Public Utilities and Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

Hello, everyone. Thanks for your patience. We're having some trouble with clerk coverage tonight. We apologize. You had to wait for almost fifteen minutes in the waiting room. Yes. So we do have a clerk, and we will get started. So my name is Naima Syed. She, her pronouns, I'm the World five city council, a new traffic and parking chair. I would like to call to order today traffic and parking committee meeting of the Somerville City Council.

First, I will read the legal notice that allows us to have this meeting on Zoom. Pursuant to chapter two, the act of 2023, this meeting of the city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We'll post an audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of Somerville website on local cable access government channels. Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish a quorum?

This is roll call. Councilor Mbaugh?

Present.

Councilor Wheeler?

Here.

Councilor Saiit? Here. With all three councilors present, we have quorum.

Okay. And then just very quickly, let's begin with approval of the minutes from the previous meeting. On the minutes, any discussion? Seeing none. Clerk, could you please call the roll for approval of the minutes from the previous meeting?

Or if it's easier, we can lay that on the table too.

I'm just getting in on my other laptop. Apologies, everyone. If we could just wait till the end of the meeting. Thank you.

Sure. Yeah. We'll lay that on the table for the end of the meeting. And we're just waiting for the agenda, but I can read the items. We're gonna take the first three items together.

I will read the items while we wait for the agenda to be shown on screen. Screen. By councilor, order ID 26Dash0123 sent for discussion by councilor Wynkamp and councilor Scott, That the director of mobility update this council on the intersection improvements at Webster Ave and Prospect Street. We also have a public communication ID number 26Dash0634 sent for discussion. 64 residents submitting comments, parking on 0 Bolton And Prospect Streets.

Order ID number 26Dash0373 referred to a recommendation by councilor Wheeler that this city that this council review construction related parking in the area of Oak Street and Bolton Street. So, again, we're gonna take up all these items together. And just before, we okay. I see the agenda on the screen now. Thank you, clerk. I would like, or council Wheeler. Would you like to sponsor someone before we get started? We have received a letter. Yeah.

Thank you. Yes. I would like to sponsor Serena Botner to address this committee.

I see Serena as an attendee clerk. Do you

If you could raise your hand, I'll give you permission to talk.

Serena has her raised hand has her hand raised.

You should be allowed to speak.

Serena, you're in mute.

Great. You can hear me okay?

Yes. Excellent.

Okay. Thank you for for giving me this opportunity to speak. My name is Serena Bodner. I live at 31 Bolton Street with my husband. We've lived in our home for thirteen years.

And so I appreciate the opportunity to discuss our concerns in our neighborhood. I know that you read our letter, so I'm not gonna repeat every point that we made, but I did want to take this opportunity to highlight a few things. We recognize that the city tickets regularly, but that's not effective enough to address the ongoing problems that we're having in our neighborhood because it's not changing anything. I personally report contractors blocking hydrants and fire lanes to 311 pretty much every single day, And I know that other people in my neighborhood do as well. And I know that those contractors occasionally get ticketed when they get caught, but this is a reactive response, and it's not solving our problem.

One of my neighbors actually did the math, and contractors that pay $35 a month for a parking pass, plus say they receive four tickets in a month at $50 for street cleaning or for illegal parking, are essentially paying $235 a month. And so they get street parking for less than $10 a day. So breaking the law with illegal parking parking is it's just a budgeted project cost for them. And it's a really good deal for them at that, to be honest. So ticketing is not a disincentive for these contractors to park illegally, but the negative impact and the extra 40 plus vehicles on our three streets is significant to us.

Street cleaning last year was impacted so frequently that Bolton Street actually didn't even receive its last street cleaning of the year because there were too many cars parked there. And it there was a a very serious fire about three blocks from our neighborhood recently. I am always so concerned about the fire truck and emergency vehicle response on our narrow streets. And the illegal the constant illegal parking in the fire lanes puts our entire neighborhood at risk. We should not be expected to assume the risk of our health and our safety for the convenience and the profit of a contractor just trying to find a place to park.

This morning alone, there were actually two deliveries for two different projects on opposite sides of the street on Prospect Street about 09:30 in the morning. Cars were forced to go down to a single lane in an s curve to get get down the block. Traffic was backed up past Cambridge Street, past the bridge in Union, and couldn't even take a turn onto Prospect to get out of our neighborhood. There was no traffic detail to help navigate this. It was a total mess this morning.

Prominent builders on the corner of Houghton And Prospect were shutting down Houghton Street for days at a time last summer, and they were faking street closure permits. JT Scott can attest that I reported it every single time, but we shouldn't have to continue to face this kind of disruption that's been going on in our neighborhood for years. We received a letter from the mayor's office after we sent our letter in saying that they do review material delivery plans. So either the plans that they're approving are not being evaluated for the real impact to the people who live in this neighborhood, or the contractors are not following their plans. Either way, not working.

