Good evening everyone and welcome to the February 19th traffic commission. Uh let's all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I >> pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone. Um there's we have one absent today. So let's do a quick roll call. Nicholas Rystrom, city engineer, is absent. Tom
Skorski here. >> Um executive officer Glenn Mi >> here. here. >> Here >> and Chief Cullen >> here. >> Thank you. All right, we have a quorum.
We'll start tonight off with our public hearings. Uh agendum item public hearing number one, amend schedule 11 of title 10 handicap persons parking by adding 27 Avon Street. I have reviewed this application
and I do de um see it fit for um approval. Are there anyone here for either proponents or opponents to this application? Seeing hearing none. Okay. Um any comments from the count from the
um committee? No. Uh I would recommend recommend a motion to approve this item. Motion to approve. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed.
>> All right. Public hearing item number one has been approved. Moving on to item number two, request to amend schedule 11 of title 10 handicap persons parking by adding 11 wave avenue. Um, this
application was submitted a couple of months ago. It's been pushed on and off the agenda. I have no objections to allowing this to pass. Is there any opponents or proponents for this item? Seeing hearing none,
um, commission, is there any >> motion to approve? >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor? >> I I. >> All those opposed. Item number two on the public hearing
has been approved. On to item number three, request to amend schedule 11 of title 10 handicap persons parking by adding 59 Coolage Street. This application was submitted last
month and I do definitely see um deem it fit for approval. I'll let you guys review if you'd like, but um is there any proponents opponents for this item?
Seeing and hearing none. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion to approve. Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I. All opposed. Item number three has been approved.
All right. Public hearing item number four. Schedule u these actually section one and section two are both item four. They go together. It is to amend schedule 8 of title 10 parking restrictions
um by deleting the following which is Evard Street from Southerntherly from Bennington Street to Bell Isle A to our parking in lie of that they are adding schedule I'm sorry
section two listed below which is Everar Street from I'm Sorry. In the direction Southerntherly 121 ft west of College Street to Cottage Street, no parking any
time. And then substituting also Everard Street, Southerntherly at a point 102 east of Bennington Street to a point 275 ft of Bennington Street to our parking.
And then also Everard Street, Southerntherly from Cottage Street to Bell Isle have twohour um parking school hours. I believe this is in addition to one of the community develop programs. If I'm
>> Hi everybody, Julie Demorro, Department of Planning and Community Development. Um, so I first want to take this moment to say thank you for everyone on the commission for your patience as we worked out trying to get this motion written up appropriately. And I want to
thank Ashley Melnik, the city clerk, for her her guidance on this. And it does sound very confusing at this time. Um, but as Chris alluded to, there are some, you know, measurement points here and there's a reason for it. Um, first of
all, this project, the reason for these changes on Everard Street have to do with the Safe Roots to School program. Uh, the grant that the city is getting, it's about $1.4 million worth of reconstruction of sidewalk street work um for Everard Street, Bella Lab,
Cottage, and as well as um the Cummings Park area, which is Winthre A and Crescent Avenue. Um, this is much needed. This is probably our second highest walker school here in the city which is does mean a lot. So that means
that more than 60% of the student population is actually walking to and from school on a daily basis. Um so what the motion here is actually asking is to redo to reconfigure the parking current
parking allowances on Everard Street as it stands today. Um so parking will not be removed. The two-hour parking that is currently exists between the two school driveways will remain. Um the parking
from at at Everard up to Bell Isle uh at that 2-hour parking will remain. The only thing that we are asking here tonight is the removal of parking um from Cottage Street to in between the Cottage Street and
Everrage Street intersection. And the reason for that is is because for this project we are going to the engineers are proposing to bump out the current sidewalk on the school side on the southerntherly side from 5.5 ft to 10
ft. They're also proposing to close up the driveway, which is the second driveway or the exit driveway out of the school um turnaround coming out of the Beachmon school from 59 ft to 49 ft. Um
both driveway reductions have been put through the model for the fire apparatus and so there should be no issue with the engine trucks being able to get in and get out of there. Um
but in the area of cottage to Everard there's um quite a bit of congestion there in the morning. The original plan was to have a raised crosswalk but due to the utility underground utilities that was ruled out. So, um, having a
10-ft sidewalk will be carried through all the way from the first driveway up to, um, Everard Street after Cottage Street. And this will prevent parents from trying to park over the crosswalk. Um,
double parking that seems to happen quite a bit, but it also provides more visibility and a safer place for pedestrians to walk to and from school. It's going to shorten the crosswalk um which is the first crosswalk on Everard Street at cottage and it just allows a
just a more friendlier environment for kids walking and biking to school. >> Okay, thank you. Yeah, I see no issues with this. Um I would ask that the fire department be allowed to look at your turning radius around the bump boats.
