Traffic and Parking Committee

Hello everyone, my name is Naima Sait. I use she or her pronouns. I'm the World 5 Councilor and your Traffic and Parking Chair. I would like to call to order today's Traffic and parking committee meeting of the Somerville City Council First, I will read the legal notice that allows us to have this meeting on Zoom. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Act of 2023, this meeting of the City Council Committee will be conducted via remote participation We will post an audio-video recording, transcript or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish a quorum?

Yes, I can. This is roll call. Councilor Wheeler Here Councilor Mbah Present Chair Sait Here All right with that we have all members present so we do have a quorum

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Today we'll have a public hearing. So it's not a regular traffic on parking meeting. It's a public On one item that is showing collectively, could you please scroll down so the public can see that? Perfect. Could you please read the item for us?

Public hearing, so this is item 1.1 in the agenda ID number 26-1024 that this council schedule a public hearing regarding construction parking permits and the impact of current enforcement policy on neighborhood residents

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We discussed very briefly this item before we went on summer recess. One or two people from the World Councilor. The goal of today's public hearing is to hear from everybody who wants to make a and just a few reminders when it's a public hearing the committee does not discuss the item The committee today in our meeting, we have representation from different departments. All the relevant departments from SPD, from engineering, from ISD and from parking.

Staff are here to take notes, to hear from the public with expectation that the next meeting will have a response from staff. It will be limited to two minutes per constituent. And I would like to start with first, we'd like to hear from the world councillor Scott, if you can go ahead and introduce us. You're not limited to two minutes. This is hearing from the ward councillor.

Sure. Hello, esteemed colleagues. Thank you so much Madam Chair for scheduling this public hearing. This is a matter that has greatly vexed residents of Ward 2 as one of the places with the densest concentration of residential neighborhood projects in the city right now. But it is not Sully restricted to residence award too. I have heard from folks all over the city with similar problems. I appreciate the conversations that this committee has had. In the past year about related items, and it is my fervent hope that city staff and everyone can come to this from a spirit of openness and listening. and from a perspective of attempting to find creative solutions as opposed to simply presenting the things that cannot be done.

and communications from residents of the Oak, Bolton and Houghton neighborhood. Many innovative solutions have been suggested options have been presented but ultimately at the end of the day people just want to be able to operate in their neighborhoods it is challenging to live next to construction and you know that's why it's important that community benefits are included and that folks feel good about what they end up living next to but Enduring through that process is not a step that should be entirely overlooked as just something that needs to be endured for a moment, which we can't improve because I think there's always room for improvement. So I thank you for holding the hearing. I certainly hope many of the neighbors down in that neighborhood are here tonight to speak on it and

I appreciate what I understand is that the intention for the committee to discuss with staff at the next meeting of traffic and parking about the comments that are raised. So once again, thank you Madam Chair and I look forward to hearing from all of our constituents.

Thank you, Councilor Scott. And before we get started very briefly if staff can introduce themselves, say which department they will be representing tonight. We start with Director Postowick.

Good evening, Chair.

Thank you for inviting us to this public hearing. I am Brian Polstowate, Director of the Engineering Division for the City of Somerville. Our team is the team responsible for reviewing street occupancy permits that most, if not all contractors are required to have to do such work in the public right of way. Such as utility connections and sidewalk reconstruction. So that's how my team intersects with this conversation. Thank you.

Thank you, Director. I appreciate the introduction and a summary of engineering's work or responsibility in terms of this issue. And then we'll hear from SPD Lieutenant Michael Holland.

Hi, I'm Lieutenant Holland from the Somerville Police. We deal with the detail side of the construction and just try to make sure everybody's following the rules. And listen to your suggestions and offer mine if needed.

Thank you, Lieutenant Holland. And then next, Director Klein?

Yes, good evening everybody. Kevin Kline, Director of Inspectional Services also interested in everyone's perspective We've had a couple of meetings on this with current contractors that are in that neighborhood and we definitely encourage suggestions and ideas to make it easier to have living next to a worksite. It is tough.

Thank you, director. And then next we have two staff members from the parking department. We have Jackie, the project manager and Anna, the director of operations. So Jackie and Anna.

