can't do that, so he wants to be able to move on North Street to the area where there's permit parking. But because his address does not have permit parking, he's not able to get that.
[Sarah McDermod]: Well, am I mistaken that Somerville did Somerville put signs out on the street. On North Street, making it permit parking for Somerville. I swear that was something the clerks mentioned when you were in here trying to get a permit.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't remember hearing that, but okay. Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: I do want to understand because it is an issue so Somerville also has all city parking permits right? You get a parking permit in Somerville. You can park anywhere in the city with it.
[Jim Silva]: So this you're in Medford now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right? And so pretty much this I'm looking all the houses across the street are Somerville. but they can't park on that side. It's only one-way parking.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, is there only parking on one side of the street?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, for most of it. I think past the stop signs at the past cape-in, it's two-side parking, that like four-way intersection. But from that to hillside, it is one-way.
[Tim McGivern]: That's just a Google map boundary as well, but we think it runs down the road, right? So, um, that's the problem, but we're due for a, uh, perambulation of the boundary at some point. So we can talk to them about that, this boundary point, but this is a sticking point. We can come up with some agreement.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. I mean, wouldn't part of the solution be here to actually do parking permit parking on the Medford side of the street. So only Medford residents.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: park on the Medford side and only Somerville residents can park on the Somerville side?
[Tim McGivern]: I think so. I think we almost need to take it over from a parking standpoint.
[Todd Blake]: If that were the case or that happens, then you'd probably want a petition from 180 up to 120 on the Eden side if you follow the rest of the way. To the Hillside Church.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, it does become, I mean, some of the things that we do is no permit parking on Sundays, which would make it more flexible for the church. I'm not, I'm missing, oh, there is the church.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, the church also does have a tow zone from, I believe, service time, so 10 to one on Sundays.
[Alicia Hunt]: As I say, I feel that we've done parking permitting for them specifically.
[Todd Blake]: So for Connor, it seems like, you know, obviously it shouldn't be on him or any resident if there's a Somerville med thing to be worked out. So for now, it looks like he's asking for the variance on North Lake further up the street or potentially Quincy one block over until that could be resolved with Somerville, I guess, or some solution. Yeah, I would agree with Todd. It seems like the request that's going on.
[Jim Silva]: Connor, can I ask a Connor question? When you come home, yes, when you're coming home at night, you had mentioned the sort of the Cape and part of North Street alone seems to have a bit of parking available. Is that correct?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes. Okay. And then also I'm a full-time worker, so I do leave my car and I use city transport. Um, to get to work as well, so I'm not using it every single day.
[Jim Silva]: And you don't have a driveway.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're we do, however, it's not ours per release. Thank you guys.
[Alicia Hunt]: Does somebody in the building park in it?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, our upstairs neighbors.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: 130 met for 130 North street. as rights to the driveway. Okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay. I just want to make sure they're not leasing it out to somebody who doesn't live there.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I could tell you, I could tell you they're, they are not.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay. Which has heard rumors, not of your property, but in theory.
[Jack Buckley]: No, no, no. This one bothered me a little. We have a resident of a street asking for a variance for their own street.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I know that doesn't make sense, but it's because we only, this is again, because we only have permit parking on part of the street. I noticed Sarah.
[Sarah McDermod]: Yeah, I just, I just wanted to throw out there that currently it doesn't look like at least according to street view from 2023 Summerville doesn't start signing until the property on. North street becomes a Somerville property, according to the map. So I'll reach out to Suzanne over there and get her thoughts because the map is just. Is that can we regulate the parking there or can we not? It looks like there's more Medford street frontage. The lower the numbers go, and then as it gets higher, it looks like more and more of the street or sidewalk is Somerville. So. I can reach out to Suzanne and see what they, what their thoughts are on that street.
[Todd Blake]: If you can see this, yeah, this gray is not a slave road. It could be mostly sidewalk. Because this property is the front yard of the property.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, do the commissioners have a motion to help alleviate the parking situation for the petitioner?
[Tim McGivern]: Emotion we grant the variance and we ask engineering to look at the, or I guess Sarah's also doing it too, but we should just look into the boundary because I think we're supposed to confirm it with Somerville every 5 years or something like that. And if Sarah could reach out to her counterpart and see if we can come up with some sort of agreement between the 2 cities on the stretch of parking.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, on the motion of Commissioner McGiven to approve 2026-48, permit parking variance for North Street, for the residents of 132 North Street, as well as looking, having the engineer and parking department look into the boundary lines. Do I have a second? Second. Second. I will take a second from Commissioner Hunt. Alba, roll call vote, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven? Yes. Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On the vote of four to nothing to one vacancy, the motion is approved. I thank you for your participation in the process. Just give us a few days, check in with the parking department and the variance should be approved. Thanks very much.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Have a great night and take care. You also. 2026-49. Request for visitor passes from Michael Dunham, 5 Sherborne Court, Unit 9. Mr. Scheib, I think I saw the present. Yes, we're gonna ask to unmute and present your petition.
[SPEAKER_23]: Are you able to hear me okay?
[Jack Buckley]: Now we can. Yep. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Welcome to the traffic commission.
[SPEAKER_23]: No, thank you. Thank you all for having me. Um, yeah, I'll try to be to be brief as well. So, my girlfriend and I moved to the area not too long ago. She's going to grad school at Tufts. And we don't own a car. We prefer bikes and then the green line, which is what we live closest to, but we. have some, I have a cousin who lives out in Southbridge and her sister lives out in Amherst and we just wanted to have the possibility if they could come, you know, for maybe 1 to 2 nights, not that often, maybe once to twice a month. And we went to the Medford parking department website to apply for a visitor pass. And the street that we live on, Sherbourne Court, didn't show up. So we reached out, spoke with Alva Erickson, who was very kind, directed us to submit this motion. And she had briefly explained that there had been problems with this street in the past, because I think Sherbourne Court starts maybe in Somerville and then extends into Medford. And you can't see, but behind me, the building in the window where I'm sitting is actually in Somerville. It's like the dividing line is kind of right there. So we just were looking to see if there were potential places for visitors to park if we have them. Since we don't have a car, we weren't incredibly familiar with the parking situation until recently. I just wanted to learn if there was a potential option for a visitor parking pass in this area.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you for your petition. First time with the commission. Is there any questions or concerns to present to the petitioner before we go to director McDermott for her thoughts? We have dealt with shareable court a number of times over the years. Commissioners.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm trying to remember. I know that we've talked both about there's visitor, like what,
[Todd Blake]: I think in the past it's been the permit itself and not the visitors. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. Like the residents themselves are not visiting the past.
[Jim Silva]: The G-Zone folks, so they're part of the G-Zone because again we're back to their street in Somerville and we can't issue, Somerville will not issue a permit or a visitor for anybody in that building because the property is in Medford. So we made them part of the G zone. So we were able to allow folks to park in any street in the zone itself without visitor parking.
[Alicia Hunt]: And if I remember correctly, there are options nearby for guests, but not necessarily overnight. There is public parking in Somerville. They can park down the block at CVS. There's actually public parking in there. But I don't think that that solves if they want to have an overnight guest.
[SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, we had spoken with some residents in the building and learned that, I think you're right, we can park behind our building overnight and at the CVS for three hours maximum. But it became a problem when we thought about if we ever take visitors downtown, do we have to come back, move the car, move it there overnight, and then it has to be moved. We were told 8 AM from that overnight parking. So we were just trying to see if there's a visitor pass that would avoid us having to move the car four times in 24 hours to keep the car near us.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, makes sense. Director McDermott, any thoughts or concerns? And the issue I think Commissioner Hunt raised was passes versus a
[Sarah McDermod]: It varies for, I was looking at the variances for both street, which is where I think we normally would put somebody from shortboard. There are. There's 1 that was granted for a visitor pass in 2023. and another one was grandfathered in from something, but it's not unheard of.
