##VIDEO ID:FmzlkjvCc9I## good evening and welcome to the January 27th 2025 Committee of the whole could you please stand to salute the flag to the flag of the United States of America for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all roll call of the members roll call of the members councelor agenzio here here councel cogliandro here here councel janino here here councel Gino SAA here here councel H here here councelor Haro is absent councelor Kelly is absent councel McKenna here here Council noeli absent Council zambo absent and council president sylvestri here here Quorum is present first item on the agenda is a presentation from the parking director informational presentation relative to the new Resident parking program for 25 thank you members of the council and congratulations uh Mr council president and Madame vice president on your new executive session um my name is Zach Bob I'm the director of parking I uh come before you tonight to present some upcoming changes into the parking atmosphere um some of the new additives to our world one of the biggest programs we do is a resident parking um it goes Citywide it's about 30,000 Vehicles a year um based on residential stickers as well as visitor passes in calendar year 2025 the city is looking to bring on digital parking permits meaning you are no longer required to display a physical sticker or plard on your vehicle or Dash your license plate will now act as your permit and just to begin a little introduction into that we're going to talk about Resident parking resident parking stickers reimagined through digital permits and in conjunction of this new change we are also bringing on mobile LPR enforcement license plate recognition to be more efficient and get around the city in a better time we have Outreach and coordination with this program as there is not much changing from the end of the resident in their vehicles with resident stickers the the big change is going to be for the uses of visitor passes which we'll touch Bas during this presentation so just a a little detail about digital permits we are removing an outdated system of physical resident stickers moving to a digital based system which will both assist online and inperson applicability transforming labor intensive task into strategic effort digital permits changes and benefits to the residents no longer will you have a sticker on your windshield no longer will the sticker say you're from the city of Rivier have the abbreviations depending on what Ward you're in or what zone of the street you you come back to nobody will know that you are a resident of the city of rivere any longer we be expanding Citywide coverage with the addition of LPR system which run in conjunction with this program that is something that I know the counselors get many phone calls on at after you know a long weekend something I get we're just not getting around the city too in a timely manner this is going to change that right now it takes us sometimes upwards of a week to get through the entire Community this change is going to allow us to do that in two to 4 days weather permitted cost reduction for this program is going to drop dramatically right now it costs the city $350 for every sticker fulfilled this change is going to reduce it down to a dollar per permit two-thirds of the cost will be removed from our current permit program just a note we will still have available services in office for those who do not have access to a computer smartphone or individuals who may not be techsavvy we understand we have a segment of our population we still need a service and we are not discrediting or or keeping those out of mind we are making sure there are a focus and our Forefront in conjunction with digital permits we will be bringing on license plate recognition we going to install cameras on top of our parking cars and as we drive through the neighborhood this computer system is going to help us identify vehicles that don't belong it's going to also help us identify vehicles that may are not paying their parking tickets or end up on Scofflaw there's also uh a tie in the riv police with this system there's going to be an integration towards their current enforcement agency which is sieges the software they use so as my parking team patrols the roadways throughout the city with that integration with sieges they'll be pulling up information on Stolen plates or stolen vehicles and we'll be sending secret messages that my parking team will not be aware of to a direct email to the re police for followup those emails are going to De detail the vehicle found the plate that was found time and location of that vehicle for RPD followup um it has been some Troublesome trying to get some stolen vehicles off the roadway in the city um Rogue vehicles that may not belong and this is going to assist the police with that as well on top of doing a better job enforcing our residential parking regulation so just of information on how license plate readers work license plate recognition or automatic license plate recognition alerts you to wanted or unpermitted Vehicles even when you are not looking for them this solution gives you real-time insights into your environment while helping your team work more efficiently if vehicles are not in the correct permanent Zone then the alpr will notify the park and compliance officer by scanning a plate or multiple plates along a roadway by simply driving past them the p will receive alerts of hits on their known devices inside of the patrol vehicles and they will be prompted to know if this is a violation or not alpr is not affected by climate change as snow rain or Etc alpr will function effectively regardless of complications or the environment in which it is deployed so on nights where it's snowy inclement weather or rainy where it's labor intensive it's hard to put an officer out there and the the the elements of the the weather this is going to allow us to Main maintain our structure even when the weather is not being forgiving to us currently outdated parking compliance may take two weeks to effectively effectively and efficiently enforce the city of Rivier Al alpr eliminates the labor and simplifies enforcement and compliance with automatic plate reading automatic plate reading covers far more ground in a reduced timely manner plate reading produces hits which are essentially notifications on Parking Violations canceled plates scoff law mismatch plates resident permits and more part of this change location mapping and Zoning uh and will'll go through it tonight we have an opportunity to really change the dynamic of the parking world to be better beneficial to the residents currently right now the regulations behind a resident sticker ties you to your street nor an adjacent Street we know there's very congested areas of communities Ward one Seas them ward two Seas them and Ward three seas them um this will allow us to kind of Reform our outdated parking permit um regulations what I mean by that is looking to more zone-based program where if you live in an area of the community and you're surrounded by other residents with red colored stickers for instance why is it that we are not allowing you to travel within seven streets in a community rather than keep you locked down to your street in adjacent and that I'll be looking to work with the council and I'll show an example of what I'm talking