##VIDEO ID:OU-XiECkpHk## e good evening welcome to the August 26th Rivier city council meeting please rise to salute the flag I flag United States of America the rep stands one nation indivisible liy Justice for All rooll Club the members councel agenzio here here councel janino here here councelor greo SAA here here councelor H here here councelor hero is absent councelor Kelly here here councel McKenna here here councel noeli here here councelor sylvestri here here Council zambuto here here and council president Cog Leandro here here Quorum is present approval of the Journal of the regular meeting of July 22nd so move calendar item number three the Rivier city council will unveil a plaque dedicated to the women who served are serving and will serve on the rier city council [Applause] [Applause] Madam clerk good evening elected officials former elected officials and their families and the residents of the city of rier today marks a significant day in the history of the United States of America on August 26th 1920 the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified by proclamation changing the face of the American electorate forever the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote vote this right was achieved after after Decades of struggles protests marches and so-called Civil Disobedience by the champions of voting rights for women in 1973 the United States Congress designated August 26 as women's equality day to commemorate the 19th Amendment it is only fitting that a plaque commemorating the women of the reier city council be dedicated this evening to coincide with such an important milestone if not for the women's suffrage movement the passage of the 19th Amendment we as women of the rier city council very well may not have had the opportunity to be in the positions that we are in today as elected officials or as department heads to each of the remarkable women who have served are serving and will serve on the Rivier city council your dedication vision and tieless work have profoundly shaped our community fostering progress and inclusivity you have Champion vital causes from advocating for social justice to enhancing public services and have inspired future generations of women to engage in Civic leadership today we celebrate your contributions and build upon the legacy of your invaluable service today we honor the following women Margaret Peggy O'Hara councilwoman O'Hara was the first woman to serve on the Rivier city council she was appointed at large in 197 73 by the city council to replace her husband Edward alohara she served through the remainder of 1973 fra singer councilwoman singer is one of the first women elected to serve on the Rivier city council and the first woman to represent Ward one she is the longest serving woman and was also elected Council vice president in 19 1980 she served from 1976 to [Applause] 1993 Vera CIO councilwoman CIO was one of the first women elected to serve in the reier city council and the first woman to represent ward 3 she served from 1976 to 1981 Vera's daughters could not be present today but at I would like to acknowledge Joanne cerso Georgette de Giovani and Deborah Columbus who are watching from home Katherine Penn councilwoman Penn was the first woman to represent Ward 2 and was the first woman woman president of the rear city council she served from 1980 through 1986 Linda Santos Rosa councilwoman Rosa was the first woman elected to serve at large she was Council Vice President in 1990 and in 1993 prior to her tenure Linda served on the Rivier school committee from 1984 to 1987 and she served on the city council from 1998 I'm sorry 1988 to 1993 Denise sememi councilwoman sememi was the first woman to represent Ward six prior to her tenure Denise was on the rier school committee from 1990 to 1995 and she served on the city council from 1996 to [Applause] 1999 Jessica janino representative janino was the first woman City councelor to be elected to the Massachusetts general court and that happened in 2020 during her tenure on the city council she served as vice president in 2013 and president in 2016 and 18 Jessica served on the council from 2012 through 2021 she could not be here today so she has actually prepared a short video uh to share with with everybody hi everyone I'm state representative Jessica janino and I'm honor to be here with you today in the riv city council chambers as we celebrate women's equality day here in the city of Riv what an honor it is to celebrate 104 years ago the passage of the 19th Amendment uh when you think about that in context it's pretty amazing to think about how far we've come not only as a country but as a community and as we stand in the city council chambers today and acknowledge the contribution to women in the city of Riv and women in this chamber it's pretty remarkable serving as a Riv City counciler was truly uh one of the greatest honors of my life and serving as city council president was such an incredibly uh educational and rewarding experience for me that's taught me so much and given me so many tools that I've taken with me in this next chapter as your state representative I have the distinction of being the only woman to serve as a Rivier City councelor and go on to serve in the great and general court and that has truly been uh the greatest honor of my life to continue to serve the city of Rivier in this capacity when I think about all of the amazing women that have come before me many of you are there today the current women serving in the city of Rivier and our future leaders in the city of river we have so many amazing strong women that we are so so lucky to have and when I think about Massachusetts to think about in the city of Rivier that we're represented by a woman in your state rep in your state senate in so many of our constitutional offices when only 104 years ago women didn't have the right to vote and only 50 years ago women couldn't take out their own line of credit we've come so far so it's an honor to be here with you tonight I'm so sorry I couldn't be with you celebrating in person I'm uh representing the city in my official capacity as your representative but uh it's truly truly an honor I'm so so proud of all of the women that have come before me and that are there currently and I cannot wait to see what the future generation of rever female leaders accomplish now for our current sitting female City councilors Joan McKenna former educ for for former educator of the rier public school system was first elected to represent Ward one in 2015 she served as vice president in 2018 and 2023 and president protemp in 23 she has served on the city council continuously since 2015 and at the end of this term will earn a place on the legislative bench Angela greo SAA councilwoman greo SAA was the first woman elected to represent Ward 5 who began her inaugural term in office this year and last but not least councilwoman Michelle Kelly began her inaugural term in office this year representing the woman the residents of our community at large thank you all for your service and without Ado we will unveil the plaque at this time thank you madam clerk before we do the unveiling I'd like to open the floor to the city council anybody wishing to to say anything councelor arenia thank you Mr President I've I've known a lot of the uh women from years ago that served on the council when I was at the DPW and it it they did an excellent job and I worked very closely with him and it's my pleasure to be here tonight uh this really is an honor and to my colleagues on the council right now uh excellent uh City Council and it's it's my honor to serve with [Applause] them thank you counselor councelor janino what a great night I've had the pleasure to serve and work with almost everyone of the woman named in that on the council for the last 35 years and each one of them special each one of them that did a marvelous job and it's it's long overdoing it's about time thank you thank you councelor councelor Gino SAA I am extremely happy with being one of the nominees for this um re recipient as and as being the first Ward five uh woman counselor I'm looking at Jessica janino who I've looked up to so much and her being so much younger than I and I keep telling her I'm like yep I'm going to be just like you one day and guess what I'm up here and then Rita singer oh my goodness I've known her forever as well as Denise celemi and I've looked up to both these women and to be a part of this today is such an honor and I love representing the people of Ward five thank [Applause] you thank you counselor counselor H thank you Mr President I just want to say this is welld deserved um I know many of you um Missi Miss Penn Miss singer um it's an honor to to know you and to call you a friend and to learn from you and it's also an honor to serve with Joanne councelor sa and councelor Kelly but um I've always prided myself on being led by strong women um with my mother at the helm and as the son as the um brother of Two Sisters I've been very fortunate in my life to to be surrounded by strong women and that can only make us stronger to have that type of voice and that type of leadership and that type of protective protection and um I just want to say thank you for blazing the trail and thank you for all you guys did for the city thank you thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you Mr President um I would like to thank everybody for this great honor and thank you to all the strong women that served before me and led the way so this could happen tonight thank you very [Applause] much thank you counselor councelor Kelly thank you Mr President um as as well I I um want to thank everyone for this honor um I had no idea that I would be sitting up here I'm and I'm honored to represent the uh residents of Rivier and um in terms of the past female counselors and Ward counselors I have big shoes to fill I feel um everyone did such a wonderful job and just thank you for leading the way uh for me to be able to be here and represent you thank you thank you councelor councelor noas selski thank you Mr President Mr President being the senior a member of the council I can say that I worked with Rita singer I work with Denise salemi I work with Vera CIO and I'm proud to be working with these young ladies here uh sitting with beside me now uh I'm really proud to have worked with them and be working with them and you know as they say behind every man is a great woman well here we have I think 13 names up there that uh have served on this the city council and made this city a lot better than it is now thank [Applause] you thank you councelor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um I just want to say to all of you women um what an amazing night to be a part of what a what an amazing time to be on this Council to get to honor you all um it's amazing the work you put in IND ually um but if you if you think of the Legacy that the family names have left in the city that continues to to to give back to R today um it it's pretty amazing and honored to be here tonight and thank you all so [Applause] much thank you counselor councelor zudo thank you Mr President it's truly an honor to be serving on this city council tonight to honor these wonderful women who came before I I've watched them over the years I know how hard they worked uh it it it's really uh a special night here and uh I'd be really remiss if I didn't mention that uh our city clerk Ashley Melnick put this whole thing [Applause] together but aside aside from doing this we we we've come to expect Ashley melck to always be perfect because she is the best city clerk in the commonweal but she's also the first woman City Clerk in the city of Rivier and so I know I know that she's much too humble to have mentioned her own name and uh um I'm her biggest fan and uh I'm I'm thrilled to have her as our city clerk and I know that anybody that works up here knows that she's the best in the business so thank you Ashley thank you counselor counselor H thank you for the leeway Mr President I also wanted to recognize I know we saw our video of her tonight but I also wanted to recognize rep representative janino and um you know I've probably leaned on her the most the last couple of years when this when running for political office was a decision that I was going over but I just want to thank her for her friendship for her loyalty and for always putting Rivier first thank [Applause] you thank you everyone Madame Clerk let's go to recess please e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e counselors please take your seat meeting will resume on to public hearings calendar item number four hearing called disordered on an ordinance providing for interpretation and translation services for public meetings and public documents this is a public hearing we'll open the floor to proponents anyone in favor seeing and hearing none any opponents anyone not in favor good evening ma'am address for the record please Claire and cerillo solicitor's office 281 Broadway accompanied by Steve morbido and osma Abu Fuda from the diversity equity and inclusion office uh I am here once again as well as Steven osma as an opponent again to the ordinance before you tonight through the council president to you all I want it to be clear that we do not oppose the intentions or or the ideas behind the ordinance however we oppose the logistics of its content as we have been for a few months most if not all of you were here when we presented previously maybe in subcommittee or the full Council I don't remember uh on the city's new language access plan that we adopted and at the end of this year we are really excited because city employees are going to be attending a region Regional Department of Housing and Urban Development event uh because we've been asked to present the lap to other municipalities in our region and it is with this High Praise that we ask the council to set aside the ordinance before you tonight a dedicated group of city employees have been implementing the lap the lap since its adoption earlier this year and we are making great progress in the collection and categorization of material from our various department heads to rec to recap among many services trainings and initiatives the lap when fully executed will provide notices for availability of interpretation for public meetings and for small group interactions an example of this is when we have a business owner come into the planning department to talk about a small business loan