[Jack Buckley]: Correct. We have done this. This commission has granted.
[Sarah McDermod]: I don't have any concerns. A lot of these variances for Bow Street are old, like 2015, 2014, 1996 is an old one. Oh, that's Bonner. But I mean, I have no issue with it overall. It's a tricky, tricky apartment building for parking.
[Todd Blake]: If memory serves me when someone wants some permit or variances over in the Edward Henry area. We had pointed out that main street Medford has no restrictions, no permit or anything like that, which is not too far away from. So, um. It's like, 1000 feet. COB, Erika Vandenbrande?
[Alicia Hunt]: We also know it's hard to find parking there. We've had Main Street residents come to us for permits on the side streets because Somerville spills over into there. Yes.
[Jim Silva]: but I also think East side of Medford street is not permanent.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just going by what they're saying. It doesn't seem like it's all the time for the residents themselves. It's only when they have visitors sometimes that need to go overnight and the permit overnight in Somerville prevents that. So main street, both sides, and then Medford street East side are no restrictions in Medford. So at least it's an option. I'm not saying it's how free it is or not, but it's not restricted. And they don't have to pay some private parking.
[SPEAKER_16]: Good.
[Jack Buckley]: It was to the commissioners again. How would you like to proceed on this matter?
[Alicia Hunt]: I feel like guest permits are so much more like, it's not like there's going to be a car there all the time. If he was asking for a place to park his car, I feel like we might actually be more likely to be saying yes. And I assume the visitor is aware that guest permits have regulations on them about how long you can use them and how many days. And does he live in a place that he'd be allowed to buy that three-day pass, that three-day permit on a one-off thing?
[Sarah McDermod]: No, there's no visitor passes for the address that I know of. I was just going to throw out that. I would be more hesitant if we hadn't started tracking the use of the visitor permits more frequently. And so that's something that. If if what he's saying is legitimate, and he's going to have a visitor a couple of times a month. And they just want to park somewhere close by without having to worry about a meter or times or getting up early to move the car. That's why I don't object because I have a lot more confidence in my staff's ability to track the use of these permits now. And we can say with confidence, if you overuse this, you will get cited. So that's that's the main reason I'm not objecting if it was like. You know, plus, honestly. You'll see a petition from me soon about those permits and how I think they need to be lowered in price because they hardly ever sell because and. There's other reasons, but we can get into that later, but, um. I don't think visitors are allowed at short form court period. So that would that's and honestly, I think those permits are. Expensive. I mean, it'd be cheaper to just, I mean, if it were me personally, I'd go pay the meter in Somerville and deal with the hassle to avoid paying for those permits.
[Jack Buckley]: Understood. Thank you. Okay, so back to the commissioners. This is for a visitor pass.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I would if Sarah doesn't object if director McDermott doesn't exist, then I'll move approval.
[Tim McGivern]: I'll second that.
[SPEAKER_23]: Can I ask a question? We're talking about Beaux Street, right? Just a quick question. Is it one pass or two passes? Does that make a difference? We were hoping to have the option of two just in case there's any overlap. We don't foresee there'll be much because our apartment is small and we honestly can't hold that many people. But just in case, and I just wanted to just clarify before we moved forward.
[Jack Buckley]: Uh, question, uh, before I go to the commissions, uh, director McDermott, do you have a standing rule on this?
[Sarah McDermod]: Um, just that there's always a limit of 2 per household, but when it comes to a variance, it's really up to the traffic commission to decide whether 1 or 2 is appropriate.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, commissioners. And I'll go, I'll start with Commissioner Hunt. It is your motion. It's on an approval. Is your approval based on one visitor pass or the petitioner's request for two visitor passes?
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm okay with two, particularly given that our ability to track them, et cetera.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. And Commissioner McGiven, you had seconded. Is there an opposition to the petition, to the motion of two visitor passes?
[Tim McGivern]: Nope, I'm good. Two's fine.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. So on the motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve two visitor passes for the residential five shareable court unit nine, seconded by Commissioner McGiven. I'll have a roll call, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. On a vote of four to nothing to one vacancy, the motion is approved. So you've been approved for two visitor passes. Just check in with the parking department this week. I appreciate your time and attendance at the Traffic Commission.
[SPEAKER_23]: Thank you so much. I appreciate all your assistance and flexibility. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. Before returning to regular business, let's try 2026-47, Pyramid Park and Variance for Wellesley Street from Jill Venditti, 310 Main Street. And if the petitioners are present, I would ask commissioners what they prefer to do with this. Most often we table it for one month. So if the petitioner is present, please raise your hand. Wave or anything. seeing the petitioner not present.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Can you check with Sarah?
[Todd Blake]: 310 Main Street looks like a business.
[Jack Buckley]: I did notice that also, Donna. I think they're talking about 320 Main Street, so there is some questions that I was hoping the petitioner could clear up, but since the petitioner is not here... It said 310 Main Street.
[Todd Blake]: 310 is this brick building, the chiropractor next to it.
[Tim McGivern]: We have no petitioner, move to table and move on.
[Alicia Hunt]: Did we have any email from them or like letter? I managed to peruse some, but not all of our.
[Jack Buckley]: No contact. It will give a notice just that. Oh, hold on, hold on, hold on. There's 310 Main Street. I would like to request perfect parking variance for Wellesley Sleet. I live at 310 Main Street, which is the corner house.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: I sent her an email and I sent her a snail mail.
[Jack Buckley]: So she has been notified by email and regular mail to attend tonight. It has not shown up, but there's just questions with the petition and it has been tabled. The corner house appears to be 320. That's not her house.
[Todd Blake]: That's the corner of 320 Main.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: This 310 is right here.
[Todd Blake]: 320 is the corner. That's what I'm building.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Oh, he's right. 310 is the other side.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah. Okay, so it's tabled anyway. We're not going to worry too much about it until next month. We will reach out to her. Let's see what the problem is and clarify it. All right, back to the regular order of business. 2026-37 stop sign on Stearns Ave at College Ave. Director Blake, the floor is yours.
[Todd Blake]: I'm trying to get my maps available. So CERNs enters into College Avenue and it doesn't currently have a stop sign and it should proceed to establish who has right-of-way CERNs or College Ave. Share it right here. Can you see that? No. Stearns meets College Ave.
[Jack Buckley]: No. All right, now we got it, yep.
[Todd Blake]: So Stearns is one way from Maine towards College. There's a stop sign right here. The stop sign would help establish they have to yield to College Ave traffic.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, thank you. Commissioners, any questions or concerns to Director Blake? No. Let me go to public comment. Anybody wishing to speak on this petition related to the stop sign at Stearns Ave at College Ave? Please raise your hand, indicate somehow in the chat or wave. Unmute you. Okay, seeing none, back to the commissioners for a motion on this matter.
[Jim Silva]: A motion to approve. A motion to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Silva to approve 2026-37 stop signs, starts at College Ave. Do I have a second? Sure, second. Seconded by Commissioner Hunt. Alva, roll call, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: From a vote of four to nothing to one vacancy, the motion is approved. Where am I? 2026-38, no parking anytime in front of 50 Metcalfe Street. Director Blake.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, this one I'm working with the Medford Fire Department. That's why Lieutenant's on the call as well. So this is an area where they've had difficulty making their vehicles passable on these streets. So Metcalf and the next one, Elliott, where there are bends in the streets, this will really help them out, respond safely to incidents. I don't know if Lieutenant had anything to add to this one.
[Jack Buckley]: I will ask him in a moment. Can you pull the map up just so we can visually see? I know the area well.