So I would like to end by saying that we understand that the city is working within the structure of the systems that they have available. But when there are six large construction projects within a quarter mile on these tiny streets and there's no end construction in sight, the system isn't working. The system wasn't designated. It wasn't designed to handle this. And I think it says something about the negative impact when 64 of our neighbors are coming together to address the city with our concerns. The tickets need to be more of a disincentive. Construction parking passes need to be pulled. People with building permits need to be fined. The fines need to be significant enough to deter the bad behavior, and the builders profiting off the disruption. And the disruption of the harmony to our neighborhood where we live where we live need to be held to a higher standard.

We know that construction is not gonna stop, but we need to find a better way to make this work for everybody. So thank you. I appreciate your time, and I'm happy to answer any questions you have now or in the future.

Thank you, Serena. Counselor Wheeler?

Thank you, chair, and thank you so much to Serena and the other people who wrote in. Just to to attempt to summarize some of what, I've heard from people who've reached out and from this, really well thought out letter, that this group submitted with public comment. It sounds like

Wheeler, can I ask the clerk if it's possible to have the letter on the screen? While you're speaking? Thank you.

Just give me a few minutes. I'll have it up there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Clerk. Just to to summarize some of the points, not all the points. There's a lot here. But, you know, one of one of the things that I understand is inconvenient on a daily basis is just how many contractors may be sometimes legally parking, and that's one kind of level of issue. And then there's how often contractors are illegally parking.

So it sounds like there's sort of two different source issues here and and maybe some more. It sounds like driveways are sometimes being blocked. Sidewalk access, crosswalk access is sometimes being blocked. Fire lanes are are sometimes being blocked. And bikes and pedestrians, including ways that children need to to cross the street to get to school, are sometimes being blocked with dangerous results.

Turning cars are running into blocked sight lines as well, and there are no parking and no stopping zones, and that's sometimes being ignored. So, you know, just to clarify, this is both you know, what I'm hearing is this is both an inconvenience of, you know, it being hard to find parking, but it's also a safety issue. And, you know, I I know, this is something that's not what any of us on the city side were sort of designing or or intending to happen. And I also know that there are limits on those sort of levers that that we can pull, but I am hearing, an ask for a shift from sort of reactive enforcement to, to thinking about these problems, maybe more proactively. And some of that could involve, some more daily monitoring, towing, and enforcement without relying on residents calling in complaints.

And then also, taking a look at how we're approaching our, parking permits, you know, in terms of price, in terms of how many we provide, in terms of their windows of time. I'm new to this, and I'll I'll be the first to admit there's a lot that I don't know. And I know there's lots of things where mass general law may constrain what we can do. So I wanna, you know, appreciate all of that. I know that that, we and the traffic and parking department are are working with what we have, but, I I wanna make sure that we're, taking these questions and these suggestions of possible directions for solutions seriously. Thank you.

Thank you, councilor Wheeler, for summarizing that. Again, we have the letter on the screen, and this was also shared by the full council. Thank you, Serena, to all the 62 neighbors who put this together. And this was also shared with mobility engineer in the parking department. They had a chance to review it. So first, they would like to recognize councilor Bah, and then we will hear from the different departments. Councilor Bah?

Thank you, Chezai. Yeah. I think you've harmonized, my my thoughts. I just wanted to give a chance to to Mobility and the administration to respond because we know exactly what this letter is stipulating. They enumerated the problem.

They have they even provided what suggestion they need. And so I wanna be grateful to, you know, to Serena for kind of, like, also just that high level because, you know, I'm glad that you did not repeat everything that was in your letter because we the year with the administration, you know, in terms of, like, solutions before I can now ask follow-up from those, you know, from there. Thank you.

Thank you, Hassan Ba. Director Rasin or director Renfred, who would like to go first? Again, you all received the letter ten days or two weeks ago. So, yeah, I think it would be helpful to just give us a sense of, like, yeah, like, what is going on here, and, how and then we'll discuss one issue at a time and how we can be addressed.

Hey, counselor. I'm happy to go first. Suzanne Director.

You're fit. Director of

parking. So first, I'd I'd like to say that it's not a proactive approach down there. We are down there every day. We have an open complaint in this area. We have been issuing lots and lots of tickets down there.

In fact, I I did a spreadsheet of how many tickets we've been issuing over the years, and I'm happy to share that with the council at some point if they're interested. We are doing a lot of ticketing for permit parking, street cleaning, restricted zones, and also using some folks do have guest cards, like just regular people that live in the area. As far as permits go, we did last year stop giving any various plate permits to Prospect Street. So any contractors that came in and declared that they were on Prospect Street or working with that project, they had to have plate specific permits so that they couldn't be passing permits around to other contractors. So I do have I know that in 2022 to 2023, we issued 485 permits in that area.

2024 to twenty twenty twenty twenty three to 2024, 02/1994. 2024 to 2025, '91. And 2024 to 2020 I mean, 2025 to 2026 so far this year, 67. Now I did these all from April to April for the permit so that we'd have a consistent number. That's just that's just for Prospect Street.