>> Yep. I can get you the radius um models that you would need for that. But yes, those have been tested out. Um, so they I can provide your staff with that. Um, can ask the engineering team for that as well. The other piece of this um project
is right now it's the project is at 25% design. There will be a public hearing um probably at the end of March. A lot of what is going to be discussed at that public hearing and the designs being presented is really going to be based on
what the decision here is tonight. Okay. And about how many spots are going to be lost? >> You're only going to technically legally legally you're only losing one spot. >> Okay. >> Because you have a series of crosswalks
there. You have a driveway there. You're not supposed to be within I think five feet of a driveway, 20 ft of a crosswalk. So, when you start laying it out on Google Maps, which I have done a couple of times, um really it only
allows for one spot. The other piece of all this, and I'm still not clear whether or not that driveway is going to be open, there's a there's an additional driveway after the second driveway, and it's capped off right now with granite um
curbstone, but that may be opened up again. Um, and if that's opened up again, you you basically can't have anybody parking there. Um, so that's something that we need to work out with the design team. Um, but in reality, the
only legal spot that we will be losing with this change is one, and that is because of the placement of the driveways and the crosswalks uh, within that area. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Are there any other proponents or
opponents for this item? >> Counselor. Yes. Thank you. >> Uh Jim Mccurial 193 Crescent AB board one city council. Um I've I've reviewed the plans with Judy um Julie, excuse me. Um even though it's at the 25% stage, we
need to have further it along >> uh to see how narrow that street is going to be on Everrod. Now, uh I know we're going to it's still going to allow one car spot parking there overnight, but we're going to uh the sidewalk's going to be 5 ft bigger. So, it's going
to be a 10ft sidewalk. So, I think >> on the the house side or the school side >> school side. >> School side. >> So, I'm a little concerned with that area right there in the in the design process right now. I know we're going to try to work that out with uh Julie and
the design team. Uh besides that, I think it's a it's a great project. It's a needed project in that area um uh for safety issues. I'm not going to even uh put an ask in if we can get uh Cottage Street at least one side uh with granite curbing and uh new sidewalks also. Uh I
know that's not part of the design plan right now, but uh maybe we can incorporate that too uh for a safe way for the children to get to to school there. But I'm all in favor of this project. Um, and uh I hope we can move it forward and uh I'd like to see the uh
final result with the uh uh uh design on it so we can make our better decisions on this also. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you counselor. >> All right. Any other proponents? Opponents. Proponent.
>> How you doing? Lewis Park 300 Broadway. Um I just had a general question. So right now it's just that one space that you guys are talking about right now. Is there is there going to be a future plan to eventually go towards like Cottage Street to Bell Isle as I saw on the previous agenda?
>> Cottage to Bell Isle >> because that's what it was originally, but obviously it changed just now. >> Yeah, I believe there was a typo on on the It was just a question as to how >> Okay. >> It was going to be reflected in in I wouldn't even call it a typo. It's just
>> okay. Only because I got some cause about it. >> Yeah. This is what you see on the agenda. So it's generally that one spot >> is for safe routes to school and that's about it. Right. >> Correct. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Are there any opponents to this project? Seeing and hearing none. Um yeah, I I would have no issue with moving this project forward. I think it's a good idea. Any way we can keep the kids safe walking to school,
especially these hightra areas. Commission. Do we have a motion? >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed.