which happens quite often uh the city's offerings for interpretation will exist on a bu request basis once this initial collection phase has been completed and for translation for written uh HUD guidance specifies a threshold of 5% % of the population or 1,000 people whichever is less this means that the city translates vital documents at a minimum into the languages encountered by 5% of the population or 1,000 people again whichever is less for all services however written or spoken residents will be able to request their language with the city making our good faith effort to procure said language service and there are detailed policies and procedures and timelines which are outlined in the lap that City staff use to ensure meaningful access to Services by all the folks who are living in our community the ordinance before you tonight is well- intended however it sets unreachable standards that conflict with the lap that we've been working on for so long we crafted it for over a year with a HUD attorney and it has been tirelessly rolled out this past summer with budgetary and Personnel limitations that we face as a city we cannot afford to simultaneously interpret every single public meeting and to give this Council an idea this past month of August alone held 21 public meetings not including our appeals hearings through 40u and the parking department and not including school committee meetings and as you know some of these meetings have one or no attendees at all this contributes to why our lap operates on a By Request basis for interpretation to ensure that we are not wasting say precious time energy or money in a needless manner I will concede that there's some overlap between the city's LA and the ordinance if you are supportive of these ideas you should definitely further read the language that's in our lap it's publicly available and I believe it's come before you as an official communication I implore you to reach out to employees if you have specific questions we stand on the opposing side tonight because of fundamental budgetary differences that exists between the two a city the size of Lynn or Worcester may have the bandwidth to automatically offer these languages for all meetings and for all documents but with a new high school on the horizon and the small group of employees that we have at City Hall The Proposal before you right now with our size is unattainable I can assure you that the lap holds all city employees whether they're at 281 Broadway or inspections or parking or the library it holds us all to the highest standard of care and service for our diverse Community while also acknowledging the financial and procurement limits that a municipality has to work with I urge this Council to have faith in the employees who are working hard under the guidance of a specialized HUD attorney to carry out our lap it exists as an internal policy rather than an ordinance just like our employee manual it applies to our staff and it applies to how we interact with residents each year there will be revisions to keep the language up to to date into account for demographic changes we are eagerly awaiting the newest American community service census updates which will perhaps change what languages we have to offer and again I want to thank everyone for your consideration tonight thank you very much are there any other opponents anyone not in favor closing that side of the hearing this is going to be refer to legislative affairs do we have any City councilors wishing to speak councelor H thank you Mr President CLA thanks so much for being here tonight you know when I worked at the senior center asthma was incredible to work with um we used to translate our newsletters into four different languages and the um the women that worked in HR and I think it was Danielle and um I can't think of the other woman's name but they were fantastic with the translations my only concern with that was with if we did look into doing every single notice that went up um I believe the city only had one language specialist and um so I didn't want to overburden them to some extent you know but can you talk a little bit about the lap and how long that's been running and how successful that's been counselor this is going to go to legislative affairs after this so I know we have other councilors I get one second um just to clarify it's already been to legislative affairs am I correct twice twice yeah this it was said to legis islative Affairs this is the public hearing it was worked on PRI in the committee prior then it was reported out to be referred to a public hearing there was a public hearing earlier this year that I spoke against as well it's coming back to legislative affairs should just be voted out vot out just vot out if it's already if it has not been to a public hearing legally we cannot vote on it right now but if it has been to a public hearing already we can so the question is has this been to a public hearing already I was here as an opponent before for this you don't happen to I know this is a tough ask you don't happen to have the date check yeah I have a big just so we can be clear so none of us get sued absolutely very well so we did this was already at a public hearing [Music] so councelor sylvestri actually I'm sorry councelor H uh I apologize please ask your question no worries thank you um clear so I guess my point was how long has the lap been used currently so we adopted it formal adoption internally meaning approval with the mayor's office and all the relevant department heads earlier this year and at the beginning of this summer once their workload kind of died down a bit into the legislative break that you all had they began to start categorizing and cataloging every single document that each department head you know we're not going to prioritize a car wash flyer for a fundraiser but all of those vital docu ments that um offer services whether it's monetary or a city service such as a residential parking sticker those things are at the top of the list which is what osma and Steve have begun collecting and categorizing I believe they're making really good progress because I've been kicking some department heads butts to remind them that they got to answer these folks and just so we know um any Resident that reaches out who who do they contact so we're going to yep so right now we haven't advertised it cuz we're still in that initial phase one but once that phase is completed and we feel confident that we have all of the relevant pertinent documents that go out to our residents there's going to be three to four by lines we haven't fully decided but we're going to have three to four by lines all of those vital Public Notices that go out are going to say in the language of the speaker for uh Avail for interpretation SL transation availability please contact and then it's going to have their offices contact information they can also go through the city clerk's office and that's going to be in the multiple languages at the bottom of each notice that goes out great thanks thank you councelor and one second councelor sylvestri you next I just this this ordinance or has substantially changed since April uh and because of that it's my opinion that we should send it to legislative affairs one more time it's almost not the same as it as it was presented so um if there's no opposition councelor sylvestri legislative affairs calendar item number five hearing called disordered on an ordinance further amending regulations for short-term rentals in the city of Rivier this is a public hearing opening the floor to proponents anyone in favor good evening sir name and address for the record please good evening counselors Vincent Areno short-term rental office 249 R Broadway I'm in favor of the proposed changes tonight uh as everyone is well aware we are a new office we've been in operation fully for about two years now the ordinance was also new uh at the time it was uh written by councelor janino and councelor McKenna the ordinance has worked very well up until this point originally when we had started there were 1,200 short-term rentals operating within the city we're down to about a 100 now so the ordinance as the way it stands right now has been very effective it's just now at after some field application and seeing how it operates in the real world we've come across a few situations that we would like to tighten up the ordinance in terms of enforcement action so increasing fines and also coming up with a strict procedure for determining primary residence within the city which is a major portion of short-term rental operation within the city is that you are the primary resident of the short-term rental that you are operating so he feel as though that these few changes would help us really start enforcing the ordinance in in terms of a action standpoint for non-compliant properties there are only a handful in the city at any given time that are non-compliant but these few small tweaks to the ordinance would help us really push us over the Finish Line to really get us to where we think we need to be as a department for enforcement thank you very much sir are there any other proponents anyone in favor seeing and hearing none we'll move to the opponents anyone not in favor seeing and hearing none any City councilors wishing to speak this will be referred to oh Council noeli this will be referred to legislative affairs Mr President councelor agenia I'm a little confused at the this has already been to legislative affairs and this is the first time okay so right so after we goes back to legislative affairs we can vote on it that night yes okay thank you calendar item number six hearing called is ordered on a petition submitted by National Grid to install a new poll number 15-50 on Railroad Street beginning at a point approximately 10 ft south of the center line of leeber Bank Highway and continuing approximately 648 ft in a West Direction in Riv mass is there anyone here from National Grid oh that's a surprise all right good evening sir name and address for the record please uh hi my name is PETA I'm representative of National Grid I also resident of Rivier 55 School Street uh so National Grid requires uh a s uh to install a single owned uh pole 15-50 uh between poll 15 and 16 in uh Railroad Street this petition also uh is linked with another petition as well which is an underground uh CU they are uh they are very they are link so if one of them doesn't pass the other one will not pass um this is simply just for the record okay thank you are there any other proponents seeing and hearing none any opponents didn't think so any City councils councelor McKenna thank you Mr President um this is in my wad um and we've had problems with um National Grid working at night and disturbing the residents um and I just want to know if this is going to be done in the daytime I know it's uh lieur Bank Highway and it's really not uh you know there's not too many residents on there but I want to know because if you guys come in front of me again and you want to work at night it's not going to happen uh I will speak with them uh sorry uh scheduling determines uh what time is best for them if it comes at daytime uh they can do it at daytime uh this all depends on how busy the road is that's most of it but if the city also has requests um we can also let scheduling know and they will look at it as well and take that into it okay so the last time you guys worked and you worked at night no I called the city to find out who was working and the city wasn't even contacted so uh I have a big problem with first of all communication uh second of all working at night third of all disturbing the residents that are trying to go to sleep to go to work the next day uh and do it doing it because it's easier doing it at night because there's not enough traffic um we need to know as a city we need to know what you guys are doing so if I call the city engineer and he says I don't know what's going on I don't even know who's working we need to know so you need to communicate you need you guys need to do a better job in communicating on what you're going to do when you're going to do it and if you're going to do it at night you got to tell the residents too that I mean the residents didn't even know they they were sending me pictures of the cars the trucks that were working there I had no idea and the engineer didn't know so you you please do a better job in communicating if you're doing work in the city and and and if you're going to bother residents I think that you should tell the residents that you're going to be working at 10:00 at night night and you're going to be jackhammering uh you know concrete and stuff and you're going to keep them up so and they didn't even know either so that's that's all I'm asking thank you makes sense uh this is is this your first time here this is my first time here so that's just I just need to Mr President so I don't have anybody's phone number and that's the case I can how long have you been in this position because I feel like we just met somebody else who was representing us and if I may I know this isn't your fault but National Grid does not respect this city at all they don't respect us either so that needs to change and I know it's not your fault I feel bad you they threw you right into the fire but they don't respect this city they don't respect the people who represent the residents so we need that to change we've been promis things over and over again we had you guys at the last meeting nobody even showed up oh so again I'm I I know you're super uncomfortable and it's your first time here my apologies I know it's not your fault but that needs to change Council isan buo uh thank you Mr President aside from him being thrown into the fire pit here uh this looks like it's on Railroad Street where there's no residence and and uh so if it's at nighttime you know perhaps we can approve this one uh start this new guy off on the right foot here and he'll he'll understand that he's got to communicate with us better your boss has got to communicate with that's better and you can bring that message back for us but uh aside from that I think that this is one that we probably can approve we we're not going to inconvenience any residents on Railroad Street I don't believe unless unless somebody's moved in there recently that I don't know about I think it just goes to the overall idea that we need to be shown more respect in this city well I think we've got that point across yeah I you know