about more so for that but besides that tracking chalking timed areas making sure we are efficient with those areas this alpr system will help with that they will automatically chalk the tires for us let us know when we come back two hours later if that vehicle has moved or not it will help us be more efficient and effective with our enforcement this is all going to be recorded in a backend system to pull up these records at any later date alpr automatically detects when a vehicle is parked over Ed on time overtime on timed areas in the approval of a resident parking Zone in an approved or non-approved resident parking Zone City boundaries are established through the system by drawing polygons within the area which brings me back to my zone based and I'll touch on that more Outreach and coordination that we're doing to kind of make sure that the public understands where we're going with this what we're trying to accomplish and make it easy with this adjustment we have partnered with r rier Mobile City Hall we've been out on uh boots on the ground for the past two weeks with them trying to get the message across while also assisting with permit applications same time we're out there we're letting people know about the new change with the digital system what to expect and what not to expect with how this is going to work for you and the challenges that may face we're going to continue work in our coordination we have an appointment with a senior center for a few hours to do a similar presentation that we put together tonight also assist them in their applications in any questions and challenges they may face we're doing the same thing with the Jack sat house we're in conversations to schedule at the carlman towers the friendly Gardens on Riv Street and to can you get to the most vulnerable population that's going to have trouble with the techn technological change we want to make sure this is an easy transition for everybody frequently Asked question we've been dealing with how do the new Resident permits and visitor passes work starting March 1st each resident permit is digitally tied to a specific vehicle's license plate this allows Enforcement Officers to enforce parking using License Plate Reader technology you will no longer need to attach a sticker to your car or use a hang tag once you purchase a new or renew a permit after March 1st 2025 otherwise the system will work the same as previous years how you received your sticker in the past automatic fulfillment you should still expect that if there was troubles with your address due to automatic fulfillment then you can reach out to our department we can guide you through that process visitor permits a simly tied to a specific license plate although the license plate may be charged changed via the customer portal to reflect that of whichever visitor is using the pass at any time the portal all allows unlimited change into visitor license plates these changes take effect immediately and are free of charge use this guide for instructions on how to manage so we also attached a little guide which I hand to all the counselors tonight because that is the biggest change instead of years past you stop by my department apply for a visitor pass and you tell your visitor to throw it on their dashboard when they come by that is a way of the past now it is required that the resident either calls the department calls 311 or calls City Hall systems or goes online to a 24/7 system themselves they need to have the license plate of the applicant they need to have their digital visitor pass number in their name and they will be able to go online and activate that visitor pass for as many days as they need one of the problems that we run in with visitor passes we have about 3,000 of them out there to maintain them and track them is very labor extensive and um has many challenges this new change now requires you to go online and activate it per use if that plate is entered more than eight days in a month you are going to be stopped if you are trying to put a visitor pass on a vehicle that is trying to circumvent taxes that is going to be stopped the system is going to maintain and monitor this and help us track on the abuse that's kind we've been seeing out there I'm not sure if anyone is aware but you know I I I'll drive to work each morning and I see visitor passes on people's dashboards what that tells me is somebody is living in that house somebody applied for that visitor pass and they're just using it on a nightly basis to circumvent the rules and regulations behind this um so moving into this step with a digital system in conjunction with LPR enforcement is I think is the next step this parking department needs to take and that is the end of my presentation I'd be happy to take on any questions that any of the members of the council have thank you director Bobo um councelor greenos thank you Mr President hi Zach thank you for this um presentation I have a question um you said you be saving money that the 300 from $3.50 to a dollar per sticker correct right but how expenses how expensive is the LPR to install um the software to maintain in all the vehicles and what will happen when it's on a weekend and the parking Department isn't working and I have to call the police department for example like on a Sunday and there's no parking officer working are the police going to have the same thing in their vehicle great question no um So currently right now um I got to be honest I'd be surprised if the police are giving all parking tickets for permit parking um I haven't heard of it um but my team Works seven nights a week the only time they're not working is Sunday at 6:00 a.m. until Sunday at 10 p.m. seven nights a week they are out there this vehicle would be patrolling the streets all seven nights for that exact reason um so if there's ever concern over the weekend please send us a CER give me a phone call I always answer my phone on the weekends be happy to get somebody out there to address it and if not then I can work in conjunction with the police um provideed the plate me or any of my supervisor any of my Pock and Control Officers are able to type in that plate into their equipment and tell you if it has a resident sticker or not I'm concerned in the areas that are 247 no parking and we do call the police whether it's in Beachmont in Riverside in point of Pines so we do call the police on a Sunday if we need someone to come out and have a car removed especially if they're parked in a crosswalk or you know uh covering some um a little bit over someone's driveway and it's happened to me numerous times that I have had to call and the police have had to come and give a ticket so they would still be able to um enforce regulations such as that in regards to resident stickers no that that software that information would be stuck within the parking Department I can definitely look at ways to explore and getting that information over the police okay and then um the cost Effectiveness even though it's you're saving so much money three from 350 to a dollar how much is the LPR costing so the initial uh package for one vehicle was 38,000 and then on top of it we needed a con uh subscription which is $6,000 a year but that cost savings from the parcking program will pay for the original implementation of the first LPR system but within 3 to 6 months the the amount of issuance that