>> Item number four in the public hearing has been approved. >> Thank you, Julie. Item number five, Commonwealth Electrics Technologies like to speak regarding three on street EV charging stations. The locations of those stations are
Makoba Street, Hutchinson, and Proctor Avenue. Um, good evening everyone. Abdura Zak Kazib um 281 Broadway Department of Planning Community Development. Um I know you got used to Steve Ki coming in
to talk to you about this, but uh I'll just be filling in. Um so I just wanted to provide a a brief background on uh what has happened thus far. Um this uh and and a little bit about the project itself too. Uh for those of um for those
of you joining us today, um the city was awarded um about $500,000 to implement uh an imple implementation grant to implement um curbside charging um electric vehicle
charging stations uh through the Massachusetts um Commonwealth um um on street charging solutions program. Um that award was back in February. Um the first time we brought in uh
proposals to um the traffic commission here was uh back in November where um they were we were requested to provide some pre preliminary studies. Um and then the meeting from January we
discussed uh maintenance questions. Um we talked about safety and I think we talked about uh uh polemounted options uh style stations that um are great idea but unfortunately not feasible during uh due to the sort of timeline of the
project and the grant. Um and then this project sort of got moved along to a public hearing uh with a note for language on on parking restrictions being 700 p.m. to 7 a.m. I believe. Um and um like it was mentioned, we can
totally um uh always sort of adjust that language uh given the feedback that we receive on on um on the stations here. Uh the three stations I think um you all had proposals on are um Hutchinson Street just off of Broadway, um Makoba
Street, and Proctor Avenue. Uh happy to answer any questions here. Um, and then I think we have our contractors here on the go for any technical questions as well. >> Um, no, I'm we've been talking about
this for quite a while, so I've come to understand the program. Um, as long as there's some type of revenue that is set aside for maintenance of these stations, I have no objections.
>> Yeah, a little bit on that. My plan is to actually work on the current sort of pricing model that we have with uh our public stations here at city hall and um um and in other parts of the city. Um hopefully integrate sort of like all the locations all at once and have that
maintenance sort of account be specifically for obviously maintenance and um to cover that portion. Yeah, >> perfect. Um, is there any questions or anyone from the committee? >> Mr. Chairman, I have a question. Uh, if
one of these uh charging stations was to become uh damaged, if it was hit by a car, is there who can we contact in the middle of the night when that happens to deenergize something like that? Yeah, we couldn't leave it. That's 4 480 volt system. Is that correct? >> Um, I believe so. Yes, I think it's
about 480. Um I remember talking about the sort of electrical conduits being under um and the ballards for the safety protection of the stations themselves. Um we'll have our um contractors Commonwealth Electric u be the point of
contact there to come in and sort of like conduct any um any necessary sort of um uh changes to um the stations if if it happened to be hit by a vehicle. Um, >> I think you if I if I could, Zach, I
think the the question sort of pertaining to the immediate term like the the safety hazard that that that would present. So presumably we're going to have to wait a little while to hear from a contractor, but um I think last
time um they had spoken of an emergency shut off that's clearly identified and marked on on the device and and maybe if you could provide a little bit of background there. >> Oh yeah, absolutely. >> Understand your question correctly. >> Yeah, absolutely. I think uh last time
um they you folks talked about the the panel that would be um sort of um adjacent and have like a um an adjustment switch for for safety. I think the station itself has one. Um and then there's you know if
there is a cabinet electrical cabinet that has one as well. Um, and I think there's going to be some um electrical cabinets attached there for for those electrical switches. >> Okay. So, if I'm understanding
correctly, there' be uh a disconnect right there at the cabinet. Somebody could you could throw the switch to disconnect the power. I'm just concerned in the middle of the night. We've seen this happen with traffic lights and and traffic pulls it down live wires and and who you know who's going to stand with those while they're exposed like that. I
did um just a correction on the voltage is 208 volts and um there will be an emergency power off button close at each of the stations as well. >> Okay. >> I don't know if that answered the question.
>> Yeah, thank you. We can look into that a little bit more too. Make sure there's a breaker somewhere on the pole or somewhere that comes off the riser somewhere that you can kill it so there's no power going into even if they hit this >> usually cabinet.
>> Yeah. Okay. Um All right. Are there any proponent any other proponents for this item? Seeing hearing none. Any opponents for this project? Seeing and hearing none. All right. With
that in consideration and with favorable recommendations from the city departments that have been working on this, I suggest a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor?
>> I. All those opposed. Item number five has been approved. All right, that concludes our public hearing. Um, now on to the agenda. Agendum item one. Mayor Patrick Keef requests that the traffic commission
consider establishing a traffic commission regulation limiting the number of residential parking permits per address or unit to four with the stipulations that residents may apply for additional parking permits through an appeal process administered by the
parking department. Are there any proponents for this item? Any um yes. If you'd like to come to the stand, you
can stand either in favor just name and address for the record, please. Gina Haramo 11 Wave Avenue in Rivier >> and it's for um handicap parking per minute. >> Oh, Gina, I'm sorry. This is a different
motion. We've actually your your motion has been approved for 11 wave. >> Oh, it's been okay. >> This is for um restricting the number of per parking permits per address. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Okay. >> All right.
Um, I see no reason to push this forward to a public hearing just so everyone else can get I I understand the whole concept and I would see where this would come in need if there's
multiple cars associated with one address and there's no real way to control or um administer those extra permanent parking. Commission, do we have any input on this one?