On Bolton Street, far this year, we've only issued four. On Oak Street, and on Houghton Street seven permits. So as as far as not giving we're trying not to give any various permits to folks. Unfortunately, though, we do have this permit process that allows, you know, people to get contracted permits because at the same time, we're in the business of the city to to try to help out both businesses and residents. Of course, we don't want everybody parking on the street, and I totally understand and I understand all of the residents' frustration.

I think it's awful. But at the same time, we do have to offer permits to these contractors. They can't just come into the city and get ticketed day after day after day. I'm open to suggestions. We are down there ticketing. And as as the the resident said, sometimes it does I don't know. Maybe they maybe they're really, really rich people, and they can afford all these tickets. But I can't think of much more that we could actually be doing. But I'm happy to be open to suggest suggestions. So

Thank you, director. So what I'm hearing is that we are you have staff that are going to these streets on a daily basis

Yes.

To ensure that they're ticketing cars that are parked illegally or if it's street sweeping and all that. So we're not relying on residents to call when there's a car that's illegally parked?

Well, in that case so, counselor, we are down there ticketing. It doesn't mean, though, the contractors don't see the parking control officer coming. Right? They they move, and then we're out of that area, and then they move back. And this is a habit that happens on every street that the the contractors will see, oh, parking control officer's coming. Everybody move their vehicles. And we tell them not to park and then they come back an hour later or forty five minutes later when that parking control officer is on another route. We only have a handful of parking control officers, so it's not possible just to stay on those four streets the entire day.

Okay. And I guess the other question the the other point that was made is that there are multiple projects happening at the same time, which means that are many contractors who have permits or when you say contract, it could be more than one car, and they like, you know, we know that, you know, know, contractors will come with one car, then only one car has a permit. They pay the ticket. So when there are multiple projects like that on one narrow street, do we have like, does that at all gets taken into consideration either by department or ISD when they issue the permits? Like or do they just decays your building permit, and then you they go to the traffic department to get their parking permit.

Because it sounds like here the issue is that there are multiple contractors because there are multiple projects. So what's the yeah. You know, this is not a question necessary for director. It's more is there coordination that's happening between ISD engineering issuing the permits and the parking department. Maybe director.

Good evening, committee. I'm Brian, director of the engineering division. One of the responsibilities that my team takes on is permitting site construction work, and in particular, the street occupancy permits that are involved with both construction management for bringing equipment, materials, and so forth to the site, but also the construction that occurs on the sidewalks in our roadways throughout our city. There are a handful of interactions, especially between engineering and ISD, because engineering does have a route on virtually every building permit, especially every new build construction permit because of the complications and the complexities of construction on the public ways. Very few, if any of our properties, have space on-site to manage all of the construction activities.

So there is every construction site has a certain amount of construction management in the public way. The the every project goes through a construction management plan process, which includes loading, delivery, and reconstruction of the public way, typically sidewalks as needed. One thing that I'm hearing from you, Chair, is that, like, is there any way to coordinate multiple construction in a close area? And I I have to acknowledge that the the Bolton Oath Houghton Prospect neighborhood has received disproportionate might be too strong of a term, but a very large amount of construction over the past four or five years greater than what this neighborhood had experienced for years before that. I mean, this goes back to the gas reconstructions, gas line reconstructions that we had in the neighborhood a few years ago, the intersection reconstruction at Oak And Houghton.

But, also, we have if we go back to 2015, five large apartment building construction going on along Prospect Street, not to mention the various renovations and additions going on in the neighborhood itself. One piece that we don't have a tool that I've ever been made that I've ever found is the ability to restrict a property owner from developing their property because somebody adjacent to them or nearby is also developing their property. I don't believe that's something that we have legal tools to accomplish, and we have to allow every property owner access to their property. So we can't restrict a contractor from accessing their property to do the construction. Where we do have the ability to have some control is when they're blocking and occupying the roadway for intermittent construction, such as when there are is crane construction, when there is when they're reconstructing the sidewalk, when they are doing utility service connections, we do make an effort to coordinate those.

And we've recently started putting together a database system so that we have better tools internally so that we don't have multiple contractors trying to do the same stretch of street at the same time. And we treat that on a first come, first served basis. But when it comes to deliveries that occur, those aren't scheduled that's a hard word to say. Schedulable activities because it it's just impractical to know exactly when the the person with the drywall is coming in or when the the brick mason is bringing in there. Those those aren't things that can be scheduled to a degree, and they're usually short in period.

We schedule things that usually take three, four, five, sometimes all day operations. That's the that's kind of the level that we can schedule from time to time, week to week to avoid those conflicts in the roadway. So I don't know if that really, like, is a satisfying answer. I know what you're trying to get at, but the complexities of construction, they're just really hard to fine tune down to the level to avoid the double deliveries that happened this morning that resulted in a one lane condition.

Yeah. Like, I understand that there's no, like, legal mechanism that allows us to, like, have restrictions. But as neighbors have mentioned, this is creating safety. Like, this is, like, a this is, like, a safety issue. It's not just about, like, oh, this, you know, this one is parked here legally.