[SPEAKER_20]: Good evening, Lieutenant Brennan with the Medford Fire Department. So as you can see on the map here, it's kind of a tight 90 degree turn. There is permit parking on both sides. In the current image that you're looking at, it's absolutely navigable with a fire truck. The problem is with Metcalf Street and the next one, uh, is the one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning calls, uh, where there is parking on both sides, parking on both corners and the fire apparatus are not able to navigate these turns. Uh, we've had instances where we'll have to abandon the fire trucks and walk to whatever address it is. And, you know, in an emergency, you know, seconds count. Um, you know, so this street in particular is proven to be quite an issue for us where we've had to, uh, back out the way we came, which is also extremely difficult and time consuming, um, you know, poses the potential for, uh, residents to get their vehicles damaged with us backing up. Uh, you know, fortunately it doesn't happen very often, but like I said, the potential is there. Um, you know, so we would like to prevent that at any cost.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. Thank you. HAB-Michael Leccesereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I think I may have made a clerical error too. I think it's number 52 we're asking for versus 50. I don't think that is the 4850. I don't think there is a parking space there. And then there was, there is in this image, uh, accessible parking space, but I think we determined that that person is no longer there, so that even though we're restricting one for fire, um, requests, we may be kind of giving one back because I think we removed that. Alba, do you recall if this one? I think this, this HP space that's listed here, I think we end up removing that because it's no longer needed in the neighborhood. So even if this one's restricted, this one's kind of give, you know, more usable to the neighborhood now.
[Jim Silva]: Take all our parking places?
[Jack Buckley]: Director Blake, could you just point out which one?
[Todd Blake]: So the one, and Lieutenant, correct me if I'm wrong, I think they want this one space for the outside turn, because when people park on that outside and inside where the snow is, that's what makes it impossible. So this, between this, if you use this driveway, that one space in these driveways, That one driveway and these two driveways in this one space gives them the outside turn. Is that correct, Lieutenant? Just so this one space in front of 52 is the request.
[SPEAKER_20]: Yes, that's correct.
[Todd Blake]: And all I was pointing out was this handicap space in front of 44 and 46, I think, was determined that was no longer necessary. So if you remove that, that kind of frees up that restriction.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: maybe a week, 10 days ago.
[Jack Buckley]: For the record, as it relates to that HP pocket site, we have sent, it's probably a couple of weeks now, we sent for the removal of that site. So it should be gone. If not, it will be shortly. So that will be an available pocket spot for all that's in there. Commissioners, any questions or concerns of either Director Blake or in this case, Lieutenant Brennan, as a special expert on this matter, before we open it up to public comment?
[Todd Blake]: If I'd like to point out before the public comment, we looked at, you know, we're trying to be sensitive with the fire department's needs, and I think they were too, to look at is the inside corner better than the outside corner, vice versa. In the outside corner, because of the driveways that exist, it looks like we only need one parking space, whereas if you kept that and you went for the inside corner, you might need to take two to three spaces. So it seemed like the outer was better in terms of minimizing.
[Jack Buckley]: So to be clear, before we go to public comment, this is a net loss of, well, one parking spot. But we are stating that there will be an addition public spot opened up with that HP side removed. Correct?
[Todd Blake]: Correct. And if we, in addition to what you said, if you know, the outer space 52 were to remain, then the fight upon might need the inner corner, which I think would be more spaces lost. Lieutenant brands shaking said not in the said.
[SPEAKER_20]: Okay. Yes, that's correct. If we were to, um, disapprove of 52, we would be looking to take the inside corner. Thank you, Lieutenant.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, let's open it up to public comment. Just please raise your hand. We'll get to you one at a time. We'll ask you to unmute. Please unmute yourself, state your name, your address, and brief comments on it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hello, my name is Andre Revert. I'm the owner of 52 Metcalf Street. Can everybody hear me? We can hear you. Welcome to the Traffic Commission. Thank you for having me. I clearly understand the need. My wife's car was the one that got hit last winter. It's a tight corner there, but I'd like you guys to keep in mind that we're only allowed to park on that side of the street in the winter and removing that spot in front of our house is the only place that we allow to park in the winter. So putting the removal on the other side will make more sense for all the residents in the street instead of on the left side of the road. Which is 52, 50, 48. So this way is in the winter will be less burden for us to find park somewhere else. Uh, then a nice street. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thank you for your comments.
[Jack Buckley]: I appreciate it. Uh, next.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hi, I'm Monica. I'm Andre's wife. I'm at 52 Metcalf Street. We've been there since 2008. Hi, thank you so much for having us here. I've lived there since 2008. We have three kids and I really have enjoyed the privilege of having that spot out front with the three kids coming in and out, taking them to school and practices and whatnot. I was hoping, if possible, it could be the spot across the street, which is, I believe, 39 and 41, just because that's the only spot we have by our house, as opposed to across the street. street that residents has about four spots. Currently, our street has lost three spots about 10 years ago due to a builder building a U shaped driveway. And we just have really limited parking here as is. So it's just a little bit Tricky now thinking of having to find more spots to go, even though that handicapped spots gone and it's something we've always needed on our street. The resident who had it just moved. So now other folks can use it again. So I'm just, I was just hoping that. you would allow for the 3941 spot on the corner to open up. And like Andre said, in the winter, we can't park over there anyway. So it's tricky. So I was just hoping you would consider that instead of taking away the spot in front of 52. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for your petition and your position on this matter. uh, anyone else wishing to speak on this? And while we're looking at just open up, yeah, chief, the males are raising their hand.
[Jim Silva]: They're unmuted.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. Um, we are 44 46. So we're the beginning of the bend on the right hand side, left hand side. Um, I have to agree with the rivets that the opposite side, would be a better choice if it's possible. We do have a lot of difficulty with large trucks. And of course, it's the fire department that we have to be concerned about. And my question again is, if you do the right-hand side, how many spots would it take?
[Jack Buckley]: Good question.
[Todd Blake]: I think the lieutenant and I would have to go back over.
[SPEAKER_09]: OK. Okay, but I, I definitely agree with them because in the winter, this street is impossible. So, it's like, depending on how many trucks turn so in.
[Todd Blake]: not being favoritism at any one particular house or not, like this 120 foot space gives them, I don't know if you could see the measurement on my screen that I'm sharing, that gives about 65 feet of maneuverability by eliminating one space. Whereas if you're on the inside corner, you get to eliminate space, every foot is a space. So the outside is the driveway. And then Lieutenant Brennan could probably speak to more how the trucks actually make the turns.
[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, so I can speak to that a little bit. I think when we initially looked at it, we would be taking about possibly four to five spots, which is in excess. If you go back to that top down view. Wow. On the inside. Right. So if you see where that the pickup truck is there on the right hand side, that's where we would need to start to be able to navigate the turn.
[SPEAKER_14]: Oh, it's a lot.
[SPEAKER_20]: And this is this is why when I met with Director Blake. We had considered that and we felt that it was the better option to just take the one spot as opposed to the potential four to five spots.
[SPEAKER_09]: OK, thank you for answering my question.
[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, absolutely. And just the way it's laid out to depending on how cars are parked, you know, the apparatus may still need to make a three point turn with their nose directly into 52, kind of where that car is parked now. But it makes a lot more navigable than having the parking on both sides. Again, where we're put in a situation where we may have to just back straight down the street and make that 90 degree turn back on to excuse me. Uh, so it's it's just it's a very difficult, you know, especially when you're driving a 30 ft engine, 56 ft ladder truck down the streets. It does make it extremely difficult. So, you know, when I when I met with the director, we did take into consideration the amount of parking we would take, and we felt that this was the better of the two options.
[Jack Buckley]: Lieutenant, thank you very much. Thank you. Any other individuals wishing to comment or questions from the public?
[SPEAKER_16]: I see none of the public. Sarah McDermott, Director, do you have a question?