you'll be able to get out of the system will surpass any type of cost that came with it and how many um stickers were actually given to the city of river all together uh residence stickers and visitor passes is uh about 29,000 this year in years past we've had 31 32,000 and now what do you do if you were talking about um the the guest parking and activating you know the um the guest parking now what happens if you have a a child and their girlfriend stays over most of the days every single day so she can't stay over what am I going to do tell her she has to leave I would never I would never tell you how to treat the guest in your home um all I would do is just say that if she is there more than 8 days a month then she might into a parking ticket um so I don't know I I I just think it's totally unfair if you have guests that do stay at the house and you're limiting people to actually limiting them to eight days I don't think that's feasible and especially when you're giving one Gas Pass are you still doing this only one per per household so ultimately I have no control over any of that that is uh lies with the traffic commission they're the ones who kind of voted and approved the ordinance that's that I enforce um I'm willing to look at any open changes and and be um respectful to any changes and listen to any concerns of the residents and constituents but right now as it's written is there's only one visitor pass per property and it's allowed for eight days a month each uh of use each month um if it's willing for the counselors to present something for the traffic mission for change I'd be fully supportive of that but it lies within the traffic commission to make those changes I just enforce whatever the the ordinances they provided me with thank you absolutely thank you councelor councelor aeno thank you Mr President uh thank you uh Mr babo for your presentation it sounds great um is the ticketing going to change will you still if you are uh getting a ticket it'll still go on your windshield or will that be correct mailed to you're okay no it still be so um under our masteral law that we operate in we have to have fix the ticket to the vehicle unless a vehicle operator made it very difficult for the parking officer to do the law requires us to affix tickets to the vehicle okay and you may have said this uh will that plate recognition will it recognize if the plate belongs to the vehicle so that's more an enforcement depth like if somebody attached plates or anything like that so the police would be made aware of that information through some of the communications that we can create through this system for attached vehicle plates that may not so this system will recognize that yes okay yeah you can send that into so they'll send that into plates we found and they'll they'll create it's kind of like a ghost email that my parking officers don't even know about the gench camera system sends an email to whatever email is provided to us from the police station and it tells them about specific Vehicles we found the descriptions of the the cars and they'll attach images of those vehicles to that email as well so that the police know exactly what to look out for okay thank you very much all set Mr President thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you Mr President um so I've got a couple of questions uh the one question so for 10 years I've been working to get Beachmont 247 um and with this zoning parking uh what's going to happen is and I don't know you can tell me if I'm wrong or not but someone from um East oshgosh on win bav that lives down near short Beach can come now and park in front of 10 win Bev and we'll take and go into the train station and he'll he can leave his uh car there for eight hours so he's um he's taking up a resident parking space especially in Beachmont because a lot of us don't have driveways so um this was the purpose to put the 247 in so people from Swamp Scot or Lynn or wherever wouldn't park in front of uh the people that live closest to the tea now you're saying that these people they don't have to do adjacent parking anymore they can come from nine blocks away and park in front of Johnny's House who lives on 10 um win B I just don't think that is fair and you're going to put zoning zoning uh what you each section's going to be zoned I just don't think it's fair because like I said a lot of these people don't have driveways a lot of people have stairs they have to take their groceries they have to park in front of their houses take their groceries up uh steers and if Johnny's parking you know there for eight hours this person's not going to have a pocket space so um and he has the same problem he doesn't have the hills like well he does have the hills like I have but I have the hills and I just don't think it's fair for beachmore to go through that if you want to do it on in uh Precinct Three that's great but one one and two that's not going to work it's going to be hard and you know who's going to get the brunt of it they're not going to call you they're going to call me so I'm going to get the calls and what do I say to him oh well sorry this is the way it is I I just don't think it's fair that's number one number two is there's a lot of um cars in parking lots around the city that are ex they um registrations expired um as counselors we get calls all the time to go and look and then we give them to you is would your car be will your cars be willing to go through parking lots in um in identify cars that have been there for two months or three months without um you know uh expired registrations that's a great question I'd have to know what parking lots you're uh informing because if it's privately owned we don't have rights over them besides handicap space or fire Lanes um but if there's a few off Street lots that you're concerned of absolutely but that's the other thing these cameras will do is um they're going to work extremely well with governing our off Street Lots similar to City Hall lot here Central LA McKinley School parking of History Museum um you'll be able to go through a lot in 5 minutes and pick up all the information you need um to be able to maintain enforcement okay so that's definitely a benefit as far as registered cars and unregistered cars that would be reported to the police as that's a police matter we would only be able to ticket them and site them but we don't have the ability to remove vehicles well at least you can identify them and and the police could ticket them and remove them they can tell them I mean I think that's perfect absolutely I don't think it should be up to you I have one more question so as a counselor as a ward counselor and I'm sure all the ward counselors all the counselors get calls that um there's a car in front of uh someone's house and it doesn't have the right sticker on it and I can't park there and I live there uh so I call you you come down you ticket them and then they learn their lesson now as counselors we don't have that access anymore because you can't give us that access because it's uh you know it's a a law so from a council's perspective nothing would change on that end if there's a vehicle that you don't believe is belongs then you would just call the parking Department say hey this is a plate I don't think they belong to the area and then parking would come by and follow up with it um but I think residents