we I feel like we have the same conversation every every time they're up here is it is the point getting AC cross counselor I don't know we'll see okay Council noas selski any other proponents no I'm sorry we're just kidding uh City councilors any other City councilors okay all in favor all opposed so oted calendar item number seven hearing called is ordered on a petition submitted by National Grid to install a line of underground electric conduits across Railroad Street to existing manhole a29 from the property line of 30 Railroad Street towards existing Conduit on Railroad Street and install conduit from manhole 120 across Railroad Street to new pole 1550 in reair Mass public hearing are there any proponents sir so this is the petition that was linked with uh the pole uh National Grid require uh would want to install 20 ft of across Street to the existing manhole 29 a29 sorry uh it also wants to install a 11 uh feet of conduit from the property line of 30 Railroad Street which is uh in your map would show more as 24 Railroad Street just I can uh confirm that uh toward the existing conduit that are already on Railroad Street and then it also wants to install a 41 ft of conduit from when hold 120 uh across Street to the new poll 15-50 is why they are linked thank you sir any other proponents seeing and hearing none any opponents people not in favor seeing and hearing none any City councilors councel Zan buo uh thank you Mr President uh in the spirit of uh getting along can we hopefully approve this uh so we can complete this one project on Railroad Street and then we'll start we'll start a new uh chapter hopefully and there'll be a lot more communication and so forth thank you thank you councelor councel noeli thank you Mr President uh through you sir um on you going Going Underground from pole 1550 to the manhole are you going to there's a couple active businesses down there I just want to make sure that they're not effective about up and they still going to have access on property yeah no I think that that still will uh be they will still have access to it it's more just uh this is more about National Grade the substation area that's why yeah no I understand that and I understand the plan um so I just want to make sure that the businesses are left to yeah have access I would expect that cu the area is pretty big and they do have U an open area where they can also park there thank you on the motion all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number eight hearing called is ordered on a petition submitted by National Grid to install a handhole in meter uh meter pedestal configuration on the sidewalk at 36 Lee burnbank Highway sir yes so this is uh basically uh National grd wants to uh uh wants to install from the pole to 40 ft of the sidewalk and then from there uh there is going to be either a hand hole or a meter pedestal and from that location it will go across the street to the open area to another to either an hand hole or a meter pedestal that is still not been decided yet uh which location would be which and for there it's going to be uh inside to the road sign the permanent road sign thank you sir any other proponents anyone in favor seeing and hearing none any opponents people not in favor closing that side any City councelors councelor novas selski thank you Mr President once again um concerned about the businesses down there and now is this trench go across the driveway of uh the owners on the on the I I would expect not just cuz if they if that would go there they would definitely have to contact with the business uh they would have to get uh either a nesan or another document from the from the business themselves to be able to work there as well and I want to make sure that when they dig up the sidewalk they put a good sidewalk back you know because they have a habit of not doing a good job yeah of replacing sidewalks yeah that might be kind of tricky cuz the sidewalk is opened it's open it's open so yeah they still should if they're digging underneath it it won't be they have to go deeper than what they have now but also too they're going to have to go across that um Jug Handle they're going to have to close The Jug Handle when they do it it will probably be so depending on um how long that will take cuz I don't know how long the how long that will take them for them to trench across the road yeah because you have the oil oil trucks that go across the take that a lot I know CU I take that as well it's going to be very difficult for them to happen but they they have to make sure that they make it available to the businesses in in the area y I know there's no Neighbors in there that we have to worry about yeah but I just want to make sure again that the businesses taken care of yep thank you thank you counselor anyone else all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number nine hearing call is ordered on a petition submitted by National Grid to install underground facilities on a hun Avenue beginning at a point approximately 130 ft north of the center line of the intersection of theat Av and shli AV and continuing approximately 60 ft in a Northwest direction to install underground secondary service for 13 nans Avenue proponents sir so national g would like to install underground secondary service for 13A hunt which would require trenching of approximately 60 ft from Pole 2454 to the customers meter of 30 nun AV thank you sir any other proponents people in favor seeing and hearing none opponents anyone not in favor don't see anyone for that any counselors counselor noeli thank you Mr President once again U this is in my ward and I did meet with Nick Melo and the team down there to decide the best route to take yeah uh on this cuz a lot of the poles have maximum amount of usage on them so we had to pick the uh the least amount of usage and they will be uh a trench going across the street and the other 9 ft the 60 ft is across the uh sidewalk going from the new pole into the building so I have no problem with that we agreed on that and everybody feels comfortable with it so we I have no problem with it thank you thank you counselor any other counselors all in favor all opposed so ordered hearing called is ordered on a petition submitted by National Grid to construct a line of underground electric conduits from pole 3314 and Crossing Centennial Avenue to energize the new customer at 124 Centennial AV proponents yep so National GD would like to install two 4in conduits from the poll uh directly across the street uh poll is 3314 and would like to uh be able to energize customer 124 Centennial app thank you sir any other proponents people in favor seeing and hearing none opponents anyone not in favor seeing and hearing none Council no baselski thank you Mr President Mr President this again is in my ward and it's right down the street from my house I know exactly what's going on it's a a brand new building that's being built and uh going from that pole over to where they want it no problem at all directly across the street just want to make sure that when they repave it they pave it without a low trench I understand you know because they have a habit of uh sinking even though they do compression and what they're suppos it still sinks after a while so we want to make sure it's in good shape thank you thank you counselor any other counselors all in favor all opposed so Ed sir do you have business cards yeah actually if you could just write it down with the clerk and she can send it to us thank you very much next up is the zoning subcommittee report councilor zambuto thank you Mr President uh obviously the zoning subcommittee met at 5:00 this evening and uh we had one item on uh which was 24- 216 was voted out favorably I would ask for a roll call Madam clerk please call the excuse me ordered on a second reading order on a third and final reading roll call for engrossment and ordainment shall the city council approve an ordinance further amending the zoning map relative to 1330 Broadway and 931 winr Avenue councelor agenzio yes yes councel janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor Haro is absent councelor Kelly present voting present Council McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes Council sylvestri yes yes Council zambuto yes yes in council president C Leandro yes yes the zoning map amendment is engrossed and ordained next up is the appointment subcommittee report councelor McKenna thank you Mr President tonight uh we had three reapp appointments and three appointments and I would like to take uh I'd like to vote all of them out favorably thank you is there any objection to putting them all together Madam clerk if we could take a role on all six of these simultaneously please shall the city council confirm the appointments as reported by chairwoman McKenna councelor agenzio yes yes councel janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor Hass yes yes councelor hero is absent coun Kelly yes yes councelor McKenna yes yes councelor noeli yes yes councelor sylvestri yes yes councelor zambuto yes yes and council president cogliandro yes yes the appointments have been confirmed the uh motion item number 18 was withdrawn uh by The councelor Who filed it Communications calendar item number 19 communication from the election commission relative to the warrant for the September 3rd 2024 State primary good evening sir name and address for the record please Paul Fahy election commissioner City Hall thank you Mr President members of the council as you know our practice is a requirement that we approve the warrant for each election uh you have in front of you the warrant for the upcoming State primary which is a week from tomorrow um none of the polling locations have changed since the previous election and we don't anticipate any change in November either uh happy to answer any questions about this thank you very much any questions from the council all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 20 communication from the election commissioner relative to detail police officers for the September 3rd 2024 State primary Mr feeh Mr President members of the council uh the as some of you know the votes act uh requires the city council to approve the detailing of police officers the chief and I are in agreement um we have a police officer at each uh polling location during the day uh and we have 10 poing locations currently um so I will come back uh well actually I think if you can vote on this for both elections again we don't anticipate any change uh my only caveat would be to say if anything comes up of any concern that we felt uh required some additional police presence we would share that with the council obviously uh at this point we don't anticipate any changes in this election cycle thank you sir any counselors all in favor all opposed so oted thank you calendar item number 21 communication from the city auditor relative to the public infrastructure gift fund uh relative to Massachusetts general laws chapter 44 section 53a Mr viske good evening council president Richard viske CFO 281 Broadway um before you we have a request to set up a public infrastructure gift fund uh under the Mass General Law chapter 44 section 53a and this is to accept uh the donation made by link Logistics um for infrastructure uh repairs throughout the city um as you may know all um Revenue to the city is considered general fund Revenue unless otherwise um dictated by Mass General law this money has been donated for a specific purpose of infrastructure appears and uh as such we are requesting an establishment of a gift fund to accept these dollars and spend them in accordance to the purpose happy to answer any questions on that thank you Mr V any counselors have any questions all in favor all opposed so oted calar item number 22 communication from the city auditor relative to the public health emergency relief fund Mr viske hello again Richard viske 21 Broadway CFO um much like the previous um uh order this is um again a request of the chief of Health and Human Services on uh establishing a gift account for purposes of assisting in uh public emergencies um in in particular if there are fundraises or donations made uh for such catastrophes as uh floods or hurricanes tornadoes Etc we will have a mechanism to accept those funds and spend them in accordance to the purpose of which this fund will be established and I'm happy to answer any questions on that thank you sir any counselors counselor H thank you Mr President hey Rich thanks for being here that's that's actually a great idea um a couple months ago I had worked with the former director of emergency preparedness and spoke to a few people about kickstarting something like this where we would partner with um maybe restaurants hotels and kind of Kickstart the fund which was more or less depleted at the time but I'm thrilled that this is getting off the ground and I look forward to seeing um hopefully we can get a lot of donations in there that can help a lot of people in tough times thank you thank you counselor any other counselors all in favor all opposed soed calendar item number 23 communication from the city auditor relative to the opioid trust fund Mr viske good evening thing Richard Vis 281 Broadway City CFO um as you have read in the letter um we have uh received a bunch of money from the opioid settlement cases and this body had established a trust fund for those funds in order to access those funds we have to come before you for an appropriation and what you see before you is the ask for $150,000 appropriation from that trust fund for the purposes listed in the letter we do have uh chief of Health and Human Services Lauren Buck here and some other members of sui to um speak on this and further but um we are here to ask the appropriation for the purposes listed in the letter and um I'm happy to answer any questions I'll have the chief come up and answer as such thank you Mr bis uh any counselors all right seeing and hearing None Shall the city council approve the FY 2025 opioid trust fund budget in the amount of $150,000 all in favor all opposed so ordered calar item number 24 communication from the city auditor relative to rever TV's quarterly appropriation Mr viske uh thank you um you're probably very familiar with this quarterly request but these are the funds that we receive through our agreements with the local cable companies that provide service to the citizens of R uh this money needs to be appropriated by this body and the quarterly amount for uh this