[Sarah McDermod]: It's not really a question. It's really just more to reiterate once again how much zoned parking would help. In Medford, and in addition to that, I just want to clarify that. I just want to make sure the residents know that the even parking, like, they do have an exception. They're even parking every year, but that's only during declared snow emergencies. It's not all the time. I just want to make sure that that's clear to everybody. And I understand the inconvenience that it would cause to lose that space on the even side. I completely, I see that. I just wanted to clarify and make sure everybody was aware of that. That's only during snow emergencies. I'm seeing Frank and Patricia nod their heads. That's good. Thanks guys.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, that's a good point, sir.
[Jack Buckley]: So Director Blake, any final words before I send it back to the commissioners?
[Todd Blake]: Just to follow up on Sarah's point about the zoned parking. I was definitely in favor of zoned parking. I recall the reason why the wider zoned parking didn't pass. One of the reasons was at least one couple on Walnut Street that was strongly opposed to it. but I do think it would be a benefit to a lot of the regions in Medford to have their own permanent parking eventually. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioners, back to you now. So you've heard from the petitioner, Director Blake, you've heard from what we could refer to as an expert on this matter, Lieutenant Brennan, and then you've heard from the public. Their request Preferred the inside corner. I think we've done it right. It was clear that it would be four to five parking spots. This is one of those tough situations. We want to be. kind of considerate of all the neighbors and the difficulty of parking, but this is as presented an emergency. I have driven a police cruiser down there and it's terrible during the winter. I can only imagine having to operate a fire engine or an ambulance if need be. So I send it back to the commissioners for a motion on this matter.
[Alicia Hunt]: I feel like we've heard, I get why it's very inconvenient for the one family, but it's like, as opposed to losing four spots on the street and clearly something has to be done for public safety. I think I don't see any other reasonable solution here.
[Tim McGivern]: That's where I'm at too.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, it feels like the most reasonable solution for public safety.
[Jack Buckley]: I agree. Motion to approve.
[Alicia Hunt]: So move to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: I second. The motion of Commissioner Hunt, seconded by Commissioner Silva to approve 2026-38, no parking, any time in front of, is it 50 or 52, Director Blake?
[Todd Blake]: I believe it's 52. And then I just had a clarification. Do we want to do no parking anytime or a fire lane? I don't know what Lieutenant's request was.
[Alicia Hunt]: What does the difference mean?
[Todd Blake]: It might be in the fine potentially.
[SPEAKER_20]: So I'm not too sure as far as the legality of which one's which. I can just kind of speak from personal experience that typically when you're seeing fire lane signage that kind of applies to commercial buildings like in front of Stop and Shop or things like that, we typically take a fire lane in front of the property. Where this isn't a residential area, I'm not too sure. So I would probably mark it as no parking anytime.
[Alicia Hunt]: If I might actually add this, so it seems clear that the people who are living there now will understand why if it's just as no parking, right? They understand what's going on. And honestly, if I was them and I lived there, I would stop. I would actively unload my groceries and stuff. And then I would move my car because I am actively using it. And if a fire truck comes, I would immediately hop in my car and move, right? But I wouldn't want neighbors who are five years down the road, somebody has sold their house, and somebody's moving in, and they don't understand what's going on. There is an echo when Lieutenant Brennan has his thing unmuted, unfortunately.
[SPEAKER_20]: I'm not too sure how to fix that. I apologize.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. So my concern is that we're five years down the road, and new people are living on the block, and they don't understand what's going on. start to park there feeling like they have a like why not this is dumb so if there was some signage that says like no parking emergency vehicles or you know like if there's some language that we could put there or attach to a no parking sign so people understand that it's to keep the area clear for emergency passage i think can we just say tow zone can we say no parking tow zone and then i think that That would help, honestly, I think. I mean, honestly, there's an emergency. Nobody's calling to tow a vehicle. They don't have time.
[SPEAKER_20]: That's exactly it. I apologize. That's exactly it. I know some of the residents are on here now. Active parking, stuff like that, that's really not our concern. Ultimately, again, kind of just what I started off with, the concern is that one, two, three o'clock in the morning call where everybody's at home and we're not able to navigate these streets, like you just saw in the pictures, perfectly navigable. We could do that no problem with our eyes closed.
[Tim McGivern]: So you don't want tickets? No, not at all. You don't want the car towed if it's parked there. So if we make it tow zone, then the police can tow the car if Sarah's team tickets it there, ticket and tow.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, and it will likely be assigned here with the left arrow. And then we can reutilize this pole with the handicap right here with an arrow that way. So it would cover the driveway in that space.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. So on the motion of commissioner Hunt to approve. 2026-38, no parking, any type in front of 52 Metcalf Street, seconded by Commissioner Silva. And this will be no parking, tow zone. Alba, roll call vote.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes, on the vote of four to zero to one vacancy, it is approved. Yeah, this is a public safety matter, so I appreciate everyone's participation on this matter, and including the residents, but especially Lieutenant Brennan for your expertise. Thank you very much. 2026-39, we have no parking at any time in front of 2529 and 31 Elliott Street. Director Blake, I suggest this is similar.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, this is essentially the same issue. Unfortunately, this is not a position like the last one in comparison. This one was actually only one space to get 65 feet worth. This one, I think the proposal is to take three spaces away. Again, it's trying to take the outer corner here. But it was going to be one, two, three, these three houses here versus the inner. Here, here, here. for the same exact reasons that Lieutenant Brennan of the fire department requested. And we looked at inner versus outer, and this is what, you know, when you combine the driveways, it gives a long stretch, whereas the inner doesn't have driveways, so you would be taking more spaces away potentially.
[SPEAKER_20]: That's correct. It's very similar to Metcalf Street and Mr. Blake, I'm not sure if you're able to go into your email and go back to the conversation from July 3rd that was shared with you from Chief Evans. There was a couple of pictures of an incident that we had had on Elliott Street where the apparatus was actively stuck on that corner and had to back out. I think that would be very helpful if you're able to find it. But exactly just while he's looking for that, that's exactly the same as the last one. This is a one-way street, parking on both sides to include the inside and outside corners. And this street specifically has posed several issues with us where apparatus is getting stuck and just not able to navigate the turn. So again, kind of a public safety issue where we have to leave the trucks and then walk further down the street. Um, so you can see in this first picture here, you know, parking on both sides. Uh, in the second picture, you can see kind of the apparatus lined up down the street that they're not able to get down the street. Um, so very similar to Metcalfe. Um, it's just, uh, it's a, it's a difficult issue. Um, but in the event of an emergency, in the event of a fire, um, you know, we, we need to get down the street in a safe and effective manner. And the last thing that we want to do is cause damage to personal vehicles. Um, you know, so that's why we're petitioning for this parking variance. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Yep. Director Boyd, the photos are impactful. That is problematic. Commissioners, any questions or concerns of the petitioner or in this case also Lieutenant Brennan?
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm sorry to be clear. It was very clear in the last 1, which is the spot that's moving like that or spots.
[Todd Blake]: I think quite so it looks like this 1 with a with a white. Bureau or drawers are and then this silver 1 in this 1 with the trees.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I assume these butters were also notified. Yes.
[Todd Blake]: I think in the backup material there was an email from someone that was opposed.
[Alicia Hunt]: Is this the one that was something about new sidewalk bump outs?
[Todd Blake]: I think it was just saying that if you shave some space off the sidewalk, there'd be more room to pass by.
[Jack Buckley]: I can read the email. Before we go to public comment, I'll read the email that was sent. Robert Parkhurst, Applicant OLIV, PB – PBS & COB 2020 1. Restricting or removal of three parking spaces on Elliott Street. To whom are they concerned? The removal of three parking spaces on Elliott Street is a solution that causes more problems. As a long-time resident of the street, I have seen the issue in question firsthand many times. The tight turn for trucks and fire engines. I'd like to point out that the issue became a problem when the sidewalks were completely redone maybe 10 plus years ago. when the sidewalk that curves along number 26 specifically appeared wider when they were done, giving the street a hotter turn. The side of the street could easily gain 15 inches if the sidewalk were to be cut back and given a softer turn. This would prevent the backs of cars sticking out and creating an obstacle. Please consider this as the solution. Parking is bad enough here without taking away three spaces and causing issues, not just for those three houses, but for everyone else in the street. Thank you, Yvonne and Owen McElroy from 23 Elliott Street.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right so I assume those sidewalks were done to city standards and per where our rights of. Ownership are so.