Yes, thank you chair. Jackie Stegneri project manager in the parking department so the parking issues parking permits to contractors. We issue temporary no parking signs related to the construction projects and our parking control officers enforce parking violations. And Anna and I are Here on behalf of our director who couldn't be here tonight, Suzanne Rinfret.

Thank you Jackie and Anna would you like to? Introduce yourself.

Hi, Anna Rubello, parking department. Jackie did a great summary of what our department does so I'm here if you need anything. Thank you.

Thank you, Anna. Thank you for the additional presentation here. Okay, great. I think we're ready to take public comment and so again this is a public hearing Raise your hand if you'd like to speak. We'll go by the order and also if neighbors did not get a chance to join today's meeting, you can always send your Comments to public comments with an s at somervillema.gov so that's always an option for residents I will say again after the public hearing is over Okay, I see Serena.

Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Hi, Serena Bodner. I live on Bolton Street in Somerville. You've heard from me previously. So first of all, thank you for providing the opportunity to speak. Scott mentioned we have a ton of construction I think there's Four in my There's four on my immediate two block radius alone. And I think my street has maybe 15 parking spots overall and this morning, I noticed that eight of them We've had contractors parked in there.

So it's significant, the amount of parking that is happening in our neighborhood. So in no particular order some of the things I would like to be considered One of the worst situations we had last year was during snow emergency. And there's, you know, the 15-20 spots that we have get cut in half when you can only park on one side of the street. I would like to propose that any parking permits, construction permits that are issued are immediately revoked during snow emergencies and so those spots are prioritized for residents. I think a percentage of the available parking construction permits should only be for percentage of available parking. The pricing should be significantly increased to encourage carpooling, public transit or finding other means of getting to the job site. Driving should be a last resort and if permit holders get violations while having permits their permits should be revoked

Not permitted to get any more permits. Things like blocking fire hydrants we had a real problem with. Thank you for watching! and collecting tickets. Right now, getting a parking ticket is the best deal in town for parking because it's not a significant cost I know I'm out of time, so that was my laundry list and I'd be happy to discuss any more of it in the future.

Thank you, Serena. I know we said two minutes, but I see that we don't have a lot of people in the audience. And if you have anything that you would like to add, we can come back to you after everyone had the chance to speak. and next is Dorinda. And please introduce yourself and your address, it helps in this case since it has to do with parking in this specific area. Dorinda, you're muted. Can you hear us? Dorinda you are muted

I am not able to hear you, but we can come back to you if there are any other hands raised. You're not able to hear you. Next, Greg?

Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Great. I'm not going to take the two full minutes, just want to add one more thing beyond what Serena said we have several spots on our streets. Oh, I'm at 27 Oak Street. We have several um spots as sort of the end of the street that are no parking fire lanes and I'll often see folks especially construction workers parked in that spot for long periods of time. And that's Super dangerous, you're sort of going at the end whether you're on foot, on bike, in a car. You really can't see the cars coming on Prospect Street and any way to better enforce that would be very good for safety. That's all I have. Thanks.

Thanks, Greg. And then we're going to try again, Dorinda. You're unmuted. Yeah, we're not able to hear you. Do we see any other hands raised?

Chair, pardon my interruption. I'm just reminded of that in the past when someone's had trouble with the Zoom connection it has sometimes been possible for them to call a particular phone number I wonder if that's something that we might do some quick research. I can try and it might help this resident.

Yeah, if you could... In the meantime, I see Councilor Scott.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to lift up in particular both the safety concern I expressed about fire lanes but also just the general concept of abusing I understand the city extends construction parking permits to projects, but that's privilege. That is a consideration given and one which When it's abused, I think deserves the scrutiny. We as a council when confronted with various business licenses in the License and Permits Committee are faced Sometimes with the occasion of a business that has dramatically neglected its commitments to the neighborhood, it's commitments to city. It's requirements by law and in those cases you know show cause hearing can be had to revoke those licenses.