period is 10,698 21 thank you sir any councilors shall the city council approve a transfer in the amount of $1,698 121 from the cable access receipt Reserve fund to pay for the Rivia TV's quarterly invoice all in favor all opposed so Ed Mr President counselor would you mind taking something out of or order before Mr Vis leaves uh item number 26 there could be some questions for him um because he's the chairman of the Retirement Board motion to suspend the rules all in favor all opposed Madam clerk let's take up item 26 please calendar item number 26 communication from the chief of planning and Community Development relative to a propos osed special act to support the family of Robert O'Brien good evening sir name and address for the record good evening councelor is Tom scosi um chief of planning Community Development 281 Broadway um the hom Ral petition that is in front of you tonight um is regarding an unfortunate situation that transpired with um Robert O'Brien my predecessor upstairs um his retirement benefits so um for those of you that had the um pleasure of working with Bob um and those of you that didn't he was both my predecessor um once removed upstairs but also served as the economic development director until um the end of 2023 December 31st 2023 is when he officially stepped away um and unfortunately shortly thereafter he um contracted uh an illness that was pretty um quick and heavy uh in its onset that and passed away within a month of um stepping away from the city and what this hom Ral petition hopes to correct for um is basically an issue where he had designated as a beneficiary his wife um who is also um you know aging and um designated in particular that this would be a monthly contribution that would be distributed to her and you know to make a long story short the the monthly um contribution that would go to Bob's wife would not even um be a step towards what he really earned in those retirement benefits over time and I think were it not for his very rapid and unfortunate passing I think he would have gone for a dispersement of those retirement benefits and you know I'm really acting here on behalf of his family and his wife who've been petitioning the city and trying to work with them best we can and um you know Bob was a to me he was a great leader for the city I think he helped Usher forward a lot of really positive movement with with the work that we're doing in Community Development and planning and hopefully this can go you know a short way towards showing uh the respect that him and his family deserve so happy to take any questions but I do think Rich probably is more of the subject matter expert here thank you sir uh any counselors councelor agenzio yes I like Mr V if if he could to uh maybe kind of explain what's happening good evening councilors uh Richard viske um as chairman of the r Retirement Board 14 Yan Street um like Tom said this is um a complicated matter um for those of you who aren't familiar with the retirement system we are an independent board that um oversees the retirement pension uh funds for the city as well as the housing authority and the 911 call center uh we are again we follow Mass General art chapter 32 um in this particular case it's very unfortunate that Mr O'Brien um was um still an active member although he had um retired he had never um withdrew his funds um but when he signed up to be part of the um uh pension system you have options to choose option A B and C for the withdrawal of your pension but there's also option D which is a um survivor's benefit on your behalf if you happen to die while you're still an active member of the system uh Mr O'Brien did choose to be um option D and named his wife as the beneficiary of that um what um should have probably happened was he should have withdrawn that application once he retired and took his accumulated um withholdings with him because he had the right to do so he was not eligible for a pension he had less than 10 years of uh service with the city however he never withdrew his option D and uh upon his passing um the retirement um board really was bound by the Master General it says we must honor the option the benefit from Mr O'Brien unfortunately because of his age and his spouse's age the uh benefit was very meager about $110 a month it would pay to his spouse until her death uh Mr O'Brien did have about $79,000 accumulated in that fund which of course made a lot more sense for his spous to withdraw that upon his passing however we as a board had no legal authority to actually do that so um after to some emails back and forth with parak the oversight agency and emails back and forth with uh Mr O'Brien's brother an attorney we did let him know what his remedies could be um one of them would be to come before the council and ask for a home rule petition to um seek those funds um I will let you know that this case is in front of the uh appell at uh legislative board of of perak we are waiting further opinion on that but um we we do have um opinions from parak on other matters similar to that which make it pretty clear that it doesn't look like there would be a remedy to actually withdraw his option D uh uh application because he would be the only person that could do that so we're kind of in a bind right now we as much as we may want to help a spouse change the benefit we're just not allowed to by law it's a pretty complicated case I have about 28 pages of legal documents here uh if it's something you want to put in committee I can certainly invite our attorney to go over the details a little more but we're kind of bound by the statute and that's why we can't really do anything other than honor the option the benefit that he picked and we're not allowed to distribute those funds in no manner that Mrs O'Brien would like to see them so that's where we stand on this thanks Rich uh councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um thank you Rich uh although an unfortunate situation and and a sad loss to the city um have we ever done anything like this in the past I mean not in my time here I don't know that this would happen too often I mean it's it's a pretty unique situation I don't think it would come up too often as far as a precedent setting but um again it was just the way um all these events turned out upon his retirement he kind of was an active member of the I mean he wasn't active but he was a member of the system until such time he withdrew his funds and when he happened the pass we just go by the options he picked and the option D benefit um it doesn't say you may selector it say You must so we have to honor what he picked and um we're kind of caught in the middle of this so like I said we're prescribed by law to uh to to administer the retirement funds accordingly we we did run it up the uh totem pole the perak we did get a uh they didn't give us a legal opinion but they gave us a past opinion from a case and Lynn which I have and we have some emails from our attorney and we also have some uh opinions from the attorney on basically saying how we we're just uh we have to act in accordance to the law and there's no out for something like this so one of the options was to ask for schedu legislation so that this board could then uh override the law and and reward Mrs O'Brien with his accumulated um uh withholdings which are all his dollars so this this wouldn't cost necessarily the system any money it's almost a uh an unfortunate gain to the system but all they looking for as a return to his money he put in there' be no annuity but um again we don't have any legal authority to do that at the board so I think that's why um Tom and sent this up to the council for a consideration by the council so you you mentioned uh the cases in front of the perak appeal yeah D the dala board we're waiting for them it it wasn't brought on by us it was brought on by uh Mr O'Brien's family to go to DOA to appeal the decision that says that we have no authority to give him back his withholdings of his funds so I would it be fair to ask that we wait for that decision before we we present one um I I think that's only fair to this Council putting us in a an awkward situation although I loved Bob and and the the the preceden he put to the the what he give back to the city I think it puts us in a in a bad situation and and sets a precedent although you disagree um I I would just hate to see uh many other people line up to to to take this option yeah I would I would abstain from saying what's fair or not I'll leave that to the 11 councilors thank you councelor Council Zam buo thank you Mr President and uh let me say uh at the outset uh God Rest his soul Bob was a great guy he was a friend of mine uh however this I see as absolute precedent setting and uh I'd want to know before I'd even consider it how many people are uh or how many spouses are getting uh monthly benefits and what's to stop them from getting what's in there uh I don't know any of that but uh the bottom line is I need an awful lot more information before I would even consider something like this I think it's a it it it was a nice gesture but uh I I've been here a long time and I'm here to protect protect the taxpayer and uh I've uh I've had some pensions before me and some in fact had special legislation that I was responsible for withdrawing for that very reason because it open us up to millions of dollars in potential liability by someone getting what we set a precedent for and I'm not I'm not here to do anything like that so uh that's my position on on this I know we need a lot more information it should probably go to committee but I'm not going to dictate to the council president what he does with it but uh I'm certainly I'm certainly not in any position to vote to send special legislation off on this thank you Mr President thank you councelor councelor Gino SAA thank you Mr President I want to Echo what council sylvestri said um although I had the utmost respect for Bob O'Brien um there's legal arguments documents there and they were signed by him and that's what he had chosen to do um I think we need to wait for that decision to come in and then if it has to come back in front of the council that's one thing but I think this is going to set a dangerous precedence um if we do decide on voting yes on this so um thank you thank you counselor permission to speak from the chair thank you um I agree with setting precedent I think this is dangerous do we have a a a date for this court date that you might know I know the appella Court's the highest so it's not going I spoke to the board's attorney today and just to get an update for this uh meeting and the he expects maybe something in three to six months so it won't be anything anytime soon dollar is um bureaucratic nightmare quite frankly and uh we're at the EM mercy so I certainly update the council when we get the uh opinion from them but again we're really just kind of the conduit to this we just apply the law understood I mean if the appeal goes through then it takes us out of the equation is that correct yeah again I think when someone deceases and they choose a a beneficiary in a way it it it doesn't make a lot of sense that someone could then just change someone's opinion so I I don't I don't have a great outlook on what the decision is going to be but um I think it's fair to at least wait for that decision to act on it if if that's what uh you choose but again I can have the attorney come in and give you a really better uh description of all the stuff I do have some legal documents here but I mean long story short there's nothing that says once uh someone chooses to survive a benefit and they pass away someone can go in and then actually change that decision so we're kind of bound by the decision right so if we create a home roll petition like Council Zan buo said we could open the door to everybody all of a sudden wanted to cash in at the same time could leave us without a high school we also need a uh detailed financial analysis from the Retirement Board per per city ordinance so we can't vote on anything we can't do anything tonight except put it into subcommittee or table it um I believe it's section 2.2.1 120 if anyone wants to look at it specifically for voting on retirement home rule petition so we would need a counselor to put a motion on the floor to have the Retirement Board provide us with a detailed Financial uh document before we did anything that motion Mr President councelor Gino you second I second it thank you no second required she was going to first it so I was you know um I guess we'll take a roll U you know what we don't need a roll call but we do need a motion in words so uh Madam clerk I don't know if you want to put something down um actually that's that's a great idea to have the financial documents provide everyone who chose option D that way we know what we're getting into if we do pass this home roll petition I'm okay with that all right so once we have the motion down we can vote on it and then I would like to send this to legislative affairs or ways and means all right how about that the city council request a detailed financial analysis from the Retirement Board relative to a proposed special act to support the family of Robert O'Brien the detailed financial analysis shall include all retirees who have chosen option D sounds good to me on the motion all in favor all opposed so ordered um my recommendation would be Ways and Means since this is mainly Financial any objection referred to Ways and Means back to regular order of business calendar item number 25 a presentation by the chief of planning and Community Development and Jas Jason shriber of stantech on the Broadway Corridor parking study good evening on sir good evening councilors hopefully um here this evening to talk about a less controversial topic this time um our Broadway parking study that we have been oh are we still there yeah okay it's glitchy we're on new One S would you mind stating your name and address for the record as well uh yes Jason shriber I'm a senior principal with uh stantech um based out of our Boston office at 40 Water Street third floor great so um we wanted to take some time today to talk about our Broadway parking study that we've been undertaking since February of last year it's been an effort um to really take on in tandem with our Broadway master plan um which will be coming to uh a close later this fall it's really hard to talk about what we want to see on Broadway moving forward um setting a vision and and you know all of that