We're blocking fire hydrants. And and I know that in my ward, they've had to deal with this very recently. And and I know, like, city staff will, like, show up and issue fines. And when they're there, things are working, whether or not they're what the neighbors are dealing with the same issues. I think to me, when it becomes like this is a safety issue, we need to think about what can we what kind of solutions we, you know, we can put in place.

And I'm not hearing that. And I understand, like, when legally, you know, you cannot ask a homeowner to not, you know, get into their property. At the same time, like, this is, like, a really good example of you know, like, we're a city. You know, there will be a lot more development. We do want more you know, to build more housing, more that you know, like, we are in the process of, like, sewer separation and, you know, a lot of things are being done.

Like, yeah, like, think about what can we do there and how can we coordinate all these different projects. Because, you know, god forbid, you know, there's a fire. And just like every single second matters, and the fire truck cannot get to, you know, the place. So this is, like, literally what I don't know how like, if we encounter if as a department, you can you encounter these situations. Like, do are we dealing with more of these situations throughout the city?

Because I know in my war, they had to deal with that lately, and it was a big project on a very busy street. And the you know, counselor, ward two counselor, this is in his ward. He's in attendance. He's dealing with that, and I'm sure other counselors are. But, like, just as engineer you know, like, is the engineering department seeing more of this?

Because all these three one one tickets are coming to you, to mobility, to parking. Because if it's the case, then we have to find we have to come up with solutions. We have to coordinate all these different projects. So would you say, director, have more of these situations during construction season, especially?

I mean, to be honest, the amount of current okay. First, I'm gonna recognize my rear facing trajectory is eight years, nine years that I've been in the city. So I know some people have a longer backwards view than I do. But I would say for the last eight to nine years, the level of construction that we've seen in the city has not been appreciably different. When I look at the permit numbers that we've been receiving over the past, we had probably there was probably a jump in '18 and '19, or from '18 to '19 and 2019 to 2020.

But since and there has been a slight lull during COVID. But for the most part, our construction permits over that period of time is rather consistent. So I don't think that we've received a substantially greater amount of construction over the past few years. And I think it's worth noting that all of these construction projects were started three or four years ago. So these have been in the pipeline for a while.

What we might be seeing is a slight lull in construction moving forward because I believe 2025 had a slightly smaller number of permits, but it wasn't significant. I guess what I'm saying is that the construction volume in the city hasn't changed a huge amount. What I think this neighborhood is observing, and I do agree with, is that the number of development is greater in this particular neighborhood at this particular time than than we usually see. I know a number of the construction that you're referring to in in your ward, and and, honestly, the construction in Ward 5 has been paced out further apart. There hasn't been less or more of it, but it has been spread out a little bit different.

Like, we know that there's been more construction along Prospect in this, frankly, one block than many other single blocks in the city, but we can't control when property owners choose to develop their properties. It's this just there's not a tool that we have available to do that, and and there and we probably shouldn't have that tool aside from just general zoning requirements.

Okay. I think when I let councilmember go, I see his hand raised. And then I'm interested in talking more about the fines because this was one of the one of the requests. You know, director and Fred talked about the fines, and I think it's also worth talking about the you know, how, like, we're talking about increasing the fines. Do we actually have can we actually do that? So, again, councilor then would like us to discuss that so constituents understand.

Thank you, chair Saeed. Doctor, thanks for being here, and thank you, director Renfrey as well. I guess where I want to start is to make it clear that the neighbors, this I did not see anywhere in their petition that they said they are against construction. You know? They have standing.

If somebody has standing that this thing is an issue is an issue, and we need to address it. And I don't hear that, which is one problem that I find with the responses that I'm getting. So which actually begs the question is of asking if we need to start issuing conditional, you know, permits because there's no way you're gonna have a permit, and then you violate your own permit regulation. They they are citing regulations. Not like somebody saying do not construct.

They're making very clear that this you know, there's no designated parking spaces for construction worker, which is absolutely strange. One question I had is, can the city can we designate which is part of their their request, can the city designate construction workers to park in city parking garages so that that alone will eliminate part of the problem. So they've actually suggested solutions. If these solutions are not, you know, something that is worth considering, why? That is exactly where that's my number one question.

They had very clear suggestion in terms of how to, you know, address these issues without you know, they have not I have not seen any way that says stop constructing. So so this is not even a problem. Can they design can we designate if, you know, construction workers to park somewhere else? They have the designated zone for delivery and stuff. They've they've had very clear problems, well articulated, and very clear solutions.

And I guess, yeah, we'll go back from the beginning to say, I wasn't sure also, you know, if we have some data in terms of, like, the number of calls that have gotten in tonight to three one one just so we can put something into scale and say, this is a real problem. And, yes, how they've identified the problem, I'm more concerned about speaking to the solution that they've provided. Can you speak to each solution that they've that they've suggested and why it is not implementable? I can read I can I can read whatever Yes? The I can so the first suggestion is they say, you know, we request we request the following actions.