There's no similar process here, to my knowledge with a construction project with a particular construction company or contractor or what have you and The idea that this is simply an absorbable cost for projects is one that could exacerbate existing wage theft conditions. but B certainly doesn't provide the level of incentive that for example other long-standing brick and mortar businesses in our neighborhood understand is a serious risk which is that your business license can be revoked. If there was the same kind of potential consequence for a construction project that violated fire lane parking requirements or

You know, blocked hydrants, other egregious parking violations that cause significant concern in the community. Having the ability to Whether that's a show cause hearing or some procedure by which folks could petition to have that privilege revoked, I think it provides a much stronger incentive than an escalating parking ticket structure. So that is one piece of accountability that I hope to hear city staff explore. in further detail in a few weeks when this committee convenes again. So thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Constable Scott. We'll try doing that again. I think right now you're not, you're still muted. So Madam Clerk, my end is see that she's still muted? She does have the permission to speak. Oh, I see.

Yeah, she just doesn't see that. Okay.

All right.

Chair, sorry, just if you don't mind my interrupting. I think I have the phone number to call and the meeting ID. I don't have the ability to share to put these up on the screen. I think they're listed on the calendar event, although it can be a little cryptic to find it. Why don't I start by just reading these out, if that's okay with you Chair?

Councillor Wheeler, I did change permissions so you are able to share.

Thank you so much, Clerk. Let me just try. I don't know if this is going to be helpful for what Dorinda or any other resident might be struggling with okay do you see something that says to join this meeting using phone

Yes, we can see it. And I also see that Dorinda joined on a different device. Can we try that one? But thank you, Councilor, for putting this together. It's just in general good to know. So can we try to unmute?

Yes, both Dorinda users have permission.

Yeah, so Dorinda, if you can unmute on your end. Oot! Yes, we can hear you now.

Hi! Awesome, hello. Thank you for the effort for me. I totally agree with Councilor Scott that there are very few reasons to not obey the... Rules in this instance. I don't know one other entity within the city who gets this kind of privilege of these roughly just over a dollar a day parking within the cities. Um... I would point out that we are making people not have cars who are going to live in these buildings because we are so adjacent to the T. And I think that many of the workers could take the T as well if you go down to Kendall Square in the morning You will see legions of workers getting off the tee with their lunch bags and their backpacks. Just a...

Rough estimate, 75% of the people who are having these construction permits are not carrying anything but their lunch in their large truck. Cambridge allows for three spots for each construction and that's it. And then you have to We have multiple garages that are empty. If you ride by the Boynton Yards Garage, it's actually printed outside and and it's a you know it's updated continually how many empty spots there are and there's usually close to 200. There is also a parking garage over on Webster Street And also, each of these projects gets anywhere from two to four parking spots in front of their plot. Aboff,

I mean, I really don't see why this group of people get such privilege at the expense of the people who live here. Thank you.

And then I see Serena again, but before we unmute Serena, are there any other members of the public who would like to make a public comment? Okay. Just Serena.

Thank you. Appreciate it. I'll get back to my list. So, Dorinda, thank you for making that point. In fact, this morning I removed I did that again this afternoon, two other cones. The contractors just decide to leave out cones on the street to reserve their spots. And that's not a permanent activity at all, and it disrupts our neighborhood. I would encourage us to take a page from what other cities are doing. We're we are a very dense city, but we're not the only city with this problem. I think we have some of the most lax requirements for construction though so I would strongly encourage us to see what our neighbors are doing. And then the other point that I wanted to make about construction parking permits is that it should be assigned or it should documented with whatever the building permit number is

and either it's limited per building permit or if there's fines, if someone gets a fine or a ticket and they have a construction permit. The project receives a fine as well. The building permit and the contractor doing the work receives it a fine for their workers with parking or traffic violations So that concludes my list, but also I echo what Craig said as well. A long time ago we had these beautiful marked out no parking fire lane spots and you know since Over the time that the paint has deteriorated, that really worked. That people wouldn't park in there when the spots were striped out and don't block the box stripes. I understand the city's going through Maybe a project where they are re-upping some of those or refreshing some of that paint.

Listen, I'm willing to volunteer and go out there and do the painting myself if nobody else wants to do it but It really did help to mark those spots off so that people wouldn't park in them and it is very dangerous trying to turn on and off onto Prospect Street. or any of the other streets when people are parked right up to the edge of the street corner. So that's all I had and I appreciate the extra time. Thank you.