[Todd Blake]: I mean, 15 inches is probably not going to make or break the situation either. We're talking a car width is like seven feet.
[Alicia Hunt]: So do cars park on this inside curve as well, or is it just.
[Todd Blake]: Yes. And then the picture in the email, it showed there were parked cars parked here and here, and that's how they came goodbye.
[Alicia Hunt]: And we don't want to prevent the parking on the inside curve, which looks like kind of illegal to me, but they parked there anyhow. Like you can't park on a corner.
[Todd Blake]: When you do the outside, you also get the benefit of those driveways. The inside didn't have driveways, but it looks like it was going to be three versus, say, four on the inside curve, because it would be like roughly that cheap to the silver car. So one, two, three, four.
[SPEAKER_20]: So it's trying to balance the overall net. When we went to go look at this, again, just like Metcalf Street, it was kind of a cost benefit. And we ultimately would prefer the inside corner. You know, that's just the way the trucks are gonna move. But again, we're taking multiple parking spaces, you know, both ways. With this one, we're probably looking at, you know, four plus, you know, we'd have to do the exact measurements out. With the outside, it would only be three. You know, with the outside corner, the apparatus, the way that they're designed is it's a cab over engine. So, uh, the wheels actually, you know, kind of sit behind the driver a little bit and with the clearance on the front of the truck, they're able to, uh, you know, kind of pass over the, uh, the sidewalks a little bit without causing any, you know, bumping or anything to the sidewalks and the curbs. Uh, so that, that's why, you know, discussing with Mr. Blake, uh, we had ultimately decided the outside corner would be, uh, you know, better in this instance.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. Just if you could, and I don't even know if this is probably the only one here that has driven a fire truck. The petitioner has requested, could the city modify those sidewalks, which I'm not saying we could or not, but would 15 inches matter with those engines at this time? In your kind of opinion as an expert.
[SPEAKER_20]: I don't believe so. I think anything helps. Unfortunately, I don't think that 15 inches would make much of a difference. As you can see in this picture, it is actually the perfect example. The pivot point of the truck is very far in the back. If you're looking towards the back of the truck, there's a rear compartment, and that's about where the pivot point is. And where the apparatus is stuck is not even a quarter of the way down the cab. So 15 inches would not make a drastic difference, especially with parking on both sides. It's very unfortunate. But again, this is just the way the trucks are designed. They have a very long wheelbase. Again, the engines range from 30 to 35 feet. Our longest ladder truck is 56 feet.
[Todd Blake]: um you know so it's it just it makes it extremely difficult and unfortunately no uh 15 inches would not make a difference allowing parking that was just an estimation by that right so so i would point out again uh lieutenant brennan as you mentioned before you could see in this image that the silver bumper in the left side the front of this truck could overhang the sidewalk on the outer side as long as it's not in an area where there's a tree, right? Yeah, correct.
[SPEAKER_20]: So from the bumper all the way to the tire, it's approximately three feet of clearance. And that's kind of what allows us to navigate in tighter areas like this is the ability to kind of pass over low obstacles like sidewalks and curbs. Yeah, so you don't have the same benefit of the overhang on the inside corner.
[Todd Blake]: Correct.
[Alicia Hunt]: I just feel like we should do our due diligence and fully understand what we're doing when we're changing something like this. So appreciate it.
[Jack Buckley]: Absolutely. Why don't we go to public comment? Is there anyone in the public here who wants to speak to this matter? For or against, just raise your hand, wave, indicate in the chat room. We'll unmute you and you could speak. Hello. Hi, welcome. Welcome to the traffic commission floor is yours. You can give me sure.
[SPEAKER_24]: My name is Robert joy. I live at 26 Elliott street. It's on the corner that you're not taking the spaces away from. There's a couple of concerns that I have. I've lived here for 30 years, a couple of concerns that I have that and I'm all for opening up some spaces. So the fire trucks can get around whether it's on my side or the other side, it doesn't matter. You need to get around there. But once you. put in no parking zone in that area you're going to create another public safety issue which is speeding cars speeding down the uh elliott street that cut off it's a cutoff road to get to mistletoe from main street so people come down off Elliott, and there's no stop sign on Trout, Kenway, and Elliott, where that intersection meets. There is a stop sign on Kenway, and there's a stop sign on Trout. But people coming down Elliott, they would just continue. Now, the cars aren't parked there. That's what slows them down when you can see how narrow it is. That slows them down. Without parking, it won't slow them down because during the day they go down pretty fast. A request to have a stop sign put out at that intersection of Elliott, Trout, and Kenway.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you very much for your comments and your petition.
[SPEAKER_24]: I'm not done. Not done. Okay. Yeah, I got it. I got a 2nd, 1, 2 and just as, you know, they're, you're taking away 3 spaces and that's fine for public safety reasons. right now we have three between uh kenway trout wrapping around going towards hancock street there are 12 dwellings 11 of those dwellings are two family homes one dwelling is a single family home 23 dwellings are on that small street um We're having a parking problem with people because it's not permit parking. People are parking there and leaving their cars for, there's a guy out there now who's left his car for over 10 days and he's a frequent flyer. They come in, they park, and they get into an Uber and go to the airport. So I would request that also the street from that corner going to Hancock be permit parking. So those who live on the street have the choice to park on the street now that it's a condensed parking availability. Throw into that the street becomes very busy because of the Great American Beer Hall that's right around the corner on Mystic Ave. This street is not permanent parking, many people know that.
[Jack Buckley]: Those are my questions. Thank you for your petition, your comments as it relates to the petition. As it relates to the 2 requests, stop sign and permit parking. We formally can't take these up on the agenda tonight because they haven't been sort of listed, but what we will do is we'll follow up with you. If you can reach out to Alva A. Erickson at medfordpolice.com, we'll follow up with you and we will guide you through the process of both of those. As it relates to the stop sign, Director Blake, you could probably take a look at that and give your opinion on that also. With regard to the speeding, I will make sure that my traffic unit has been advised to pay attention to that area, as well as 48-hour parking violations. Those are things I think we can deal with directly as we look for long-term solutions to your comments and requests there. So I appreciate it, but we've got a lot to do with that one, and we will stop for goodbye.
[SPEAKER_24]: Thank you. So I'll have to do that after, if you vote to do that, then the street would be, those spaces would be taken away, and then I would be going through the process of getting a stop sign? Well, yes. Or are we going to hold off on this amendment?
[Jack Buckley]: We're going to address the issue tonight on the parking spots as it relates to the corners. As it relates to the stop signs, even if the petition was here today, we have to have our Director of Parking Engineering looking at that spot, give us an expertise, but we also can't take publicly posted to an agenda. So yes, we have to deal with the one issue tonight and the other two issues we can assist you in moving forward with after tonight.
[Alicia Hunt]: I did want to make sure that this resident heard us talk earlier about if there are vehicles, if you believe that there's a particular vehicle that is parking at your street and then calling an Uber and going away for a week or more at a time, please call the parking department or the police department To have them tagged and after a certain length of time, they can have it towed and then that person will learn not to do that in Medford.
[SPEAKER_24]: Okay, thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, thank you.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, and again, we could definitely. So, I can definitely look at the stop sign in October. Sorry.