need to understand these are public roadways so whether the car has a permanent knot they have a right to park if they're legal um if it's a violation due to our bylaws and our local ordinances then absolutely understandable um but yeah that is going to be one of the changeovers coming in is that you're not going to see the physical stick but for the most part I think we know our neighbors cars I think you kind of know who drives what and if you don't then usually it's a phone call or a CER to the parking department for followup so what I'm going to ask you is is there any way in as uh councilor Gina SAA said uh in on the weekends um you know we call uh and sometimes people don't answer their phones and uh so we we're stuck okay and I was just wondering if you and I don't know if this is you can do this or not could you give us the names of the uh enforcement offices that are on uh and their numbers if they're on uh the road during the weekends so in case we have a problem and the police don't come then we can call them and say hey I mean I have one call and I call him all the time and he comes down and he gives them a ticket whatever but uh I mean I think that would be very useful I know you can't give us I I asked you for if you could give us the uh you know uh the identifier that identifies the license plate and you said it's a law you can't do that privacy comp we can't right but I'm just information just just to help us a little bit point point of information um sorry I don't mean to interrupt you state your point coun Thank you Mr President uh through you to council McKenna so I use 311 on the weekends um if I see a car that's out of place or parked wrong I use three 111 I put a ticket in and doesn't take long for them to get down there and they always email you back on the ticket and let you know what the action they took was whether the car is still there or not if they issued a ticket or if it was parked legally and I was just being a dope you know so that's all thank you good to know councelor thank thank you councel so thank you for the information coun as soon as soon as when I took over the department one of the things I did realize was that with an overnight resident parking program we did lack communication throughout the councilors throughout the residents so in my first year as director that's one of the first things we did was U integrate uh 311 into our world to ensure that if it's 2: in the morning and you wake up and you see a car that doesn't belong you can get a hold of us and to piggy back off cons candra we got a 20 20 to 30 minute average close out depending on where we are we get there as soon as we can um absolutely especially in the overnight period as soon as they get that alert on their cell phones queue alerts tied into everyone of my Pock and guys cell phones or girls um they get those text messages right away and they know they have to respond thank you there was another point that you had mentioned about the zone parking the idea about the zone parking from my perspective is I I've I've done everything in this parking Department in the last seven years I've uh I've been on the street I've given out tickets I've I've enforced The Meters I've fixed the meters and I've worked in this office um one of the hardest parts that I see time and time again is there's no reprieve for our own residents and that's why I bring up the Zone based parking I would not be doing this this is not something I'm pushing today this is something that I would to continue to have a conversation the W one ward 3 and W two counselors as those are where the train stations lie those are where you're seeing the abuse uh my idea behind the Zone based parking was just a benefit for our own residents for instance if one of our residents lives at 136 Crescent ab and they have a girlfriend or a friend whoever the case may be or a relative who lives at 88 Crescent AV if they drive down there which is 300 feet away that's a ticket because on 136 Crescent they have a yellow overnight sticker 88 Crescent they have Red Zone one stickers all I'm looking to do is not create more of a hardship for the residents or the neighbors by allowing people from one end of the city to come closer to the train station but I'm just trying to find a way to allow our own residents to travel within their Community because tying you down to your street and or adjacent street it's tough for instance if I'm in the point of pines and I live on baitman a and I go park on Lancaster which is a parallel street by the letter of the ordinance that's the violation I'm two streets over from my own house you know we I'm just trying to find some wiggle room in here to provide more benefits to our residents to allow them to travel within their community and not worry about grabbing a visitor pass or running in the house and having that Panic moment just to park their car absolutely I don't want people at 300 Endicott coming down to Atlantic AB I don't want people at the top of Franklin coming down to dehon to be near the train station I don't want residents from the Sagamore community be able to park in the point of Pines if that's not what the councils in the community want I was only presenting this change as this is something we can do with this computer system that work extremely efficiently and allow some reprieve and some wiggle room for our own residents within our communities and it could be simple as we take W one W two w three and make four separate subsections within that Ward or Zone where we display signage a Zone 1A sticker can park on these seven streets that are located in zone 1 a and they'll be geographically located same thing with Zone 1B and a the way down the line um to make sure that we are not allowing the abuse to continue we are maintaining some structure but finding some wiggle room within it that's all thank you Council H thank you Mr President Zach thanks so much for the presentation tonight I was thrilled to hear about the Outreach efforts um with the senior center I think that's very important anything with translations and that sense for the rest of the city yes yes so we've uh we've worked on translating all our documents that we put out we put a a city-wide email blast out to anyone who's already in my permit system to notify them of this change and we're also going to continue to do those email blasts to get these activation guides out and any other information that comes again the one the main point I want to get through is for Resident stickers this is a minimal change it's a huge benefit if your windshield cracks you don't need to come back to the parket department for a new sticker If you get a new vehicle same plate you don't need to come back to the parking department for a new sticker you are fine for the year so that is a benefit for them the car the the more questionable one is activating a visitor pass every time you need to use it and that's just to make sure that we're getting rid of road cars we're getting rid of people circumventing the ordinance and regulations to make sure that we are the idea of this this program is to ensure people on this roadway at night are paying taxes to the city and we are prioritizing resident parking and this is just one more step in that direction great and I read that this technology is able to scan 2,000 plates in the span of a couple of minutes you can ultimately Drive 