The first action they request, a consistent enforcement and towing. Implement consistent daily enforcement of parking regulations, including towing and posting a detail to ensure vehicles don't return during scheduled street cleaning hours and where vehicles pose a clear safety hazard or block access without residents needing to constantly report to 311. Discuss.

Okay. This is direct to RealFreck.

Through the chair. So parking does not allow we don't issue towing. That's a police that's a police matter. We can issue tickets, and we are down there issuing tickets. But as the counselor said and and as this this is saying that the folks do come back, and so unless somebody's there the whole day in that one area, they're gonna continue to come back. But we are down there ticketing. For it to be a tow, the police would have to be involved. We do not order tows from the parking department.

Thank you, doctor Jeffrey. Yes. Oh, sorry.

Just just follow-up questions on that. So could you explain to constituents what's the process for towing?

That would be you'd have to call the police for a tow. The police would have to come for a tow.

And the constituents call neighbors call the police. Right? Okay.

Right. And police, you know, that would really be a police matter. I can't answer for the police. That would be a question for them.

Okay. But that is the process so neighbors know. For tow in, you call police. Okay. Okay. Sure.

Thank you, chair. So sec at least now we we've extracted something from the solutions. We've heard the response. It might not be exactly what we want, but these are clearly articulated suggestions that I wanna hear why it is not why we cannot accomplish this. Withhold additional parking permits.

Withhold the issuance of additional temporary on street parking permits for construction projects in this densely affected neighborhood until the current issues are resolved and a better system is in place. I guess before, you know, I let director, know, chime in here, this is exactly why I said, yes. We are in a very dense city, but the densest city in New England. And yet, I don't hear this neighbor saying they don't want construction. But if there's an issue, how, you know, how do we address this issue based on their suggestion?

Looks like yeah. Okay. Yeah. Direction was to wait. You're on mute.

Through the chair, councilor Mbah, I I know you were directing that to me, but the parking department does handle the parking permits. And I do believe director mentioned that they've already begun withholding, parking permits for the particular construction sites. So I I believe this one, we we've already been doing for the past year or so.

Okay. Thank you, Doctor. Posawes. And then the the next suggestion also to the problem is a proactive contractor parking solution. Explore solution that move contractor parking off of residential side streets such as providing contractors with parking access to city owned garages. So as I mentioned before, not issuing parking payments to large construction projects on residential side street. I guess I wanna hear about the city owned garages.

Through you to the chair. So the city doesn't own any garages. We don't have any parking garages.

Okay.

Yes. Yes. And it is good that you're providing, you know, doctor Renfred, this information. You see, it's good that the residents are also hearing in real time, so we don't live from here. I also met with a bunch of them.

That is why, you know, some of them, I don't also see them on here. They will probably be calling me afterward and asking me this thing. So that's why I want this thing, you know, to come out as clearly as possible so that we can determine next step either here or offline. Ensure safety protocols for delivery. Ensure that construction site proactively implement measures for large deliveries, including the installation of temporarily no parking signs well in advance, requiring a police officer or detail present to manage traffic and ensure two way flow during deliveries requiring contractors to provide a materials delivery and storage management plan as part of the building permit submission.

I think this last piece seems to be, like, a no brainer. Don't they provide that?

Through the through the chair, councilor Mbah. Actually, this this is a is a I actually like this one because we we started requiring construction management plans about five to six years ago in large part because we were running into many of the same challenges that, the residents here are experienced now, but on much smaller projects with much fewer issues around it, in large part because we had no management structure or construction aside from utility utility work and cranes and the like. So we did institute, what we call a construction management plan, which does look at both, how large construction vehicles travel through the city to bring construction materials to the site as well as large construction equipment such as cranes and so forth. Not to mention what's becoming more common, moving entire buildings prefabbed onto sites. So this is actually a pretty big area of our practice right now, but it also includes deliveries and and the actual regular use of a construction site, especially where it meets the public way.

Two of the things that are so that kinda discusses the third bullet item on here, but the first two bullet items also exist. So when we do a construction management plan and for isolated things, what we call traffic management plans, we provide authorization to the traffic department to issue no parking signs for construction. And and only those no parking signs are enforceable from a no parking perspective. And each of those signs by city regulation has to be posted forty eight hours prior to those parking signs going into effect and requires notification to the city upon placing them. So we do have a pretty robust process for putting up no parking signs, and that's an essential process because those do turn in those are effectively tow zones for the duration of those no parking signs, and the police will not tow unless those steps are all taken into account.

When it comes to police officers' details present, this is something that honestly is a police department function. And and they have a huge amount of responsibility for traffic safety throughout the city, and they're every day prioritizing and triaging and making sure that their officers are in the most important places throughout the city. And I know oftentimes, they can they're able to attend what to them is a smaller traffic issue. But many of the times, they're responsible for, frankly, more important and more impactful traffic issues throughout the city that they have to attend to. But I but we really have to leave it to the the the police professionals to prioritize the best location for them to be.