[Jack Buckley]: But reach out to Alvin A. Erickson at MedfordPolice.com and you'll see us on Wednesday. Just so we can get your direct contact and give you some ideas and documents on how to proceed forward on both petitions. But Director Blake has already indicated he'll start looking at that stop sign for next month and moving forward on it.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, and then quickly with the resident permit, I would encourage Elliot Street to do that, get a petition for resident permit. And I would encourage all the streets in this neighborhood because other items on tonight's agenda are related to the overflow parking from the Bear Hall. So the permanent parking will only help your situation in any of these streets.
[Alicia Hunt]: Does our economic development director know that these issues are issues from the Bear Hall?
[Todd Blake]: I had forwarded, I believe I forwarded, I'll double check to Lisa and Kayla about it, I believe.
[SPEAKER_16]: All right, so let's continue with public comment.
[Jack Buckley]: Anyone else, public comments or against the petition as it relates to the removal of parking in front of 25, 29, 31 LA Street? Yeah, let's see.
[Jim Silva]: Mr. McElroy had his hand up, but he seems to have left the room. Okay.
[SPEAKER_20]: I was just going to make a comment that Mr. McElroy was also on this call. He wanted an opportunity to speak on it, but it looks like he's walked away.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Lieutenant. Commissioners, I turn it back to you for a motion on this matter.
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, it's a public safety issue. It's to allow the trucks to get through. We can see there's not a better option. I feel like we don't have an option in this because we have to do what we need to do to allow the fire trucks to get through. Other than perhaps suggest we get smaller fire trucks that can navigate Medford streets better, which I would be all in favor of, but given that we have what we have, I think that we need to look at Letting the trucks get through.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, and that is that a motion to approve no parking and does that include toes off?
[Alicia Hunt]: It's my opinion unless any of the. Other members have some other thoughts on this before we actually get to voting.
[Tim McGivern]: That's where I'm at as well. I'm just not moving because Todd brought it forth. So.
[Jim Silva]: I agree.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right, then motion to approve with the no parking tow zone.
[Jack Buckley]: The motion of Commissioner Hunt, no parking tow zone, and approval of 2026-39, no parking in front of 2529-31 Elliott Street, seconded by Commissioner Silva. Alba, roll call vote, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[SPEAKER_21]: Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Chief Buckley. Yes, on a vote of four to nothing to one vacancy, the motion is approved. Again, thank you to all those who participated in the comments and considerations and especially to Lieutenant Pratt. 2026-40, cost increase for replacement visitor passes. Director McDermott.
[Sarah McDermod]: Hello. To be honest, when I got the agenda, I forgot that I had petitioned for this back before the summer. So happy to finally discuss this. So previously this year, the traffic commission approved the parking department to issue replacement visitor permits to folks who lost 1 or both of their visitor permits. As a 1 time thing, so we can replace both permits once and then if they lose those 2 replacements, they would have to come to traffic commission for additional replacements. And in addition to that. The reason I would like to petition for a price increase is to just keep preventing the abuse of permits. So it's just another factor in. It's been a encouraging you to not lose them because it's going to cost you more to replace them and be. discourage people from attempting to abuse them by getting replacement permits while also keeping their original permits. And if they do choose to try and abuse the visitor permit system, the additional cost at least would supplement that somehow.
[Jack Buckley]: And your petition says first visitor permit replacement should be At least $15 a second and any subsequent replacement should be at least $20.
[Sarah McDermod]: That's my suggestion, but I'm open to more suggestions from the commission.
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, I do feel like people should have to pay because we have administrative costs and real costs and for things that are lost and those are reasonable dollar amounts. Um, it just actually, I. Peaked at the price for the other visitor passes. For, like, weekends and 4 days, and they do see seem very oddly high compared to, like, these, right?
[Sarah McDermod]: So I didn't want to get into it before when I was, I brought it up earlier in the meeting under somebody else's business, but when we charge a. Person to reserve a metered parking space, for example, like, sometimes people want to reserve a meter because they have a moving truck coming, or maybe moving is not the best example. We have moving permits, but essentially it's a 10 dollars a day to reserve. A meter permit or a meter space all day and then for a 2 day pass to be 25 dollars. It's like, 1, 1 space is costing them 1250 a day. On their street, as opposed to reserving a meter for 10 dollars a day. So, that's that's not really what I'm trying to debate right now. I think, because based on just the number of sales of those permits as well, I was going to maybe petition to adjust the cost of them to encourage more use. But. I can, I'll petition that later. I'm not so worried about that tonight, but these, this, this. Motion was to kind of related to the 1 I made previously to allow us to replace them and just I'm just. Trying to put as many measures in place as possible to avoid visitor pass abuse, because it does still happen. We see, and some people think they're justified. I just emailed a fellow today for the 3rd time, letting him know that he lives on the street and is unable to use the permit and will continue to get tickets if he keeps using the permit. So, there's still. It's still happening, but being able to track it has been very helpful.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent, thank you. Director McDermott, just one quick question. I think you alluded to it in your earlier petition, but the petitions for a price increase, do we want to consider senior, charging the seniors the same increase, consider them all at once, or maybe not charging them or reducing the fees? I think you would.
[Sarah McDermod]: That's one thing I wasn't sure what, I wasn't sure what to do with because traditionally we don't charge them anything for, charge them for anything except for the senior meter permit. I don't think it would be unreasonable to charge them. something for a replacement because they're just as capable of abusing the permits as any other member of the public. Um, but I don't know that that would be a very popular decision seeing as they don't pay for the original two. So I'm, I'm, I'm not, I don't have a strong opinion on that one.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Thank you. Uh, commissioners, questions or concerns, uh, to the director.
[Tim McGivern]: Just to clarify, it's $20 if you lose it?
[Sarah McDermod]: Currently, they're $10 a piece. So what I'm petitioning for is to make, if you replace one, it's $15 for that one replacement. And if you're replacing both, the second replacement would be $20.
[Alicia Hunt]: And so right now, do you charge a fee? Do you charge the $10 as a replacement fee? Yes. Because it's sort of like a production fee.
[Sarah McDermod]: In theory, yeah, I mean, that paper toner cost money. My clerks cost money. So, yeah.
[Tim McGivern]: And you feel like that. What you presented what you proposed will do the trick so to speak.
[Sarah McDermod]: That's the hope I can't say for sure that a price increase will prevent visitor pass abuse, but I think if they know going in when they're purchasing their permits and also the, the other thing I think I mentioned in my email is that I'm not trying to implement this necessarily. Right? The 2nd. Given the timing, we could implement it starting in. 2027. So that we'd have an opportunity to tell all new 2027 visitor permit holders that replacements come with an additional cost because those who've gotten at least 1 replacement this year would probably not anticipate that if they came in for a 2nd replacement. So. I'm happy to start this in 2027, so we can inform people as they purchase them that. There will be an additional cost for replacements.
[Tim McGivern]: It's not too far away. I moved to approve on that on that condition starting in January.
[Jack Buckley]: Thanks for the reminder, Tim. Just one second, I take the motion, but I want to see if there is anyone from the public who wishes to comment on this. So if you are a member of the public who wishes to comment on this one way or the other, please raise your hand, indicate in the chat, somehow let us know. I see none on the motion of Commissioner McGiven to approve 2026-40 cost increase for replacement visitor passes $15 for the first, $20 for the second and subsequent payments. Commissioner McGiven, I'll ask you to comment on your motion charging for seniors and should we wait till the 2027 permit yet?
[Tim McGivern]: I think we should, I think we should include seniors because of the purpose of the increase in fees and they're already getting the benefit by getting them free at the start. And yes, I think it should start in January. That way it's a fresh start when folks are coming in and they're aware of the fee or they're aware of the increase as opposed to being surprised by it.
[Alicia Hunt]: Especially I would just comment on that is this is intended as a dissuasion and not a money grab. We were trying to make money off of it. We might surprise people, but we're not. We're trying to get them to not lose them.