5050 M an hour and get accurate readings yes and anytime you don't get an accurate reading you'll be notified through the system you'll be allowed to do a plate correction and it has AI technology that next time it reads that plate it's going to do a far better job picking that information up we've tested it in some snow we've seen snow on top of license plat that does a really good job the vendor genitech is out of Canada so they make this Hardware out of Canada um that was a big concern of me being in a Northeast environment we deal with all type of elements I want to make sure whatever technology I'm buying into with is going to work through all the seasons and they actually said it it works the only time they have trouble is humidity which was a reprieve for me all right cold weather War uh snowy nights I want to make sure it's running well so humidity was one of the things that they uh they work with but other than that the the cold elements the Rainy elements it works great great I was curious about snow and dirty license plates and things like that thanks definitely thank you Council Gino just one more how many cars is going in one for now this fall we'll add a second one okay thank you absolutely Council noski thank you Mr President Zach I know you and I have spoken already about this and you know a lot of this you know I'm in favor of and you know I had concerns about the visitor passes but what I wanted to ask you was um the number of permits per Apartments say someone has a three-bedroom apartment and there's six people in the in the apartment you know the match how do we handle something like that Council Noki I think that's a great question I think that's a conversation that me and the councilors need to start having and submit something to the traffic commission right now the ordinance does not limit you to a number of Resident stickers for apartments that have you buildings that have six families or less six units or less in them there are no restrictions my system stops you at 10 but should you come to me ask for an 11th I have nothing to hold water to say I can't give it to you um I think that's something that this Council should be looking into as well as myself to try to put something through the traffic commission to look in limiting the amount of residents stickers for on street parking that we issue per address um I know it's a little bit dicey because not everyone has driveways many people in the beach M Community triple Deckers aren't having driveways seeking on street parking um so it will take some multiple meetings and some conversations but no right now uh to answer your question counselor there is nothing to stop somebody in a three family to get 10 stickers per you we we will I'm sure we will ask the traffic commission to address that um secondly uh regarding the visitor passes you and I spoke and I wanted to clarify to a lot of people here like if someone comes to visit you longterm they were allowed to get a long-term visitor pass up to seven days I believe that's another situation that we can create along the line with this as long as we're successful getting some of the Rogue visitor passes out the idea of bring in this on is to try to clean up what we haven't been able to clean up with the abuse in the past few years okay and based on this form that you gave us about the visitor P activation correct and the way we spoke the other day uh was that if somebody comes in and has multiple visitors during a day that the visitor pass goes by the plate number correct so if somebody if I go and visit someone down the pines and I'm there in the morning who whoever I visit down there can call in to activate the visitor permit for my plate at in front of their house but if somebody comes in an hour later they can activate another plate for the that another four hours or a day whatever it may be but it's the the eight days per week is by plate number not by visitor pass that is correct it's each plate is allowed eight visits per per month um but yes you would be able to allow You' be allowed to change the license plate on that visitor pass in a moment's notice you can have a visitor for two hours somebody can come for an additional 3 hours whatever plate you use to activate it the old plate will now become unactive okay and realize too if someone comes down for multiple people they can call you folks and you can make adjustments to that correct parking will still find a ways if you're going to have multiple guests over if it's a milestone event or celebration a celebration of life whatever the case may be contact The Parking Department we still have our ways to assist with our enforcement during Gatherings okay and let me mention Home Care yes uh the home care workers and many years ago I believe it was 2012 but I put into this Council that the parking Department initiate Home Care visitor passes that they could use the whole city anywhere in the city and if they had to be there all day they could be there all day if they had to go from shirle a up to w six they could do that with the same same visitor pass and that we still charging them $5 a day for that $5 a day Citywide Remains the Same City not a day $5 um for the permit um Citywide remains it's it's minor as far as the amount of money is concerned and that lately the the uh the businesses who they work for have been paying for it not the home care workers themselves correct because they have a process that they have to use in order to get it to justify that they work for those folks Lewis uh in my office the assistant has a great relationship with a lot of the healthcare providers so every uh January they'll send us a whole packet with all their applications uh res registrations attached and then a check for all permits so we still maintain those Communications with the MGH East Boston health or um Cambridge Health Alliance along Broadway they still do a good job with that and if I may Mr President uh my last thing is talk about the zones um I had a big concern about the zones because like you said you don't want people from Franklin a parking in front of my my house near the train station absolutely that you know I suggested using the U the uh Precinct zone maps or if those are too large beyond the seven streets that you are proposing uh that we could make them smaller we could have a a 2A a 2B a 2 c a 2d a 2 e if we had to and make only make it seven streets wide so the people in hitchborne Street can't go down at Kimble AV and park there all day and you know whatever the the wishes of the constituents and the ward counselors is definitely something I'm willing to work on I just thought we had to find a a better way to suit our residence between your street and or adjacent Street uh certain nights where you're coming to park on hitchborn Street you're parking on Thorton you're not fitting on hitchborn um certain night you might be coming to Bellingham you look in a park on Crest AV um there's just no room um and technically those two situations would result in a parking ticket in current regulations and it's it's just not fair you know somebody working second shift third shift might get home at a certain hour and parking is at a premium at that time I just I'm just trying to find another way to help and not only just with nighttime parking but daytime operations I want to go visit a friend throughout the community um it doesn't