Doctor. Through your chair, you can see that even the residents, they are all technocrats. They talk through. They're providing all this stuff. This is why, for me, I'm all about solution oriented. We've already well articulated a problem. Wanna understand, you know, why we cannot adopt this recommended, you know, like, solution. I guess we are all here listening. And if they have follow-up at the discretion of the chair, they can ask. But and then and then last I'm sorry. Yes.

But just on that point, because that's an important one about the police officer on-site. Do we know for this does this live just like in the police department, the the park the traffic department? Does that get shared at all with other departments? Do you know if there is police officer on days when a lot of deliveries and or on streets that have multiple multiple projects other near each other? Do you have access to that information, or is that something we need the police department to speak to?

Sure. The the way that we manage that is the police department is notified. We have a notification process to the police department that effectively for construction in the public way, on major streets like Prospect, the the contractor is required to notify the police department and request a detail. Now the police department chooses whether or not to send a detail because they have the priorities that they have to do. But the but the contractor is required to request the detail from the police department, and the police department determines where are the the highest priority locations on any particular day.

And Mhmm. And they're required to notify a day, sometimes two depending on how big the construction is ahead of time because they will, at times, bring in additional police officers for larger construction. But I'm talking about larger construction like major street or utility construction that has substantial traffic and safety hazard issues beyond, like, beyond this level Okay. Which is actually a very good point in case as Eversource Electric had been out there a few I think last summer along the Prospect Corridor. And, regularly, details were out there particularly to manage that, and it was a particular help because of all the construction along there.

They prioritized that over many other work that they had because

K. Thank you, director, for clarifying, like, how the process goes. So do we know if this location is being prioritized by the police department? Do we have that information, or is that a question for the police department?

Chair, that would be a question for the police department.

Okay. So we know what kind of order to put in. Okay. Consumba, there's, I think, two more.

Yes. I've Could

walk us through that?

And Thank you. Sure, chair. The third last but one is staggered construction approvals. Construction approvals should be staggered so that basic city services like street sweeping, bus service, snow removal, and the regular flow of traffic are not completely obstructed on the same corridors simultaneously. Doctor, is that something you can tell that this is all this is this is not saying we don't want construction. So can you speak to that?

Yeah. So, counselor, again, the chair. The the my my rather long responses earlier in the conversation predominantly covered the staggered construction approvals. We can't stagger construction on private property. We do stagger construction in the public way on a first come, first served basis.

So it is, especially on a Prospect Street, you're not gonna see two utility constructions going on at the same time unless there's really, really good reason and good coordination. I make that caveat because I know at this very moment, I have both Eversource Gas and Eversource Electric working together on Bow Street to get a really critical piece of utility work done so that we can move forward with some street construction there. But, generally, we keep every utility construction on any particular block staggered for that very, very reason.

Okay.

Whether it's multiple developers or a utility company, etcetera. So that is that is something that we already do, and that goes the same with Crane approvals. But we can't stagger. We can't say, okay. You at, oh, at one zero nine prospect, you have you get to go first. And once you've gotten your CEO, then one eighteen can go. And once they got their CEO, c o CO being certificate of occupancy, then the next contractor go. We we wouldn't have the tools to do that.

No. That that makes sense. But, again, they have to be a process, and the mechanics of it need to be worked out. And if it's you know, if somebody violates that process, then there are consequences, which builds into, like, the next, you know, last piece about at what point do you issue stop work order.

Alright. I'll carry this one too, because this is an ISD function. The none of the directors that you have here, have the authority, have the legal authority to shut down a construction project. It is it is actually challenging for us to to shut down projects in the roadway without police support because the police have the legal authority to do that. And on private property, ISD has the legal authority to do that.

So I and and both of them generally work on an imminent life health and safety issue, not a not an inconvenience. Traffic backing up is not considered an imminent life health safety issue. In some respects, slower traffic means less likely of an imminent safety issue, but it is inconvenient. And so it is really hard to do stop work orders at the at the level that you're suggesting here.

And and thank you for that response, doctor. And through your chair, I guess, you know, I did not hear the reading at the that that line. I don't hear the residents talking about inconvenience. I I see them saying disregard for safety regulations. I think that's pretty big.

That's like that's and and and then existing residents' concern, I get it. You know? It there's a lot in there. But if the residents have standing and they point to one thing, safety regulation, that is grounds to issue a stop work order. That's it in my books.

I guess ISD isn't here. But like you said, I thought about ISD before I asked that question because we've considered said, and now we were involved in, you know, some other issue around another neighborhood where ISD was present, where in the mayor's office trying to resolve, like, figure out how to stop projects, you know, because of safety issues. And it we we write this policy. We write this regulation so we can put a clause that, you know, they say, it will need to go beyond fines. First, second, third, and then it's a stop work order.

As when it comes to safety regulation, there's no you cannot debate that. Yeah.