Yep, thank you Serena. Um, is he Raquel? And I'm sorry if I mispronounced his name.

No, you got it right. Can you hear me? Yeah, so you can hear you. Okay, great. I just wanted to jump on what Serena just said. So my name is Raquel Schott. I live at 21 Houghton Street. So I live on the corner of Houghten and Bolton. and I work from home on Mondays and Fridays, but sometimes I'm home on other days. This is relevant because we have been having problems with people parking in these fire lanes and what ends up happening is uh the garbage trucks and street cleaning although less so that due to size will not be able to turn our corner and we'll just blare their horn for 20 minutes, you know, waiting for someone to come out to move these giant trucks.

and it doesn't always happen because sometimes they are at a site that's you know 10 houses away so um it just uh causes a lot of unnecessary Stress and anxiety when you're just listening to all of this racket all the time. So beyond safety, it's like a quality of life issue. And that's all I really wanted to say. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? I don't see any hands up. I do see Director Klein's hands up Yeah, I have a couple suggestions

I do agree hitting people with heavy fines is tough. We kind of, on the last meeting we had a couple billet inspectors. I'd be willing to go to that ward with the ward inspector get the general contract and say listen try to drop some guys off there with your tools do a drop-off it's a very sensitive issue These guys really want to get their inspections. They want to be paid. They won't get this stuff done I think we can influence them that way also in a nice way say look guys You want to keep your jobs going you got to respect the neighbors? It is very hard to live next to it The construction site, especially if you have four in the same neighborhood. Especially in that neighborhood which is very tight. So I'd be willing to do that a little outreach and send a couple of ward guys over there and just have a meeting with some of the contractors. and keep you councils aware of that. So I think that would help.

Yeah, thank you director. We will not meet but yeah we'll meet again next month but for you know it's at least another two three weeks so anything that can be done in the meantime would be much appreciated

Yeah, that's an easy thing for us to do. I will definitely get on that and have a meeting this week. We're meeting with the building space once a week usually. And we can make that happen and keep you guys in the loop and you guys can talk to your constituents also. And I'm always available.

Great, thank you Director Klein. Back to the public. Any other member of the public wishing to speak? Okay, going once, going twice. I declare this public hearing closed. And any, Councilor Scott, is there anything you would like to add or respond to?

Thank you Madam Chair. Look, I appreciate Superintendent Klein for that offer. You know what? I actually don't have your cell phone number but... hopefully we can connect in the next couple days and I'd be happy to talk with you about because i agree that neighborly conversation goes a long way generally with folks But I do also look forward to conversation in the next committee meeting about how we can have the additional encouragement of some consequences for not being so neighborly. Thank you to Commissioner Klein. I'm sure we'll be in touch shortly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank You, Councilor. And this is a public hearing, but counselor if you can put in a different order. That's not an order for a public hearing, so we can include it in next month's agenda. Or let me just check with Madam Clerk if we can keep this one in committee then can we discuss it? Just as an order, Madam Clerk.

That's a good question. I may have to defer to Councilor Scott but my Gutt is like you could keep it I think just based on what we've done in the past and I guess like the precedent for this we generally close it out um Councilor Scott you have any thoughts on that perhaps?

Yeah I can also yeah go ahead Councilor.

Yeah through the chair I you know I'm happy to always happy to submit another item to talk about parking in the neighborhood so feel free to handle this with the disposition as you feel appropriate and I'm happy to file an item for our next meeting.

Okay thank you counselor yes so we'll close this item We'll mark it as completed. And yeah, again... Thank you, Councilor. Thanks. Thank you for the suggestions and it was just going to ask Director Klein to also include Scott in the emails this week and the next few weeks as we get updates. from Contractors and thank you to all the members of the public for joining us tonight. for sharing suggestions and ways to address this issue. Again, this is a public hearing so we're not going to discuss this item tonight but

we look forward to discussing it at the next meeting and especially hear from staff who are present here okay with that I would like to ask Madam Clerk if you could I call the roll for adjournment.

That I can, and so this item will be marked work completed. On adjournement, Councilor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councilor Mbah?

Yes please.

Chair Sait? Yes All right, with that it is 6.37pm and we are adjourned. Good evening everyone, thank you.

Thank you.