matter that they're three streets over is that a big concern of ours I don't think that was the idea of this program I think it was to try to limit the abuse by the train stations and I think that's going to be our Focus that's going to maintain our Focus um because we've seen the cleanup over there I just do think it's time to look for a little assistance we you know we don't from Hit Street Franklin a you there were those are adjacent streets but even if they had to go over to Thornton Street to park it wouldn't be a big issue on that because you got you're going to get a lot no but those adjustments come on the team of my enforcement side where the black and white says your street are adjacent my team needs to understand oh hitchborne street is a parallel it just makes it confusing it's just trying to streamline and make it more simple um better understandable right the reason we did adjacent was mainly because of street sweeping you know so people that on my my area this all the cars have to move off hitchborn Highland Thornton all the way down and there is basically no place to park you have to park on other streets and other so we allowed it for adjacent so now if we have to expand it a little we expand a little and and work with you guys and talk to folks about it absolutely Mr President thank you very much I appreciate it time thank you counselor Council ham oh thank you Mr President actually uh councelor noeli covered a lot of it per especially around the Home Care stuff just wanted to make sure um now is that only for certified home homet takers and stuff because uh I have heard some constituents that maybe are taking care of their mom across town or whatever and would still like to extend them the the equal Grace I mean they're providing a service that otherwise you know absolutely so like a a a home healthcare aid but their family members we have special family caretaker permits we issue for those ones we have healthcare workers for the ones have the title or the the background to show us and the ones who are just taking care of a family member within the community we have special family car taker permit corre as long as we can get a doctor's note from the resident who needs the care the doctor's note tells us that that person needs help with day-to-day activities and provides information on who's given that care we make those um assist all the time perfect absolutely thank you counselor permission to speak from the chair thank you director babo and great presentation um I'm for 99 9% I just see a couple tweaks that you might already have in place um military leave requests um I think that would be something that a more than a 7-Day extension might need we give military leave resident stickers if you provide us documentation that you're here but you are on military leave or you were on deployment in your vehicle we we accommodate awesome and um medical requests councelor himo touched on y okay we still accommodate those those those are my two issues and then thank you very much the idea of the parking department is not to make it any more difficult on our residents as parking is is is sometimes tough in this community we're just looking for ways to evolve it and make it a little bit better and this is one of those steps in that direction um with the support of the council moving forward the support of the traffic commission thank you for your time tonight and thank you if anyone else has any additional questions following this meeting please give me a call or send me an email I'd be happy to to exchange uh more correspondence and and hear the concerns of your constituents thank you thank you great job next item is Council order 24- 338 a communication from the chief of planning in Community Development requesting adoption of the city's housing production plan good evening councilors um I have a brief a brief presentation neither as detailed nor as aesthetically pleasing as my colleague in the parking department but what what I want to to do quickly is just address over the course of the last couple months um as I've been talking with all of you about the housing production plan heard your concerns heard some things you wanted tweaked um I wanted to present a few tweaks which I think responded pretty well to a lot of the discussions I've had with you about the plan um I'll be very quick going through those and then happy to take any questions you have about the plan itself beyond that you guys are seeing that all right so um the first proposed change that I wouldn't I'm not sure if it was unanimous but pretty much across the board folks had some issue with a strategy related to allowing single room occupancy for permanent Supportive Housing otherwise known as sro's I'm proposing that we remove that uh from the plan which seemed like it had pretty widespread agreement among the council and then there's a few different areas where I'm proposing that we modify the existing language today and in each one I have a citation going uh back to the page number of the production plan the first is Page 11 um notes purchasing the right of first refusal from current owners of multif family buildings this was an item that I think there was a lot of confusion about at the last council meeting um and just to set the record straight there was something that happened and councelor Kelly referenced it in Cambridge and Somerville where there was actually a program where tenants were supposed to be given the right of first refusal anytime a multif family property went up up that's different than what we were offering here which is actually for multif family Property Owners they could sell the right of first refusal to the city if they wanted to and if we wanted to buy it um for a sum let's say between1 and $5,000 and what that would then allow us is for 120-day period before property goes on the market we could consider if we wanted to purchase that and then working with our affordable housing trust converted into affordable housing so again it's an option not a requirement like the Cambridge and summer model totally different so what the proposed change here would be just in the language instead of purchasing the right of first refusal offering multifam Property Owners the option to sell the right of first refusal to the city which then has the opportunity to preserve affordable rentals in the city so it's just an option with an opportunity that the city is afforded but it's not a requirement as it was sort of stated in that initial flyer we talked about in December another proposed change where it notes on page 14 offerings Surplus city-owned property and specifically calls out the Central Avenue parking lot I am proposing inserting this language when redeveloping the Central Avenue lot or maybe if redeveloping the Central Avenue Lot particular consideration must be given to replacing or retaining current parking spots available for the uh Rivier Rosetta Rosetti Cohen uh Senior Center as part of the plan and then page 16 which refers to partnering with the MBTA and in particular with the Beachmont and the Wonderland surface parking lots um I'm proposing adding this language Redevelopment efforts should focus on the Wonderland surface parking lot if a Redevelopment project is considered at the Beachmont lot the project must retain the existing parking on site which I know was an issue of contention the last time around