good stuff without talking about parking which is such a critical element that we heard um throughout our public meetings um so we are joined tonight is this is this an accurate number it's a 20 minute presentation yes we'll we'll start the timer now and it's our anticipation that this would get referred to committee um as well I'm not sure which committee but we could dig into the policy in a little bit more detail at that time and we'll keep it to 20 minutes we certainly know we've had a busy agenda genda this evening so um this is really a partnership between stantech our consultants and and the City of Riv both my department Community Development and planning I've got John Festa and Julie deorro here from my department and then Zach babau from The Parking Department who's really um been Innovative and helping us think about how to continuously upgrade and enhance our parking system here so um I'm going to hand it to Jason in a second to go through the basics here but in overview what this study shows is we do have enough parking on Broadway it's really about how to make sure that our parking is most most effectively and efficiently allocated and that's really what this study uh looked at so the presentation today will be looking at the existing parking system uh over doing an overview of the inventory and the utilization supply and demand talk about what we've learned in the community outreach process and then get to a set of draft recommendations um and just again briefly overview the schedule we've got this in front of you all tonight and hopefully it'll get in front of a subcommittee um and then the council can sort of endorse it at a at a later moment but the idea here will be to review all the work we've done to date um both with our stakeholder Outreach with our Broadway master plan public meeting our survey our parking system assessment which is a supply and demand analysis we did both in weekday hours in March and weekend hours in May um and then looked at our activity evaluation models created a parking demand model model looking towards the future set some strategies together that are all part of the master plan uh recommendations you'll see tonight so in terms of what the goals were in short to fix our existing deficiencies in the system looking at our current use and our management strategies improving the Effectiveness and efficiency of the system um by looking at how our existing permits regulations and policies work um looking at modernization opportunities for our parking enforcement and analyzing pricing and utilization to Implement performance pricing so we're really pricing our parking to get to peak level demand um and then ultimately again supporting the development of our master plan goals so if we want to think about Broadway in the future we need to consider and understand how parking will fit into all of that so this study does all that in a nutshell again we'll close with those strategies and happy to hear your feedback here and in subcomittees and I'll hand it over to Jason uh thanks Tom and before we again I just wanted to brief ly thank both Tom but also his team John Julie and of course Zach and parking um just so you know we're only here because they all put in an application that was awarded a good application to the Massachusetts downtown initiative which is a program within the executive office of economic development of the state it is a no strings attached 100% technical assistance and while uh we have a limited budget on what we can do the help of that team is really made this a lot better than we might normally expect so um I want to just commend them for all of what they put into this there's a lot of great information I'm going to have my colleague Katrina Meyer walk you really fast through the data and then I'll come back and discuss with you the recommendations out of that work hi good evening Katrina Meer with Stant 40 Water Street Boston so our first step for the parking for any parking study we do is to draw a boundary for around our study area and we typically look Beyond you know what you might consider as main street or in this case Broadway the boundary extends along all of the streets that intersect with Broadway so we can take a more complete look at the parking system both including on street parking as well as off street parking lots and public parking as well as private parking to think of the system as a whole so lots of parking spaces inside of that boundary which is showed on this map about 2,400 here are some pie charts just showing what that Supply looks like a lot of it in terms of the off- street parking falls into that category of private parking meaning this parking is for people who are going to the CVS not for anybody who is going to Broadway um so that's a large swath of the inventory on street parking there are many public parking meters on the street about two uh 177 but there's also lots of those side streets uh which are more permit based parking so our next major step is to like Tom said look at the demand which we what we call the utilization so we went out there four different time periods over the course of a day on a weekday and collected for each parking Street for each parking lot how many vehicles were parked what you're seeing on the map is that data represented as a percentage um so green is kind of right there in the middle of our color scale representing 80 to 90% because that's the optional we don't want things to be at 100 then you can't find a space but we also don't want things being empty that's a downtown Broadway resource that's being underutilized so green is that optimal color and if I flip throughout the day you can see how this changes so starting in the morning at 10:00 a.m. this is still 10:00 a.m. but we're circling two of the kind of hot spots there's the core area that covers both the central ab avot and city hall and then there's that area on North Broadway which also sees some higher utilization at different points throughout the day of the four periods we looked at 10 1 4 and seven um one is the busiest time of day for the overall Broadway system at that time of day the core area is at 61% so getting getting close to a pretty optimal utilization I won't read all those numbers out in total detail but our overall takeaways from this very robust data collection is that if you look at on Street meters only you're never exceeding 50% utilized so there's always churn in the system there is always some availability across Broadway however in the core some of those areas closest to the most attractive destinations are a little bit more full if we look at all of the public parking we're never exceeding 57% so that's when you add in the off Street public parking options as well as the on Street meters we did take a look at this data on the weekend as well this is just showing the busiest period on our weekend day which is the evening uh but overall it's lower than the weekday finally um Tom mentioned we did some community outreach all of this was done in conjunction with the Broadway Master planning effort um they held a public meeting on April 1st which we were in attendance at so we got to learn about some of the community priorities related to parking um including things that might not be directly related to parking but could be such as desire for more green space um and uh desires related to Traffic and and access we also added a few questions to the Broadway master plan survey that we're parking specific which I'll share here briefly we ask about the length of stay and frequency of visit so as you might imagine folks that are coming on a daily basis are staying a little bit longer but you do have the majority for all types of visitors who are coming are staying just about 30 minutes or 30 to an hour we're asking folks where do they commonly Park most folks when they come to Broadway about 44 % are looking for on street parking uh which is no surprise that is the most convenient however there's more availability in the off- street parking lots so that's something that Jason will talk a little bit about in the recommendations we are seeing that folks are having trouble finding parking um when asked how long does it take to find parking uh the most common answer is about five fiveish minutes so people are saying I need to devote a little extra time to this and then overall this was not a transportation related question specifically but transportation is what Rose to the top while traveling on Broadway what are your concerns um and so traffic parking those are among the top three and now I'll turn it over to Jason to talk recommendations thanks so um you'll see that in those survey results and in general there's a lot of churn in the system there's a lot of opportunity to make things work a little bit more efficiently and I'll walk you through 11 recommendations that attempt to do just that But ultimately you need to remember that what you see and you perceive on the street sometimes is just what is in front of you and the data when we collect such a large geography you'll often see that just around the corner there might be available parking or that the regulation is different and one of our goals is to try to make that more consistent for people as you saw when folks say traffic congestion is a bigger problem than finding parking it may often be because the churn in the system is something that is more or less getting in their way and we're trying to make things simpler for that our recommendations match those three goals that Tom walked you through earlier with again the idea of being able to first kind of fix things that don't work so well now think then towards the future and make things work better and then lastly support overall goals not just specifically the master plan but of course its broader goals of Economic Development one of the simplest things that can be done is already underway you have a wayfinding plan that's been worked on we have a few recommendations for tweaks on this but this is is there to get people to know that hey there are some spaces available in the central AV lot your current wayf finding plan for that and maybe for the city hall lot and other locations where we're seeing more availability is static signs um but in the long term many places have very economically been able to add in information like that electronic sign so somebody knows for sure that if they bother to turn up the street to the lot that's a little further away they'll actually find a parking space and in order to then come back from that parking lot feeling better about access is important uh we have an example here of the alley on a cell court that might be able to be improved to the uh Central avot but it's true along any public sidewalk where somebody isn't going to be right on Broadway they could park a just a 30second walk behind it but if the sidewalk walk isn't comfortable if it isn't well lit or maybe there needs to be Street trees or other improvements that's really an important part of the parking system is how is that walk um we also know that there's some needs to make some of the regulations that you have work a little bit better uh Zach and his team over the years have really responded well to demand and we've got a lot of best practices about trying to make things even more efficient and one of the opportunities is right out back the city hall lot can serve so many more users but we simply want to integrate a little bit more of a Nuance on your current regulations where there's some folks who have privilege and some folks who feel like they can't park there and to blend that more as a pool of parking that people may have to pay for it certain times a day not at other times of day but if you're somebody who's here regularly at the city hall you have a permit and you don't necessarily have to pay you're just paying for your annual or monthly permit that type of approach works really well also getting rid of the time limits that scare people away if they want to do City Hall business or if they want to park even longer than the time limits out on Broadway might allow them to do we want to see getting rid of that it's also important um for the Lots around I'm sorry the the streets surrounding City Hall to think about that as a pool so literally the streets behind me us and surrounding here could become part of that and it really increases the nearby Supply and we're actually in a pretty strong pressure point within the overall parking system you happen to also have something very unique that not a lot of communities have which is a parking benefit District fund where a certain surplus of parking revenues has gone into a separate account that can be used for improvements it's not huge but there's a few tens of thousands of dollars there and we recognize that over time that will grow particularly with some later recommendations I'll talk about specifically a parking benefit district is a way to pay for that wave finding to pay for that sidewalk Improvement we were just talking about to pay for things that improve that overall District it does not need to be spent on parking alone it recognizes under state law that parking is just one thing that supports by a number of elements of the public realm to make it work better for downtown businesses and downtown economy and so that money can be used more broadly but importantly it could have a lot more money in it if you were to update your pricing our recommendation is normally not to tell a community a specific price but you see specific prices that are suggested here what we usually tell legislative bodies is give your parking Department the authority to work instead towards a Target and in this case the target of never having a block or a parking lot that exceeds 85% utilization is a good Target they would report back to you regularly and say we changed the price to make this work at the basic bare level we think that if you were to take under this decision yourselves the kind of pricing through your control something like what you see on screen is to say there is a core area on Broadway that should be a little bit higher there's a lot of demand there but not that far away from it you keep the current price of a dollar and most importantly your side streets for even just a few spaces on your side streets where suddenly the regulations go away they switch the residential but you'll see in the middle of the day they're not utilized because there's businesses nearby they could be priced and even more cheaply and