Flood Forum Committee - Regular Meeting

Hello, welcome to the Licenses and Permits Committee meeting of the Somerville City Council. Today is June 24th, and I'm Emily Hart, Ward 7 City Councilor. I use she, her pronouns. And the meeting is being clerked tonight by Clerk Delaney Fisher-Cascio. Clerk, could you please call the roll? That I can, Councillor Davis.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Chair Hart. Here.

All right, with that, all three of us, we do have questions. Thank you. And also, I need to read this statement pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025. This meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of the proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. I jumped ahead there with the roll call. So moving on to the first agenda item, approval of the minutes of the licenses and permits committee meeting of May 13th, 2026. Counselors, are there any questions or comments about those minutes? Okay, we will lay those on the table for approval at the end of the meeting. Items 2, ID 26-0910 and number 3, ID 26-0864 are both public comments related to agenda item number 4. which is 26-0750. Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 10 feet of conduit in Hudson Street from utility pole 202 over 9 to a proposed new handhold next to 135 Hudson Street. And this item is for a hookup for new electric car, you know, electric car charging stations that the city is installing. So that part, the EV charging stations have already been approved by city staff and the traffic and parking. And now this is for the grant of location for Eversource. So let me just see who is in attendance to speak on this item. If you could raise your electronic hand. Okay, great. Jackie Duffy from Eversource.

Hi. This was continued because the abutters were having questions about where the conduit was going?

Yes. Yes, thank you. And so there is a memo attached to this item which outlines the response from the city about the concerns raised by the abutters. And My understanding is that all of the questions have been addressed to the extent possible. One of the main concerns was there was confusion over where the actual charging station was going to be installed and if there would still be enough room on the sidewalk for ADA compliance and city staff have confirmed that there will still be at the very least ADA compliant and I believe more space still available on the sidewalk. Is there anyone else here to speak on this item? I just wanted to be sure any abutters do have a chance to speak if they're here or any neighbors. But I do believe that their concerns have been addressed and that this has been communicated with them.

Excellent.

Ms. Duffy, if I could just hop in, would you mind just stating your title for the record as well, please?

Oh, sorry, Jacqueline Duffy, right-of-way agent. I have a source energy. Got it. Thank you.

Thank you. And I see, um, counselor Wheeler has a question or comment.

Uh, thank you chair through you. Uh, I, uh, really appreciate the work that the city did to take a close look at the site. of this electrical vehicle cabinetry in response to the feedback from the second letter raising concerns about the passability of the sidewalk. I did just want to acknowledge a concern that the first of these two public comment letters raises. which is about the use of a parking space or a set of parking spaces for electrical vehicle specific purposes. And I don't have an answer or a resolution to that concern. I think that we are trying to make a decision, balancing a variety of different kinds of needs, I acknowledging that electrical vehicle infrastructure is going to be sort of specific space dependent in a way that other parking spaces aren't and I just wanted to own that the the city and our committee. That we are indeed removing parking spaces that people may rely on and adding parking spaces at the same time for people who are going to use them specifically for electrical vehicles. But in the trade-offs that we're always balancing, I just want to make sure that we are acknowledging that we are asking people to make do with you know, different kinds of changes that are removing spaces that their gas-powered cars can park. And we're hoping that this direction is a sensible one on balance for all of us, for our climate as well. But we are all collectively making a bit of a sacrifice. And I just wanted to acknowledge that and appreciate the concerns of that first letter writer. Thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you, Chair Wheeler. And, you know, and that's, yes, it's very true that on our limited, you know, street space, we have choices and trade-offs that happen so often and definitely want to take into account people's concerns. I will note that the decision to change these to EV charging stations is not what is before this committee. that that has already been decided. So it's not exactly part of our conversation now, although we are addressing the general topic. And I'm glad to have all of the public communications attached to this item so that we do have everyone's input for the record. And it is my hope that the fact that there are more and more people who do have electric vehicles and so that they will be, you know, coming from another spot on Hudson Street to now this spot rather than a net loss of parking. It's just a rearrangement of parking. But I do know that these changes can sometimes happen. you know, bring up new issues. So we look forward to hearing how it goes. Miss Duffy, did you have another comment? Or is your hand up from before?

No, I just didn't ever put it down.

Okay. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Um, any more comments or questions from the committee? Okay. Thank you. All right. We will Lay that one on the table for approval at the end of the meeting.

And Chair Hart, what would we like to do with items two and three? Do we want to mark those were complete? Yes, please. Thank you.

OK. The next item, number 5, 26-0980, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 31 feet of conduit in Richardson Street from utility pole 296 over 1 to a point of pickup at 0 Richardson Street. Is there anybody here to speak on this item? OK, I said before I, Jackie, before I have you speak, I just wanted to give context on these next two items. So these were we did conduct the public hearings at the city council meeting on June 11th, and it was a very packed meeting and. There were some technical issues there, it seemed like on the next item actually that there was somebody trying to speak, but having computer issues and we weren't able to hear them. So we went ahead and sent both of them to the committee, just in case there were people who wanted to speak on these items that didn't get an opportunity to at that meeting. But the official public hearing has already been held for both of these items. So we're not doing an official public hearing. But if there is somebody here to speak on either of these, we welcome hearing from you. Okay. With no further ado, Jackie Duffy, please tell us about this item.

I would like to install approximately 31 feet of conduit in Richardson Street to provide electrical service to 6 Richardson Street.

Okay, thank you. I have looked at the location. I don't have any concerns. I have not received any comments from the public and there's no one here raising their hand. Councilors, do you have any questions or comments about this one? Okay. We will lay that one on the table for approval at the end of the meeting and move on to number 6, 26-0981, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 641 feet of conduit in Somerville Avenue and Prospect Street and one new manhole 31333 from existing manhole 27921 and from existing manhole 25406 to a point of pickup at 51 Prospect Street. Is there anyone here to speak on this item?

Jackie Duffy, Eversource. I would like to install approximately 511 feet of conduit and one new manhole. And this is to provide electric reliability improvement in the area.

Okay. Thank you. I noticed this is right near the substation. Yes, it is. So do you have any more information? I'm just curious about how this, how this connects.

I don't, I don't have any other information on it. I'm sorry.

Okay. No problem. I was just, like I said, just curious. Um, and there is someone else, another attendee. So I just, if you are here to speak on this item, please just raise your electronic hand and, uh, you'll be acknowledged to, to speak. Just want to make sure everybody has a chance that would like to speak. And counselors, um, Committee members, if you have any questions or comments. Okay, it doesn't look like there's any comments on this one as well. So I will lay this one on the table as well. Jackie Duffy, yes.

Oh, no, I just lowered my hand.

Oh, sorry. It went back up for me. Sorry. No problem. No problem at all. Okay. Clerk, I think we are ready to vote on the items before us.

Awesome. So this is on recommending approval for items number one, four, five, and six. Councillor Davis.

There we go. Yes.

Councillor Wheeler.

Yes.

Chair Hart? Yes. All right. With that, that is all members in favor of recommending approval, and then we can move into adjournment whenever you're ready.

Okay. Motion to adjourn.

All right. On adjournment, Councillor Davis?

Yes.

Councillor Wheeler?

Yes.

Chair Hart? Yes. All right. With that, it is just 6.17 p.m., and we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Clerk.

Bye-bye. Thank you, clerk. Thank you. Have a good one. Bye.