and Page 17 one of the strategies suggests permit permitting zero lot Line Construction and again as we talked about in December it was really only in specific areas um and it was clear if you read more into the details but to correct the headline to make sure it aligns with what the plan actually says I'm proposing adding this language permit zero lot Line Construction in certain mixed use neighborhoods such as Broadway and Shirley Avenue and page 18 says allow byright two and three family homes in all residential districts and I'm proposing a tweak here to say in certain residential districts and again not to um belabor the point of our December meeting but all these things would require future Council votes in particular any zoning changes we'd make um but we we could then talk about which zones that might be appropriate um the bulk of um the city currently already offers two family construction um the one thing I'd be trying to solve for with two families is you can actually keep the the slide up for or my if we can get rid of tan Sam uh I don't know how to move that over I don't choose the back backgrounds for what it's worth that's that's Microsoft okay so um this is a simplified simplified way that I describe how and where two families are allowed in the city today um not very simple so I think with regard to two family construction I would want to simpli simplify our zoning code so it was really clear what areas it was appropriate and which areas they are not uh currently allowed and then with three family housing um triplexes we actually currently treat a three- family development the same as we do a 475 unit building they're all considered Apartments so I think the the suggestion there and again this is something that at a future date the council could vote on if if they determined it was appropriate would be to add three families as a use in the use table and consider where it might be appropriate with within the city because I think we would all agree a three family development is different than a 475 unit apartment so that's that's all the proposed removals and modifications and happy to answer any questions you might have to that end thank you Tom Council McKenna thank you Mr President um so I read your article um this weekend and um and um in the article it said um that you should first identify undeveloped undeveloped sites like the Revis Housing Authority you should take a look at the options first um so I'm thinking about how we were going to put a high school uh there was a proposition on the table that we were supposed to put a high school where the uh uh Housing Authority is in rier in orian Heights they took a dilapitated um project unit it it was as big as probably the one in R Pro probably bigger and they took it down and they made these beautiful gorgeous um housing affordable houses for people in Orient Heights and Boston why can't we do that we have old there I mean these projects that we have in on coolage street and Constitution AV and everything they've been there for years I just don't understand and there's acres and acres and acres of land that you can put uh multiple units there I just don't understand why we haven't looked at that instead of inundating this whole city with uh seven floors of of uh building and and taking away parking and these people I've lived here all my life I don't want my quality of life to change I have a housing unit next to me I don't want him to go up another three floors because he's a single family house and he can do it I just you know there so my question to you and I have a couple of questions because there's a couple of things that I didn't like in this um packet but um why aren't we looking at the Housing Authority I am sure that we could get grants all kinds of Grants to build multiple units of of housing affordable housing and that would take care of the uh 20% that we should be at instead of inundating the whole city with with all this stuff that's my first question my second question is there was a a a part about cell towers bringing in cell towers and I don't know maybe I'm wrong to get the rent five years ago you weren't here myself and and Captain uh O'Hara fought to get the cell towers and the 5gs out of the city because they if you read the data they cause cancer 60 feet from where they are so um and to just to maintain the money and not the quality of life of someone is is it's so wrong and maybe I'm I I read that wrong but to bring cell towers into the city there's an I wrote an ordinance that you can't do it anymore so I mean I just it it sounds like we've got some something to remove in addition to what we talked about well the cell towers are just they're they're hazarded hazardous so I'll address that point first because I think it's the simplest the the cell tower payments and um I guess the series of different opportunities for revenue for the affordable housing trust that were identified to take a um take a bigger I guess um to confront our affordability crisis in a in a more meaningful way than what the affordable housing trust currently gets 10% of our free cash allocation every year which I know it's grateful to receive but that could be anywhere from 500,000 to maybe a million dollars on a good year and just for context that can basically fund one affordable unit every year and so I think we all know if we and if the affordable housing trust continues to move at that pace we're not going to make a dent in our affordability goals so what that section was really about is identifying other opportunities for potential Revenue sources to help fund the trust it wasn't suggesting we bring in cell towers but if there were opportunities like that where the city you know could see a Development coming in where we wanted to seek mitigation payments those mitigations at least a portion of it could go to support the trust um or you know in lie of building affordable housing on site they could um contribute to the trust to build it offsite so that was really more about just is building the capabilities of the trust through various Revenue opportunities I'd be happy to take that one out if it's just outright prohibited and then the second question working with the U Riv Housing Authority uh we're fortunate to have a great leader at the authority in Dean Harris who has been thinking a lot about this and helped to influence um the production plan as we put it together um and he actually just recently partnered with um the mayor's office and and my department on getting an RFP out to actually create a master plan for the coolage Avenue complex which I agree it's it's over 40 acres it's a pretty significant opportunity not just to build new housing but to build safer streets for the kids and uh seniors that live there to build parks and playgrounds that are more receptive to the needs of the kids in in the the neighborhood and just generally to build a better neighborhood um the one thing I would say I guess the one area I might differ from you is I think there is a real need and a value in not concentrating all of our affordable housing in one location but kind of spreading throughout the city um and I think we've all seen kind of the pitfalls of concentrations of poverty in certain neighborhoods and and not others and I think there is a I think a real benefit to the city if we spread this out throughout the city thank you Tom councilors