>> I' I'd like to hear from the parking department and get a sense of what the number average number of, you know, cars per unit or per address we're seeing and what are some of the more, let's call them like egregious offenders. Um, I I
assume there are some that have many more than four. That's why we're seeing this. And I do think our our streets um our right of way is limited and you know we got to make sure that we have across the city on street parking
available for all our you know units that are you know exemp not exempt from from the on street parking and I think this seems like a smart idea. Um, it notes per address or unit. That's a big difference between the two. So, I'd want to get parking's input on that as well,
but generally speaking, um, would love to hear more from them and others about this concept. And it seems like something I would approve. >> Okay. Would you guys recommend maybe tableabling this item until we can hear from the parking department? That might be a smart idea. Would that happen at a
public hearing where we to send it or >> we they they would of they would have to be I would expect the parking department to show up during a public hearing as well. So, it's either either direction. >> Oh, what why don't we move this to a public hearing? That way,
it's advertised properly. Um, I'll speak with the parking department, make sure they have a representative here. If not, we'll just vote it down. >> I would feel comfortable with that, having discussed briefly with the parking director, and and it seems like something they would not be in
opposition to, and of course, the mayor put the motion forward, so I assume they've spoken on the matter. >> Okay. All right. Yeah. With that in mind, um, is there any motion on the table to move to a public hearing? Item number one. Oh, a motion to move it to a public
hearing. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor? >> All those opposed. >> Item number one will be moved to a public hearing. Item number two, amend schedule 11 of title
um I'm sorry, agenda item number two, amend schedule 11 of title 10, handicap persons parking by adding 31 babe road. Um I did review this application.
I don't necessarily see the need for the handicap spot in the application. And it states they can walk 10 minutes painfree, which seems to be quite a fair distance. And the form is also supposed to be um
filled out by the physician and this was a physician assistant that filled out this application. So um I do understand that there's no parking by this address. Oh, I'm sorry. Off streetet parking by this address,
but 10 minutes walking seems like a fair enough distance to not require a spot. My opinion. Anyone else? Is there any Doesn't seem to be anyone here that has any any opinion on the matter.
Commission, what do you guys any any ideas? I'd only note that every time I go to the doctor's office these days, I happen to see a physician's assistant. So I think they are becoming more and more common as sort of a generalist. So I wouldn't I wouldn't discount the
application for that. But um the other question you pose is a good one. Um I wouldn't be opposed to bringing it to a hearing to have that discussion with the applicant present. Um but but I'm I will go with the will of the commission here.
>> That's fine. I'm either way I have no I'm just kind of indifferent on the the application. If you um we can move it to public hearing and let the applicant come and speak his piece. Let him um at least that way he can comment on
the matter. >> A motion to move to public hearing. >> All right. Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor? All those opposed? Item number two, move to a public hearing.
Item number four, I'm sorry, item number three. Wow. >> Yeah, they should be two separate um items. So, amend schedule 11 of title 10 handicap persons parking by adding 54
Carlson Avenue. Um, I read through the application. I do believe that this is a valid application. The only thing I'd like to see, well, if we move this to a public hearing would just be the clarification on the driveway. The application says
they are not allowed to use their driveway. And then during the I believe was the medical evaluation, it says the driveway is too far away from the door to the house. So, um I'd like to I think it'd be a good idea to move that one to
a public hearing just so they can come up for us as well. Commission. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Is there a second? All those in favor? All those opposed? All right. 54 Carlson Aav, which I'm
going to amend to agenda item three. Be moved to a public hearing. All right. Amend title 10 section 1024.020 one-way streets by adding Janice Street northbound entire length one way.
And it looks like item number four, I'm sorry, item number five would also go alongside with this, which is furnishry southbound entire length one way. I believe it is in the best interest of this group to table this one since this was submitted by one of our own members
that is currently not here. I'd like to give him the ability to come before us next month and explain the um I understand these are the offbet streets and these are all should eventually be one way one or the other but um it might be worth tableabling it till
next next month's agenda. Yeah, I believe they they should go as too. I'd also like to Well, I believe there's a a um plan that was done set up for all of those streets to become one way one or the other. I just want to
make sure this fits with that plan that was assembled. I >> was going to ask the same question. >> Okay. All right. So, we can table this matter. Is there a motion to move table? >> Motion to table. >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor?
>> I. All opposed. Item number four and five will be tabled. That's it for tonight, gentlemen. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Thank you. Second.
Meeting adjourned.