that's really what we talk about with performance pricing is to let somebody know through wayf finding there's a cheap opportunity and there's actually uh several zones here we recommend pulling the meters out as you saw earlier from Katrina's chart they're never more than 50% full we want to be able to use your system a little bit more smartly with a little bit more opportunity I'm going to skip ahead to recommendation 11 I'll come back to the others in a second but this is the one that talks about leveraging your system for economic development and future opportunities right now today with that 50% or so of your overall system at Peak still being empty it means something important that little chart shows the four bars of the four times of a day that we counted including the peak utilization in the middle of the day but the colored charts show all the activity of all the businesses in your downtown we created a shared parking model from 6:00 a.m. until 12 midnight is what it's showing there and you can see that curve and all the different uses throughout the day suddenly start to become active in the morning and at lunch and what have you that's how we model the future but you see the lines above that your parking Supply again is 40 plus% bigger than that demand and when you actually look at what could happen we just tested adding a th000 units in downtown Rivier it's just a test I'm not telling you that's what you need to do but your system could technically handle that much residential growth however it would require that you're doing something a lot better and smarter with all of that spare Supply and that's sharing it and so right now everybody has their lots and everybody is not seeing them fully occupied and there's sort of a this is mine and if you actually start to work with land owners and say this is yours but your taxes are going to go up and we have to build a garage you're going to have a huge opportunity if we can instead help you make your parking a lot better we'll lease it from you we'll improve it but now we can park a few more people on it this principle this is an example from West conquered where the town of conquered let them just split up all I'm sorry let them unify all those individual part paring lots that were out back and created a public parking resource for their downtown but more importantly it increased the parking Supply because instead of parking on each and every fenced in lot they're able to share their parking this happens today in Riv it is happening right now this is just one example of the Citizens Bank where they have a relationship with the doctor's offices nearby it happens regularly in downtown somebody Parks once to go to their work but then walks across the street for coffee they eliminated the requ ired parking for the Coffee Spot so what you want to do is an opportunity like this for instance this is just one we picked and we said look all of those parking lots in that triangle between Park and Foster on the west side of Broadway if you combine them you treat it as a shared resource I know I can increase the parking Supply there 50% and it might become a community resource these businesses might actually get more income out of it but you can then satisfy broader parking demand and long-term growth and in a friendly way we recommend that that enforcement goes more towards an ambassadorial approach this example in Pittsfield Mass they literally have high school students going out and helping people know that you can park in the Central LA lot you can park a little further away guess what there's places where it's free there's other enforcement technologies we recommend that would make Zach's teams work a lot better license plate recognition allows them to enforce a lot more quickly it starts with a car it eventually becomes a handhold and there's now Technologies out there that can go on the ground and do that in automated fashion that have been tested in a few area communities there's a future for making this work a lot better and in particular where some of those Solutions might help is where you have a lot of problems on Broadway is with loading businesses want deliveries and there's a lot of conflicts out front because it's all meters that might be filled up a program that actually makes a rational amount of loading zones going in often times at the ends of blocks can really help relieve a lot of the double parking pressure it can also help rationalize things we now have tnc's and Uber Eats and they all need to get in and a lot of that churn and traffic congestion people were worried about is actually just a loading zone problem and similarly you have this with your wonderful bus lane that activates in the morning only that runs folks into downtown we want to be able to have that bus Lane's businesses instead trying to block it loading right around the corner on Foster the only other thing I'll say and then I'll conclude for you if we are able to man manage your curbs better and we're able to make loading zones work and pricing work better then you might be able to do it some of the folks of the master plan want more open space more dining Outdoors activities and many many communities in the region have created these parklets they just take over a parking space or two it's great outdoor dining you can put in some Landscaping but you can't do it until you can better give people a reliable alternative for somewhere else to park so that's our recommendations 11 of them cinct we hope you read the report happy to answer any questions and I'll turn it back to Tom if he has any final thoughts thank you uh counselors councelor agenzio thank you Mr President on several occasions you stated that we're only using about 40 or 50% of our current inventory is that correct so why this rush to um increase the amount of spaces uh Beyond what we have now we're only using 40 50 60% of what we have now is this in anticipation of residential development so um the model that you looked at was just a model to model what could potentially happen in the future with with our existing system today it wasn't discussing adding any new parking anywhere but just our existing Supply Bol private and um public but yeah nothing in this plan looked at creating a parking structure or anything like that any additional parking just working with what we have okay and and the pricing structure uh from a business standpoint you think increasing the cost of uh parking would would be uh beho us yeah so uh when you really begin to think about where the cost of parking is at a dollar an hour for instance for a few quarters it is become increasingly just a very small fraction of what the expenditure is and but B just in this region alone many many communities are far above a150 an hour and $2 and in places over three and $4 do an hour it's not to say to somebody you have to pay this much to park here it's to say to somebody if you really need to get in here we don't want you to stay that long there's more of a a price to pay here but over there it's a lot cheaper and what it does is it helps your parking enforcement get out of the time limit world as well because that's really hard to enforce in a time limit even if you've paid the meter even if you're charging more you get a time limit ticket it's the worst thing ever it's like say get out of town we don't want you anymore so those changes work hand in hand thank you I know councelor McKenna and I we had met with some business owner and they had suggested and hoped for programming The Meters so Uber Eats you're going to use the ATM you're going into uh pickup takeout that there'd be a button on the meter that could give you 15 minutes free uh uh parking so that would help move these people in or out and not have them be uh cuz it's even happened to me uh what's your uh opinion on something like that yeah I wouldn't recommend it yet because you do need a technology change to do that but conquered I just mentioned them has that button and it gives somebody a quick amount of time a me is capable of being uhmed to that not as they are now you'd need new equipment to be able to do that so that would be a bit of an investment we didn't get into the weeds of exactly what that would cost you okay what I would say though is ultimately you can do it with almost any equipment if you just say so as long as you have the right enforcement in place and that allows enforcement to know that you stayed longer than 50 minutes and you should start paying but I will say it is something you can integrate quickly on the back end of things if somebody's willing to pay you can give them that 15minute free discount right up front as well thank you and Zach just mentioned it's about 60,000 upgrade our existing system to allow for that um utilization and I think it does lend itself again we're not just talking about increasing pricing but decreasing in certain areas like the central AV lot is completely underutilized so ideally we want to get more long-term Parkers in central AV so then we can have those more short-term parking and more churn opportunities along Broadway where businesses need it constantly and I think that speaks to your way finding I don't think anyone really even knows Central pack and lot exists so I agree I I I do agree that that should be uh utilize more thank you thank you councelor this will be referred to Economic Development sub committee calendar item number 27 communication from the chief of planning and Community Development relative to Title 9 amendments which would permit recreational marijuana establishments in the city of Rivier Mr scosi good evening once again so this is my last communication tonight I promise um and it is connected to conversations that started in Economic Development subcommittee um earlier in the summer related to recreational Cannabis um what we submitted to you along with the memo was related to Title Nine which essentially introduces a Prohibition on social consumption you know so cannabis cannot be consumed within a shop but also releases the prohibition on Recreation retail use in the city and that is 9.18 it repeals that section um we already have the local option tax was adopted in 2018 um subsequently to this um there was a submission of the title 17 the zoning changes um by councelor sylvestri um and this is really in consultation with our office and the city solicitor's office and just to note and hopefully it was clear in the memo but just to be clear to all of you tonight that was intended to be a starting point of a discussion um on how things will um evolve in the city with regard to recreational Cannabis that includes the location of where these these places will be how many licenses um you would allow for we we set it at three which is 20% of the package store licenses so that's sort of the statutory minimum um and then there's also an open question which was mentioned in subcommittee as to the social equity licenses and whether or not um there would be sort of an earmark so to speak for that particular kind of license so um again it was a starting point look forward to this continued conversation with the council thank you councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President and Tom thank you for for your input on this um I I do think that uh it's time that that we take this leap here and rever I think that we're we're missing out on on a ton of Revenue it it's actually uh 1 .7 billion Massachusetts brought in it was record for the state also record sales in Rhode Island Connecticut um and if Done Right which I think in taking the time that we have to to get this right and in in putting what we are forward um I think we can benefit from from the Cannabis Market as well and um it's a time that people are looking for creative ways to bring in tax revenue and a few thousand here a couple million there um we shouldn't be turning away so I'm in favor of this and and hopefully we can move forward with it tonight thank you thank you counselor councelor Kelly hi Tom um so we spoke earlier today but I just wanted to reiterate my concerns that I have with this and um my main concern is that we have some very unique zoning districts in the city where we have HB and GB zones that exist um but many of these commercial zones um directly AB but residential neighborhoods so because of this I believe these zones should not be treated as typical GB and HB zones but should be handled with some extra care and caution and foresight especially in this situation um because of these uniquely zoned areas at the very least I'm requesting that all the designated locations on the southern side of Squire Road which abuts the residential neighborhood um mentioned in a couple of sections that I have in the ordinance um be omitted completely and in addition I'd like to see the 300 feet buffer zone that is also reflected in the ordinance um be a discussion around that where it may be increased to 450 ft and um lastly there is a subsection that I'd like to see deleted in its entirety but again we can get into more detail and then the other um concern that I have is and I know you said you were going to probably get this for me at the public hearing but just the abutter notification process that would be applicable for these recreational marijuana facilities I would like to know if it is the same requirements and criteria that is set forth under Massachusetts General La chapter 48 section 11 or if it's something that requires more um notification in terms of increasing the 300 ft maybe to a larger to 400 or 500 feet and also requiring um certified mail I'll make sure to have that ready for the public thank you councilor sylvestri thank you thank you um Mr President for the leeway uh and in just for some clarification I spoke with um both C both councelor Kelly and councel janino this afternoon um and and they let me know just what councilor Kelly has um stated and uh I then talked with Tom and and we're going to change uh the uh Squire Road parcel um from where it says from Stevens down we will we will start at that Patriots Parkway and then stop it just before the Pine River fish door I think that fits more of a a area with less housing and and more businesses in in a a better area for for the people of Rivier and and uh just for clarification for the public there are it's not just about that area there are a lot of details that go into being able to open an establishment camping near a school a church things like that so just for the uh the public to know but uh any other counselors