So so, counselor, through the chair, and this is your meeting, so feel free to redirect as appropriate. The we we do have the authority based off of violating violation of permit requirements. We have the authority to stop issuing permits. But, again, it is the police departments and ISD as the, official authorities that have the enforcement capability to stop contractors, to force contractors to physically stop working in the roadway. And so if that's the direction that you're really thinking of going, that's that's gonna be a conversation for for ISD, SPD, and arguably the law department.

Thank you. Thank you, Chia.

Actually, I am interested, you know, if my colleague's also on board to just keep some of these items in committee and invite ISD director and, yeah, someone from the police department to speak to what they're doing currently in this area. And yeah. So I understand, you know, direct opposed to wait. This is not, you know, something that's not what you do. You shouldn't stop recording is not what you do.

However, I do want you to explain to everyone here the process scenario. One of these construction project has a traffic management plan, and the contractor did not follow the regulations to the traffic management plan. What how do you so imagine your department would need to communicate that to IST. So can you tell us what because you mentioned earlier some projects have traffic management plans. So when they don't respect the regulations, what happens?

Yeah. I I think I'm answering this question the way you're asking it. So please please redirect if you need it. So there have absolutely been times when a contractor has created a clear and imminent safety and health problem. And in those cases, if we notice it first, we notify either the police or ISD as appropriate.

Sometimes they come and ask us for our opinion about a particular situation. And so I and I don't remember exactly which project here. I think it might be one eighteen where where we did have ISD shut down the project because they undermined the public way due to the construction on their site. They created a clear structural problem in the roadway that could have led to a collapse. And we shut them down, and we had them repair that before they proceeded work.

We've had other cases where a contractor was doing utility work in the roadway in a way that was substantially and recklessly both undermining the roadway, but also limiting the ability of emergency vehicles to pass through even if we could clear out all the traffic, physically enable for the emergency vehicles to pass through. And and we've had to shut down projects. But those are extraordinarily extreme events that have happened. To date, aside from the one that I noticed, I believe at one eighteen, I haven't neither myself nor any of my staff have witnessed anything that rises to that level. But, yes, we do reach out and have the ability to reach out to ISD and police when that is at a critical nature.

And both of them, through three one one and direct lines, do listen to constituents and have responded cons to constituents with things that are of imminent life safety issues.

Okay. I think here is when you say imminent imminent safety issues are it it's not a contractor parking in front of a fire hydrant. It's not yeah. I think that even though that's extremely unsafe, that's illegal. But that is not the reason for issuing a stop work order.

Again, ISD not being here, but in your experience. But, again, we'll keep this in committees so we have ISD because anything that's enforcement, we need ISD to speak to it. And my just other question is, do any of the projects in this area right now have traffic management plans as part of the application? Most of their permits?

I believe they all do.

They all do? Okay.

For for various components of their work. Yeah.

Okay. Are those all public? Can those be

Yeah. Just send us a public records request.

Okay. Public records request, and you can see what the regulations are, what they should be following. Okay. I think this is all very helpful as counselors and also as neighbors and to the construction project. And, again, none of these residents are against construction. We're just here trying to find solutions. And, councilor Wheeler, thank you for waiting very patiently.

Thank you, chair. Before I start, I know that we're in sort of an unusual time crunch. And clerk, I just wanna double check. You have to do you have to stop, and do we have to stop the meeting at 07:30?

Yes. So we did mention this. But

trying to find if someone else can hop on. Yes. Unfortunately, to those listening, I am pinch hitting and have a grad class at 07:40, but let me see if I can get someone to hop on before this conversation ends.

Thank you so much.

Okay. Go ahead, Casteloia, that we can talk about.

Yeah. I'm I'm trying to decide. I I've I've been writing out different questions. It's probably too many to ask. And, yeah, I I think some of these conversations will have the chance to, continue, you know, with with city staff to learn more, after, this committee meeting.

But, first, you know, I wanted to appreciate, you know, I'm hearing we are hearing about, lots of different work and thought that has gone into to addressing, you know, the the way construction happens in the city, to to mitigate it in different ways, to plan for it. I I appreciate what you said, director Postle Wade, about, making a database and coordinating timing around work work that blocks public ways and public routes and about, you know, the ability in those extreme situations to, to intervene. I think in, you know, a couple of these pieces of conversation, I think sometimes we've gone a little bit far afield, in talking about something that is a a real issue or really matters, but isn't the situation that I think this group of residents is specifically talking about here. So, you know, for example, you were talking about times that developer or a contractor might be doing work in the middle of a roadway that's, you know, fully blocking that roadway and, you know, even might pose pose a danger to the structure of the roadway. Hugely important thing.

I'm really glad that the engineering department is on that because, you know, there'd be a disaster if there weren't. I don't think that's what the the situation that this group of residents is is trying to sort of call out, though. And, you you know, again, another distinction that I just wanted to make sure we were sort of having on the table is, yes, you know, there there's possibilities that we can talk about of when we might, issue a stop work order or pull you know, cancel the building permit or something like that in an extreme. I think what I'm curious about learning more about, is more about how the parking permits themselves work and what what are sort of, what our choices are and could be around, the types of parking permit that we issue, the windows of time for those parking permits, and the sort of follow-up if there are repeated violations. So, you know, that's an open ended set of questions.