we're moving towards a hard stop at 6m so if we could just pick it up a little bit councel noveli thank you Mr President um Tom thank you for all this work and it is a lot of hard work and I can appreciate a lot of it um but two things I are in my mind now first actually three first of all any of these changes I'd like to see something solid in writing that's clean rather than having to pick out the lines that you make the proposal that changes that you make uh second of all um I have an issue with zero lot line uh especially down in my neighborhood so dense and fire fire protection is a big big thing and when you have zero lot line you can't put Windows within five feet you know uh within 5T of a building and a lot line and you can't put Windows there and you're going to have problems squeezing in bedrooms into these buildings and I have a problem with the zero lot line that's number number one on as far as that concerned I have an issue putting seven story building especially on shirle AV okay everything on Shirley a is five-story Max and I have a problem with any seven-story building shirle AV is a business district and you know it's fine we want to do seven stories someplace else but I also have a problem with seven stories going into a RB District you know down in specifically down the Garfield area which is Joe P of Joann's area uh down in the Garfield elderly projects I have a problem with a seven story pilling going down there so you you know I I think we ought to uh think about that and uh and I think I would go against anything that squeezed in seven stories high in especially in Shirley F on that last point seven stories could you point to where that is in the production plan so we could consider it is in the production I okay thank you Mr President thank you counselor councelor zamb buo uh thank you Mr President uh thanks for your presentation um I liked some of the changes and uh uh but my colleague triggered me because uh she mentioned the orian heights uh housing and and uh uh it's it's beating a dead horse but the original site for the new high school was going to be in the coolage area and that would have gave the residents that beautiful housing that they had in East Boston as a trade off and we wouldn't have been taken land off the tax rolles so that's beating a dead hor but it's a it's something that uh when I hear it my blood boils because we could have had that for the uh residents of housing they could have had nice housing we could have had a great location central location for high school and not take a billion two off the tax row so I know I strayed there but uh I appreciate the leeway Mr President uh uh but I do uh I do like some of your changes that doesn't mean I'm going to vote for this that doesn't mean I'm going to support it after it's voted on I'm going to support the projects that come before me but I do like the way you've uh tweaked your your changes thank you very much Mr President thank you councelor Council hero uh thank you Mr President I will try to be brief here because got three minutes but so I just have some questions um all of the a lot of the changes you're proposing in this HPP which again are just a proposal we're not voting on any ordinance changes is that right that's correct okay um most of the things that are happening um that you're proposing here are done through private Market Equity developers is that right or would affect that those developments it's a mix yeah but that's a good portion of it it's a good portion of it who is currently uh building in the city private or public dollars private primarily private private dollars and every single time uh that they come up here for the first special permit it usually gets granted and those have been largely private dollars yes and by and large in the last five years most of those projects have gone through yes okay and so how can private dollars build um uh affordable housing uh if we are not able to uh like what what are the costs that go into building affordable housing for a private developer so it depends on the project um but you know certain levels of affordability that you reach you have different requirements Visa Ada accessibility creating a larger portion of two and three family units than you might in a market driven project and so there are additional costs associated with um some of the Hoops you have to jump through at the state and the federal level to access the different resources um you know both tax credits State incentives and so forth I got like 30 seconds left so what are some cost offsets to ensure that private developers which are the ones that are clearly bringing money into the city uh just can you rattle off a few that would ensure that we can have more affordable housing and all the new development here we can keep rier residents in rier connecting with state and federal resources and providing local tax breaks where appropriate is there anything relative to construction cost I think those would indirectly affect construction costs thank you thank you councelor councilor Areno thank you Mr President uh Mr selski thank you for coming uh this housing production uh plan is this something that the state is requiring us every city and town to have in place they're not requiring us but if it's if a community has less than 10% of their housing deed restricted affordable it is a recommendation and then it is something if a developer comes in and you know to your point counselor says they want to build a seven story development but our zoning says six stories allowed they could do it um because we don't have Safe Harbor because we don't have a a housing production plan anywh under that 10% limit okay so if we were to vote for this and I know almost all aspects of this plan need to be go through zoning and what have you if we systematically then start to dismantle the plan how would the state feel about that I think the most important thing to the state at the end of the day is are we making impactful um you know changes in our affordability levels working either a half or a full percent towards closing that 10% affordability Gap okay and just one more question uh the two and three family homes by right I know we you said we'll be limiting those what's to prevent developers from coming in popping these things in place and just charging exorbitant rent nothing would prevent them from doing that I mean I I think the thought process and it's pretty well well found out in in the data and studies over time is that's the best way we can create kind of middle income this isn't going to create affordable housing this is going to create Workforce housing think of housing for a lot of the folks in city hall or teachers and firefighters and police officers it provides that missing Metalist they'd say but um nothing is necessarily preventing them from doing that but I think it'll always be a more affordable option than an amenity Rich large development that has pools and and you know the full nine yards thank you very much all set Mr thank you counselor anyone else well since we're running out of time we're going to keep this in committee Tom if you could please clean it up with the recommendations the council has asked meet with the counselors if they have any questions or concerns and then we'll bring this forward a later date thank you thank you that's it for the business of Committee of the hold