this is going to go to a public hearing on September 23rd okay on to motions calendar item number 28 motion presented by council president C Leandro that the mayor approve a traffic study for Adam Street in regards to potentially changing it to a one-way Street this area has many issues with vehicles permission to speak from the chair thank you it uh I just the traffic study in general uh the the one way was one part of this um having a lot of issues with vehicles the they between that coolage street and Adam Street area is a very wide intersection we have a lot of people taking turns without stopping so um I would like to have a traffic study done in that area thank you all in favor all opposed so Ed calendar item number 29 motion presented by Council baselski that the mayor request the traffic commission to authorize parking on Beach Street between Kimble AV and Northshore Road the MBTA has removed the four 11 bus stop on the north side of Beach Street Council novaski thank you Mr President Mr President I'm trying to uh increase parking for our neighbors down in that area uh where the MBTA eliminated the bus stop it created maybe about four or five parking spaces and I know it's difficult down there and I just want uh traffic to establish the proper uh uh timing and uh no parking here to Corner signs and and street sweeping signs and make things better for everybody thank you thank you counselor on the motion all in favor all opposed soed calendar item number 30 motion by council president cogliandro that the mayor request the police department or the appropriate Department to conduct a traffic safety Andor feasibility study for the purpose of combating constant moving violations on the streets surrounding Rivier High School including but not limited to East Mountain Avenue car Avenue School Street and true Street permission to speak from the chair thank you uh before before we open it to the public sir um I just want to say that they have begun doing upgrades on East have we finally got some crosswalks we have some speed monitoring signs they've moving stop signs around so that drivers can more easily see uh but that is just one area uh we do have Mr cerelli here from mcla Street um and so I guess I just stated your name and address so go ahead Joseph Catelli MCL Street um as we all know School Street uh school is going to begin pretty soon um I use School Street frequently being a resident and and at the very end of school street by Broadway we have two lanes left only and right only but the arrows on the street show two arrows one straight ahead and one left and I would like to see that change to just a left arrow and even possibly say left turn only on the street because people don't look at the signs on the on the sidewalk they see that straight arrow and I I can't tell you how many times I've been cut off being in the right lane trying to go on a Broadway by our own city employees police Public Safety um Public Schools housing department so if it's confusing to our own city employees it's confusing to everybody that uses that street so that'd be great I'd appreciate that just so you know there is a motion in for the next traffic commission meeting to rectify that appreciate that very I thank you for the picture because I didn't realize that both of those arrows do point at Broadway yeah so thank you for it's something that i' I see every day and I cut I get cut off every day basically but appreciate it thank you for waiting patiently Mr Celli appreciate it any other counselors on the motion oh councelor zambo yeah I can just verify that I get cut off by you know at least a dozen times a week because I use that street all the time so he's he's completely correct it needs to be corrected it's a simple correction it's not a big deal I can't imagine the traffic commission is going to deny this one so I'll be up there with you to testify thank you sir oh all in favor all opposed so Ed calendar item number 31 motion presented by councelor McKenna that the mayor be requested I'm sorry that the mayor requests the appropriate departments to use a less invasive rodent poisoning when baiting data shows that the wildlife food chain is being affected and are killing off Hawks coyotes owls dogs Etc from this lethal poison a less invasive poison would help protect the wildlife and would be equal cost compared to the current roaded poison councelor McKenna thank you Mr President um this motion was brought up two years ago and passed by the council um but it doesn't seem like uh we're implementing a less invasive poison I had just spoken to um a bile uh Ranger down in bile U msh and he said he's finding dead caucuses of uh owls Hawks cats Etc so um I don't know if people know this and I know we have a problem with rats because we have a lot of construction going on and as soon as you open up the roads I mean I had mice and I've never had mice before um but I don't know if people understand the the trauma that these uh animals go through um a rat eats this poison uh it doesn't die for 3 days it dehydrates so it's out in out and about trying to find water and an owl come down comes down and picks the um the rat up and eats them now the the owl is poisoned and it goes on and it goes on and it goes on and it goes on and there are lesser uh less invasive uh poisons that will kill a rat a rat will keep on going back to um the poison and eatting eat it and he won't be out there and um he and he dies so there are alternatives there's dryy ice there's a second um oh a generation poison that we can use but it doesn't seem like the city is using uh what they they were uh asked to do two years ago so I'm just asking I don't know who I talk to about this uh what agency or what department I talk to but I really do think that we really need to get on the bandwagon here because we're we about a marsh that has a zillion animals and they're all dying I had two Hawks in my um tree every year two Hawks in my tree every year and they were there for four months and they're gone they're gone so I just you know I know I'm you know people might think I'm nuts but and I know rats are a PO poison but uh a a problem but I really do think that we need to uh consider what the the the chain W the wildlife chain so I'm asking this Council to pass this I just um and I'll talk to people and see if we can come up with a better alternative but I'm just asking uh this to be passed tonight thank you thank you counselor permission to speak from the chair thank you I just want to say that we're having a the in the exact same issue in the Immaculate Conception area I've been getting calls from Elm Street Bixby street they're finding Dead Squirrels dead birds we even unfortunately had a dog eat eat a rat that was poisoned and the dog passed away which breaks my heart cuz I have two dogs uh in that area alone there must be 30 or 40 dogs in that area um so I couldn't agree more I'm willing to do whatever we have to to to get this issue solved and thank you Mr I don't know if they still use rodenticide to dehydrate the rodents um that comes with instructions especially for residential you're supposed you know but um I agree with this motion thank you Mr President councelor Gino SAA I also agree with this Motion in the point of Hines we're finding all kinds of Dead Rabbits constantly and I know it's from getting secondhand with with the poison um that's put in the rat traps thanks thank you counselor on the motion all in favor all opposed so ordered Kell item number 32 motion presented by councelor McKenna that the mayor be requested to reinstate the adopt an island program wherein companies and businesses pay to maintain neglected Islands or green spaces and the city will in turn provide a sign acknowledging the business's name that maintains the site councelor McKenna thank you Mr President so this came up because um we used to have a landscaper that would take care of all the islands down in Beachmont square and now we have a different landscaper so uh that that landscape but that was taken care of the islands they're not anymore so um there I know there are many islands in green spaces in in uh Rivier that are being neglected and I know the city I I know the city can't keep up with all of them so I'm asking that maybe if I uh design a letter and give it to all the counselors and they could send it to the businesses and then we could offer you know if they clean up the islands or the the the green spots or whatever they are uh the neglected uh uh spots then I mean maybe we could make the city look better and I know Bill guaso read my motion today and he was in agreement and said he would help me so I I will design a letter and give it to every single counsel um W counselor and then you can reach out to the the um the businesses that are near you and maybe they can adopt an island and and with with that we can give them a green sign that says this island is taken care of uh whatever Amazon I I don't I don't see anything with Amazon out there I see Maurice has a couple there's a couple out there that people are taking care of but we're losing the battle here and we really need to start it up again so I'm asking everybody to be on board with this thank you thank you counselor councelor Kelly thank you Mr President I think this is a great motion um the only thing that I think might help and I I don't know if it's possible but is it it would help if if it is possible for us to get a list of the locations that um that are in need of this TLC so that would be great thank you counselor councelor McKenna uh thank you for the leeway so some most some of these are are owned by DCR some of them are owned by mass do and some of them are owned by the city of Rivier I mean in Beachmont we're cut in three ways we're cut up uh with DCL we're cut up with mot and Rivier um this island uh that I'm talking about it's a it's a Meridian strip but it does have um weeds and everything that's um owned by mass do they've never taken care of it uh in the beginning the beach M Improvement committee took care of it and then Jimmy mcua the landscaper took care of of it but now no one takes care of it so um so it's we're we're in we have different you know they're owned by different uh people but they're not accountable for them we're accountable for them so that's what I'm asking if uh if we can just to your answer councilor Kelly that's that's what's going on thank you councelor on the motion all in favor all opposed soed calendar item number 33 motion presented by councel harmo that the mayor direct the fire chief to conduct a cost and feasibility analysis to add a 247 Emergency Response Ambulance and EMT EMT responder to be housed under the police department councilor yarmo is not here this evening uh unless there's any opposition I would like to table this to the next meeting tabled calendar item number 34 motion presented by councelor agenzio that the mayor request the traffic commission to install speed bumps in the following locations in the vicinity of 74 Yan Street and 130 Prospect Avenue this will get sent to the traffic commission councelor Areno yes that's fine and I've already uh notified the engineering department so they can do an analysis to see if it's you know feasible and doesn't interrupt drainage excellent this uh referred to the traffic Commission thank you calendar item number 35 motion presented by councelor H that the mayor request planning and Community Development to assess an ideal location for a skate park into explore grant opportunities and Partnerships to fund the installation councelor H thank you Mr President so this is something I saw recently when I was looking up local skate parks in that area I saw that Chelsea had recently put in one last year that they were able to partner with Adidas and the New England Revolution to um for equipment for their skate park and back in the mid90s Rivier had a a mini skate park at the old Hill Park site um I'm pretty sure it was the mid 90s early 90s but um we actually did have a skate park and it was it was pretty popular amongst the kids and you know a skate park provides an in expensive Outlet it promotes outdoor activity promotes um exercise and a sense of community and a skat Park in Riv would also keep us in step with our neighboring communities like Malden who's had one since the early 90s I think winr eats Boston and now our neighbor in Chelsea thank you thank you counselor on the motion all in favor all opposed so ordered C item number 3 six motion presented by councilors sylvestri and McKenna that the mayor be requested to name the Garden area where Memorial bricks will be installed at leech Park the Chris Alba remembrance Garden councilor sylvestri thank you Mr President um thank you Council McKenna for going in on this motion um I'd actually like if if the whole council is willing to put it in for the from the whole Council um absolutely I think uh Chris made a huge impact in this area um that Park itself I know he's been called to aund times um to help with with homeless residents that are living in the park and staying in the park um it's been a huge loss for the loss of Chris and I think this is a memorial remembrance Garden small area of the park that could be dedicated to him um to remember the work he's put in thank you absolutely counselor McKenna thank you I I just want to give a little synopsis about me and Chris my our relationship so every time a resident would call me because a homeless person would set up a tent across the street from the park um I would call Chris or I would call Mark so I want to give Mark Credit to and Chris or mark would get down and talk to the homeless person and I then and find out the story of why he was down there um I would always get a call from Chris telling me about the person uh and you know we sometimes we don't look at homeless people as people but they all have stories and he would always tell me the story of the homeless person and what happened to that homeless person and and you know and but I always got a call from him and then the next day the person was gone I don't know what he said to the person or Mark what what mark would say to the person but the person would was gone it made me look good as as a counselor because I got I the the person I don't want to say I got rid of the person but that person would leave um Chris was really dedicated it it took me a while to really get to know him he was a little standoffish at first but once I got to know him he was the best guy dedicated just sympathetic for the