[Jim Silva]: All right. Compliance. And to prevent abuse. Absolutely.
[Jack Buckley]: All right, so the motion, 2026-40, cost increase for replacement visitor passes, $15 for the first, $20 for the second and subsequent. Note, this includes seniors and it will start in the 2027 permit year. Do I have a second? I'll second.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Jim can have it.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Silva, roll call vote, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: Chief Buckley. Yes, I have a vote of four to nothing, one vacancy. The motion is approved. 2026-42, Hill Park, Walnut Street, approximately 37 feet south of Thomas Street to Thomas Street. Director Blake.
[Todd Blake]: Yep, let's see, this was for sight lines when exiting Thomas. So we wanted to restrict more than the 20 feet foot rule on Walnut, so 37 feet. There's currently two vehicles that park there most of the time, so it's still leave the one. but it would help when looking left. So yeah, it would take away this one spot here when people are exiting Walnut looking left up the one-way street. We've received this complaint a number of times. I've reached out to this homeowner to try to trim some of the stuff as well. And then the related restriction is just from here to here. It's a little beyond the 20 feet. I think what do they have in the. 5 feet there, so only 5 feet on the 20. but, yeah, that silver car, they're really obstructing the view of people coming down the 1 way street.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, so 2026 42 Wall Street. The petition is 37 feet south of Thomas street. And the other part is Thomas street where, cause I don't have that.
[Todd Blake]: It's I think it's right. It's Oh, it was separated on two items, 42 and 43. Yes.
[Jack Buckley]: We'll deal with one at a time. I was going to buy, but I feel like it's in the petition separately. So we'll deal with them separately.
[Todd Blake]: So it's just this 25 feet here and then it's 37 feet on this side.
[Jack Buckley]: Right. Uh, So 37 feet south of Thomas Street. Commissioners, questions of Director Blake on that first, 37 feet south on Thomas Street.
[Alicia Hunt]: This is a different situation. It's sight lines. It's interesting to me that none of the residents have shown up to have comments or opinion on this. I'm assuming they've also all been notified.
[Todd Blake]: I think in this case, we may not have, with the fire department ones, it wasn't on corners. Those were on bends, so there's no expectation of the 20-foot rule in those cases. I think that's why Alba reached out for usually these corners that are just a little beyond. Unless on the Hancock Street area where we're doing several corners in a whole neighborhood, I think we reached out. Alba, did you reach out for Walton Thomas? I don't think so. I didn't ask her to.
[Jack Buckley]: You don't want her access directly.
[Alicia Hunt]: And because I just like to understand, because I know they can't, you're not legally supposed to park within a certain 20, 25, 20 feet.
[Todd Blake]: Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: So just go a little further and is the whole point of the petition because people aren't following the law as it is. In that area, they shouldn't park in.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, on the 37 is 17 feet beyond the 20 feet. So that's roughly a parking space. Whereas the 5 feet is only. It doesn't affect an actual parking space. So, though, you know, the. I couldn't say definitively if they're within the 20 feet or not that vehicle, but it is compromising the sightline. And people say vehicles speed down Walnut, so they come up on them fast when they're trying to make the decision to come out of Thomas. But there's two currently parked there, choosing the distance so that one would still remain, so it would be sensitive to parking.
[Alicia Hunt]: And are we not concerned that removing parking spots will make the street perceived to be wider and people will speed more and increase the problem?
[Todd Blake]: No, the rest of the parking will remain on both sides of Walnut, so I don't think that one space will widen it, give a perception. If we took one whole side, it would definitely widen that up, but just this one space, no, I don't think so.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, just trying to do my due diligence on this.
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah. Commissioners, before I go to public comment, anything else of Director Blake? With that, I'll go to anyone from the public. We don't have many left, but anyone wish to comment on this matter? Appears not. Back to the commissioners. Any further questions or a motion?
[Todd Blake]: I think someone from engineering. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Jim.
[Jim Silva]: Motion to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner Silva to approve 2026-42, no parking on Walnut Street, approximately 37 feet south of Thomas Street. Do I have a second?
[Alicia Hunt]: Sure, second.
[Jack Buckley]: Seconded by Commissioner Hunt. Alva, roll call, please.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Beckley? Yes. On a vote of four to nothing to one vacancy, the motion is approved. 2026-43, and this is very similar in the same area, no parking on Thomas Street, approximately 25 feet east of Walnut Street, Director Blake.
[Todd Blake]: I think I already mentioned this one. Yeah, the normal rule is 20 feet. It's just getting an extra five feet. It didn't impact any parking. So it seemed like that was an appropriate amount for this to clear up that view. I, I just wanted to add if someone from engineering with internally today, I think pointed out this as an issue as well when she was out and about doing their duties for the city. It was difficult to see.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent commissioners. It's the same sort of situation. It is a sightline issue in the five feet additional, uh, according to Director Blake would not take a parking spot away.
[Jim Silva]: Motion to approve.
[Jack Buckley]: Second. I'm going to do this anyway, public comment. I just want to make sure we give someone just in case I miss. Please raise your hand if you would like to comment on this publicly. Seeing none, the motion of Commissioner Silva, seconded by Commissioner Hunt to approve 2026-43, no parking on Thomas Street, approximately 25 feet east of Walnut Street. Roll call.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes, on the vote of four to nothing to one vacancy, the motion is approved. 2026-44, no parking on Hancock Street, south side, 26 feet west of Elliott Street to Elliott Street. No parking on Hancock Street, south side, 30 feet east of Elliott Street to Elliott Street. No parking on Elliott Street, east side, 26 feet from Hancock Street to Hancock Street. No parking on Elliott Street, Westside, 26 feet from Hancock Street. Director Blake.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, so 44, 45, and 46 to try to be efficient with this. They're all similar.
[Jack Buckley]: So myself- Hold on one second. Do you think this is, your presentation will encompass all of these? And if so, I would entertain a motion to combine them from Commissioner.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I believe so. Are they already combined?
[Alicia Hunt]: All of 44 and 45?
[Jack Buckley]: Yeah, there would be additional ones, Hancock Street on Willis Ave, Willis Ave to Hancock Street, Hancock Street to Hancock Ave, Hancock Street to Hancock Ave. So there's about four additional more.
[Todd Blake]: It would be separated out by intersection. Yeah, it was separated out item-wise by intersection. And they're all corner offsets? Correct, and they're all in the same neighborhood, and it's all related to the same complaints that myself, Alva, and Sarah have been getting.
[Tim McGivern]: Are we losing spaces, or are we just clarifying offsets?
[Todd Blake]: Um, a few of them are just 6 extra feet to the 20 foot rule. Others are like, 35 feet. So it could be a spot. A few spots. Yeah. Okay, so, but, but instead of repeating myself 3 items, and it's getting later for everyone. They're all the same issue, so I was going to talk about 44, 45, 46 collectively. That's okay.
[Jack Buckley]: here and address 2026, 44, 45, and 46 for one presentation. I would like to take a motion. I motion. On the motion of Commissioner Silva, seconded by Commissioner Hunt.
[Tim McGivern]: Give it to Alicia.