cause and he really really helped me a lot in Beachmont so I just want to say kudos to mark for coming up with this I know his wife uh Nikki said it um and then Mark called me and we put it together I just want uh people to know that there are two parks there now um there's the leech Park on on the uh leftand side and then there's um the noname park uh which we're going to call the Chris Alba Park but I just want people to know that that's that's going to be two parks and the leach park has every right to have that part of the park and then the other part of the park the beginning of the park um will be Chris Alba Park so I hope we can all uh come to tr come together with this because it's a great cause thank you thank you counselor on the motion all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 37 motion presented by councelor Kelly that the mayor requests DCR to conduct a much-needed maintenance and repair of several issues on Rivier Beach Boulevard including but not limited to wall erosion and deteriorating lamp posts that need painting councelor Kelly thank you Mr President um so the motion basically speaks for itself but I just want to um I I I was getting a lot of calls from residents about the condition of the beach and so didn't get to spend as much time down the beach this summer as I would have liked but I did walk the entire Beach to just check things out myself and I was very disappointed um when I walked the beach especially from the winthrip side to the Rivier Street um exit the sidewalks Etc are in need of a lot of TLC and most importantly the structural steel in the roofs of The Pavilions are just completely rusted out they look like they need to be sand blasted and repainted and also even some of the Pavilion support columns are actually decaying and look like they need immediate get attention so I think if we could ask the DCR to provide for some long overdue maintenance on America's first public beach it is um absolutely needed and I'm hoping that we can the beach can get the um attention and maintenance that it so well deserves thank you thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you um so I put this Motion in a about a year ago and um the council agreed uh that there something should be done um The Pavilions the gazebos the light hosts are rotting um that's the legacy of we don't have the the roller coaster or anything anymore we still have the Pavilions we still have the gazebos we still have the light post we still have uh that um I I don't know if it's a a lion uh that shoots water out I mean we still have um a historical um you know um I don't know what to call it but anyways um we shouldn't lose that and we'll losing it we're losing it so um I agree with uh councelor Kelly we really need um some money from the DCR to fix those I know they were they I think this summer they were working on the gazebos roof I'm not 100% sure the Band Stand Yes the band stand so they were working on the the roof of the Bandstand because that was going to fall apart but um the the structural surfaces are are decaying and our we we need uh we need to keep our historical um give me a land landmarks thank you I couldn't come up with the word so um before they're gone and now because of the um you know the restaurants and the beach and everything we're getting more visitors from other uh cities and towns and states so R is starting to become popular again so I really think we really need to do this uh quick thank you thank you counselor all in favor all opposed so voted coun item number 38 motion presented by councelor Kelly that the following zoning ordinance be ordered to a public hearing an ordinance further amending the zoning ordinances of the city of rever repealing the definition and use of mechanical parking systems councelor Kelly thank you Mr President um I know this is going to go to a public hearing but I'd like to be allowed just two minutes to give some background information so um this ordinance was proposed and um adopted in an attempt to create much needed parking and to meet the city of R's building code for the requisite number of parking spaces for developments um so we allow these mechanical parking stackers in 2020 since that time I believe these stackers have been requested to be used used in three apartment complexes that I'm aware of 344 Salem Street 810 Washington AV 791 Broadway um 344 Salem Street was granted a variance from the zoning board of appeals to reduce the number of required parking spaces and to install mechanical parking stackers however later the developer requested relief from the zba from having to install the stackers at all which was granted and further reduced the number of originally agreed to parking spaces from 50 down to 31 in a similar tactic now just two months later we're seeing that the developer of 810 Washington AV is attempting to do the exact same thing the developer will be requesting relief from the zba later this week on August 28th from having to install its stackers as originally promised and if said relief is granted by the zba the number of parking spaces will be further reduced from 36 to 26 um the third instance 791 Broadway I don't have any knowledge that as of yet they are asking for request for Relief um so I'll leave that one off the table for now but what we can see is in two of the three instances so far we're seeing a trend where these stackers are being promised upfront by the developers only for them to subsequently request a waiver from the zba from having to install them at all therefore instead of increasing parking which was the exact intent behind the creation of this ordinance we are ending up with the exact opposite which is even fewer parking spaces actually being created so it seems that we have created a loophole and that we're defeating the purpose of this ordinance and it it really does seem like a type of little like bait and switch tactic here so for these Reasons I'm requesting that we repeal the ordinance all together and going forward prohibit the use of mechanical parking stackers in the city thank you thank you councelor Kelly uh councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um I fully agree with Council Kelly um I I think that the mechanical stackers are um sufficient for somewhere like New York City or Boston a major city like that but I do not think they're uh suitable for a city like Rivier I I think um when they are ran by a business or or a company or or someone that's facilitated to run them correctly they can work but when left to uh lay people who are just moving their cars they end up not using them at all or um high risk of injury so I think that the the move for the city would be to ban the stackers totally and I'm 100% with Council Kelly on this motion thank you thank you councelor councelor janino thank you Mr President based on what I've seen since I've been in here I think it's a it's a great motion from councel Kelly right now I've heard nothing but complaints about these the stack of themselves the money it cost to repair the money to put them in and Etc and they're being repealed anyway so I think it's a great motion thank you thank you counselor councelor noveli thank you Mr President Mr President these locations are not in my ward but I'm well aware of what's going on up at 810 Washington AV and uh from my information that I'm getting from folks is the neighbors didn't want it and they don't you know there's a problem with parking because what happens is those machines break down a lot and it takes an hour or so if not more to get a car down to the lower level so you know I know the developer up there and um they had a a session in the area this weekend and the neighbors do not want them they'd rather have less parking on their lot but they want to make sure that any extra cars don't take over their street parking you know so I suggest to them that when they come in for their uh change that the building not be given any more uh permit parking stickers for the in the elas that they can't park their cars so that's you know that's what I'm doing down in my area and it's working so that's it thank you thank you councelor councelor Gino SAA I love this motion that councelor Kelly put in here um I agree with coun councelor um noveli I think they're very very dangerous and it does take a long time for the cars to be brought down if they were on a higher uh level and as far as the parking is concerned they should not be granted any more parking permits thank you thank you councelor councelor isim buo uh thank you Mr President I'm I I too support this motion wholeheartedly and and for for a few reasons uh I believe I'm guilty as one of the counselors that voted this ordinance in and uh I'm not sure that we were or I'll speak for myself that I educated myself enough before I went for this I fell for the fact that it would help with the parking relief and I didn't look into the the fact that these uh I think uh I'm not sure who said it but they certainly I might have been uh Council sylvestri but it they certainly work in Boston and New York and and those are in instances hotels and big buildings where there's a dedicated crew that takes care of these safely they're not for residential use and and and and and that's why they they really a small apartment building uh to have a a 9unit stacker or a 10 unit stack is is a fast they make too much noise and in this instance on uh Washington a uh there is no power parking permits allowed there it was part of the uh original permits so they don't have permits and and um the you know that the debate about whether uh 27 or 26 or seven spots is good enough for 30 uh Apartments when 15 of them are Studios you might make a case for that but the bottom line is they're not they're not suited for residential use and if I had it to do over again I would have never voted that ordinance in uh hindsight's always 2020 and we learned from our mistakes so uh I I agree with uh Council Kelly's motion it's a great motion and I'd support it wholeheartly thank you councelor councelor Kelly thank you for the leeway Mr President so I do want to I I did have a meeting with the residents of Sherman Street the um the side street next to the A10 Washington AV development at on Saturday morning at 10:30 and I didn't hear that from that they didn't want the mechanical stackers but they were very concerned even without there being parking permits being issued um that cars would inevitably end up on their street which is already congested which already sees uh um a really huge amount of flooding which they think is a result of this development they said it was much worse after the development than previous um so I don't know I they know that the zba hearing will be later this week and I guess we can discuss it further at that time and also to um councilor Zano's Point um it's not so much a matter of whether or not the parking will suffice without the mechanical stackers I think it's more of that an initial promise was made by these developers when they're getting their permits to do the building and then they're building the building and then after the building is almost completed then they're coming forward and saying oh yeah guess what we can't put these stackers in after all um and so I think that's where my issue is that if they're going to commit to it upfront and everybody was on board with it initially they should be held to to their promise of having to install them that being said I don't like them and I think it's just opening up a can of worms in a loophole and we should just you know from now on um prohibit them from being allowed thank you thank you counselor this is going to be referred to a public hearing on September 23rd calendar item number 39 motion presented by councelor greo SAA that the mayor request the city's policy writer and analyst in conjunction with the police department and inspectional services to draft an updated noise ordinance that is enforcable councilor Gino s after speaking with about six different police officers um during noise calls um it's come to my attention that they're really difficult to to stop someone from having a massive party and the noise going on at like 9:00 the police officers have actually told me that they have to look at the ground to see if the ground is shaken because it goes by debb it's it's insane and something needs to be changed um so if possible I would like the city's policy writer to look into it and see if we can change the ordinance thank you thank you counselor uh councelor Kelly I thank you Mr President I just want to say I love this motion and I also had a couple of discussions with Chief cahan around the challenges that the police face when trying to enforce these um noise ordinances and trying to you know residents have a right to quiet enjoyment of their property and there are a lot of situations in the city where um the noise from a neighbor is just way over the top and um it would be nice if we could just get something that's enforceable on the books thank you thank you counselor on the motion all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 40 motion presented by councilor sylvestri that the city council ordered to a public hearing a zoning ordinance establishing definitions uses special permit District boundaries and regulations for marijuana establishments in the city of Rivier councelor sylvestri I think it's going public hearing and I'll save all my comments for that night thank you public hearing on September 23rd calendar item number 41 motion presented by councelor greo SAA pursuant to rule 46 of the city council Rules of Order that the city council approved the installation of a portrait for Margaret P Peggy oara Shanahan in honor of her being the first woman to serve on the rier city council appointed 19 73 Council Gino SAA I'd like to send it to appointments refer to appointments and recognition subcommittee calendar item number 42 motion presented by councelor greos SAA pursuing to rule 46 of the city council Rules of Order that the city council approved the installation of a portrait for alvara T verao in honor of her being the first woman elected to serve on the city council and the first woman to represent Ward 36 I'd also like to refer this one to appointments but I'd like to say it's about time a woman's picture goes up there thank you refer to appointments and recognition that concludes tonight's business thank you all for your participation and everybody have a good nights this meeting is [Applause] adjourned for