[Jack Buckley]: I'll have a quick roll call on that.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGibbon?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jim Silva]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Chief Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Yes, so we're 4 to 1, 4 to none to 1 vacant. It's approved to combine 44, 45 and 46. Director Blake, the floor is yours.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, I think the idea with separate in case, for some reason, there were people in opposition or people like one of them, you can do it individually. But so myself, Alvin, Sarah have been getting complaints about, you know, it's a combination of things. It's about safety related to getting out of. the side streets off Hancock Street. So Kenway, Elliott, Willis, and Hancock Ave to all the streets entering into Hancock Street with parking on both sides of Hancock Street. And there's some complaints of speeding, but that doesn't make the firm. But even if they're going, say, 25-30, they appear to come up on you fast because the parked cars are potentially impacting the view. And then it's exacerbated by when the great American, this is according to the residents in the area from multiple neighbors on these different streets. It's exacerbated by the great American Bear Hall overflow parking that Hancock experiences. And then in some residents view, those folks that are overflow, don't necessarily pay as much attention to the 20-foot rules in the corners as the full-time residents do. So it's just an exacerbation of multiple different things in this one neighborhood area. And I think Hancock Street was an item like six months a year ago that someone pointed out. And we said we'd try it without restricting more and just enforce the existing 20-foot rule and see how that went. And it didn't necessarily go well. So now we're coming back with further restrictions on each of these. So the document, I won't belabor the point, the document says what distances I think we need. And there's others that exist that we didn't bring to the traffic commission because they're already restricted either via the 20-foot rule, the hydrant, or wheelchair ramp. So, and we've, just to let you all know, we've reached out to all these corner houses as well to have them clean up their landscaping at the corners with the bushes and fences and things, and a lot of them have been complying. So it's, we're trying to attack this in multiple different levels, but the intent is to improve safety for residents exiting these side streets onto Hancock and make the sight lines as good as we can for them without, you know, with minimizing parking loss. So with that, it looks like out of the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, out of the eight on here, I would say, you know, maybe four of them involves, you know, what people would perceive to a loss of the space beyond the 20-foot rule. And we did reach out to, I did reach out to, Mayor Thompson and PDS about contacting the Bearhalls to see if they could come up with other strategies for when they have events that overflow from their parking lot. So I think they may own other properties in the area or, yeah, they have other opportunities potentially. That's it. Yeah. We have several letters and emails. I don't know if Sarah could speak to that too. It helps her enforcement officers have the signs and the restrictions to be able to point to as well.
[Sarah McDermod]: The signs do help. And I think it helps remind my guys to check the intersections. I get fewer emails about the speeding and everything, but usually speeding or anything like that. Uh, line of sight is caveat added to a parking complaint that we would receive, but I do recall several, uh, traffic commission meetings where streets or people are complaining about turning on or off of Hancock street and visibility.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, Alva for these, I'm not sure if we did, um, we discussed that. I'm not sure where we landed about in terms of notice to this area. I can't recall if we sent notices to these houses or not.
[Jack Buckley]: Did you notify the residents? Did you notify the residents?
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: No.
[Todd Blake]: If not, that's my mistake then. As I said, I think in the combination of looking at the three to four streets, because one street was existing roads, there was only a total of maybe upwards of four potential parking spaces lost. otherwise it's all existing. But I did say at a previous meeting about Hancock Street, Hancock Street is such that it's two-way, has enough volume that eventually we may have to look at restricting even more on Hancock, potentially one side. So we're taking the incremental approach to just enforcing existing rules, see how that went, that didn't work out. Now we're proposing a little more to get better sightlines. And if this doesn't work out, we may have to revisit it. So even if it may seem like, oh, four spaces now, If there continues to be issues, we may have to look more holistically and more drastic at some solutions.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, I understand. Commissioners, questions or concerns to address the Director Blake?
[Alicia Hunt]: I would like to say that I think that I was with my father in New York recently, and he wishes he had somebody like Todd in his town. to talk to the neighbors about cleaning up the corners of their landscaping so that we can see around the corners, that it is a big safety issue. I got a detailed tour in my father's town on this of all the difficult corners, and I kept telling him to reach out to the town, and I'm glad that we're doing it here because it is a safety problem for people who are trying to turn corners and walk on sidewalks when those bushes overgrow too much.
[Jack Buckley]: I will say historically, it is a constant complaint, not just the overgrowth, but parking on the corners in this city. We get numerous complaints on it, but unfortunately, sometimes when we have to address it, the neighbors get affected, the residents get affected because it does result in a little bit of parking involved. It is a safety issue, that's why we need to address it. So let me go to public comment. I don't think there's many people left here, but any word from the public wishing to comment on these petitions one way or the other? Seeing none, I'll go back to the commissioners. Again, any motion would be for approval of 2026, 24, 45, 46, or I guess you can break it up, but that's what we're dealing with.
[Alicia Hunt]: Seems reasonable on a safety issue. And I will check in with Kayla. As most of you know, we now have an economic development director again, Kayla, but that means we're searching for an economic development planner. So we're still short-staffed. And I'll ask her about reaching out to the Great American Beer Hall about parking, et cetera. But in the meantime, regardless of who's parking on these corners, it's not safe. So I'll move approval.
[Jack Buckley]: On the motion of Commissioner Hunt to approve 2026-43, 2026-44, 2026, oh, sorry, 2026-44, 2026-45, 2026-46, to restrict corner parking in various locations off of Hancock and Willis and Elliott, seconded by, did I hear Commissioner Silva? seconded by Commissioner Silva. I'll vote for a roll call vote for approval of the three petitions.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Silva?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Yes, on the order of four to none until one vacancy, the motion is approved. All three petitions are approved on the vote. Lastly, and I don't think we're going to be able to address this, but there was a couple, a few months ago, I was not present, but 2026-19, there was a request for an HP sign for 36 Evans Street. Alva has heard back from the petitioner who requested to be present again tonight, but it doesn't appear. I had been looking all night to see if she was here and I did not see her name crop up. So it's still a tabled item, we don't have to address it, but I just wanted to make you aware of the situation, we will reach back out to her.
[Todd Blake]: So with that, I very much enjoyed my- Chief, before you adjourn, while you're all still here, while you're all still here, we had a year and a couple months ago, we had an issue Osborne placed in in Woburn, where we did a one year, One year trial. No, I know the people didn't show up tonight about it, but but I want to work with Steve smart to do a robocall it. So, so if I know it's going to be brought up in the October meeting, I could robocall the neighborhood and have a good representation because there's 2 people that consistently come in all the time that oppose, but I think the lack of. people reached out that is kind of approval from others. So if that were going to be taken off the kind of table items, because it was a one-year review, I'd like to know so that then I could prepare the notice via Steve Smercy to the neighborhood.
[Jack Buckley]: It will do. You can reach out. We'll discuss it in the next week or so. I know Alba has a few. comments on that. So we'll deal with that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. If we're going to notice it, if we know there are people who feel one way about it, do we want to make sure that the notice is clear that people have reached out with concerns and therefore we're going to review it in the public meeting so people don't think, oh, it's good, it's in place, I don't have to show up if that's how they truly feel about it.
[Todd Blake]: Yeah, it just said one year review in July and then we don't meet in July, August. So this was the one year and some of them had reminded me it was coming up, but, um, but yeah, um, usually I just work with Steve Smercy. We could, we could talk about what the notice should say, but, um, I'd like to get a full representation for the commission so that they get a full sense of what the true sense and not just the. You know, one side or the other of someone that's a little more persistent, but right. Anyways.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay. Well, I think that concludes the agenda. I did enjoy myself being back. It was exciting to be sitting there until seven 40 at night, but it was fun. We got some things accomplished back in the strides.
[Tim McGivern]: So yeah, it was good.
[Jack Buckley]: At least for the next couple of months.
[Tim McGivern]: It was efficient. We had an efficient night, even though it's late and we've got a lot done.
[Jack Buckley]: So yeah, we got through it. All right. Uh, I will extend a motion to adjourn. So moved. The motion of commission to be given, seconded by?
[Alicia Hunt]: Second.
[Jack Buckley]: Commissioner Hunt? Jim doesn't want to leave. Nobody wants to leave, yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner McGiven?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Hunt?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[MCM00001607_SPEAKER_07]: Commissioner Silva?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. Chief Buckley? Unfortunately, yes. So we will reconvene next month. I thank you all for your time and your participation. Thanks greatly. Good job.
[Tim McGivern]: Good night.
[Jack Buckley]: Good night.
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