I I am curious, and and maybe there's a question more for director Winfred. I'd be happy to hear from anybody. And, again, I appreciate that it sounds like there was a a shift made from, you know, issuing a a permit that could be used by any vehicle to issuing one that's plate specific. And I'm curious about, you know, what are these different parking permit types? What are the sort of physical scopes and the time scopes of them? And is it possible for us to be looking at the the patterns of violations of parking violations by a given contractor or or developer in deciding whether to issue those and for how long?

Thank you. Through the chair. So we have, one contractor's permit, which can be address specific with various plates or plate specific various addresses. So you have contractors contractors in in the the city that may have more than one project going on in the city at the same time. So they'll get a plate specific permit so that they can visit each one of their sites.

We stopped issuing any various, which would be address specific, various plates permits to Prospect Street last year and said anybody that is coming in, they have to be plate specific. We're no longer just gonna let anybody use this permit because that if it's plate specific, typically, that person's probably not there every day if they are a contractor that's going from site to site to site. So it does kind of alleviate a little bit of the pressure down there. As far as the permits go, they are issued on a monthly basis, but somebody could get the permit for three months, six months, nine months. Currently, they're $35 a month.

July 1, they will be going up to $50 a month because all the permits in the city will be going most of the permits in the city will be going up July 1. Did I answer that, or do you have another question?

Thanks. That's hugely helpful. There's so much, you know, about that that I don't know, so I appreciate that. If if there is a contractor or developer that that has been, you know, that's been issued permits, but their vehicles have been, you know, ticketed for being on sidewalks or ticketed for blocking a driveway or even towed for blocking a driveway, is that something that's currently tracked so that that can be used in deciding whether to issue permits in the future?

So through the chair, no one can get a permit if they have outstanding tickets. As far as being tracked by the contractor, they don't wouldn't necessarily know the contractor who owns the vehicle. So it could be, you know, it could be Tom Smith working for some big contractor. It's his private vehicle. So we wouldn't know what contractor he's working for. But no one gets a permit unless all their tickets are paid in full. So if you have an outstanding ticket, whether you're a resident or you're a contractor or you're a home health care aide, anyone getting a permit in the city of Summerville must have all of their plate must be in good standing.

Thank you, director. So just to make sure I'm understanding, let's say there were a a vehicle and and the that contractor was issued a parking permit for work, and maybe that was, you know, one of these two different types, the one address various plates or the one plate various addresses. And maybe, you know, is is that basically, you know, a fancy piece of paper that's displayed in their windshield?

Through the chair. It's a green hangtag permit. Yes.

Thank you. And if a parking control officer were to issue a ticket, is there any noting down, like, this this vehicle has a green hangtag permit with this permit number?

Well, they'd only be ticketing it then for a restricted or a hydrant or some other illegal parking. They we would know that. If they came in to appeal a ticket, we could look up and see, oh, yeah. You had a hang tag, but you just disregarded the the rules. Otherwise, they wouldn't be getting. So some of these people, counselor, will get a lot of tickets before they come in and get a permit. We often see that. A lot of permit parking tickets, a lot of street cleaning tickets. Then they come in and then they get their permit. We collect the money for all those tickets and then they have a permit to park. But we tell them they have to provide you know, they have to abide by all the rules, obviously. Some of them do just like any other constituent.

I I guess thank you, director. I guess the scenario that I'm kind of imagining is if there were someone who had been ticketed many times for, parking on the sidewalk, blocking a hydrant, blocking an intersection, you know, blocking a a crosswalk or a driveway, If that contractor or that vehicle, were coming in to apply for a parking permit, I might hope that there's some point where the city either says no or says this parking permit's gonna cost you more than it would cost somebody else, or we're not gonna give you a six month parking permit. We're gonna give you a one month. We're gonna see if you have any tickets. Is that a kind of thing that the parking department looks into?

You know, I I I'm not obviously, I'm just spitballing a possible policy. I know this is not a a full fledged policy proposal, but are are policy proposals along those lines something that, at least right now, the parking permit the the parking department sees as being sort of in your purview to explore?

Through the chair. So what you're asking is that the clerk at the front basically look up the history on each plate before they're given a permit. Yep. I don't I'm sure it's something we probably could do that is administratively a lot more steps with our clerks that are working the front windows.

Mhmm.

I'm not gonna say no to you, counselor. Perhaps I would have to look into that.

Okay. Thanks. In in terms of sort of the the legal constraints around the city, you know, charging more for parking permits based on, you know, the history of a of a contractor or, you know, issue issuing a parking fine that might be escalated because there have been other recent parking fines. Do you know if there's any anything that prevents us doing that besides our own city policies?

Through the chair, I do not know. We do not have an escalation fee currently for we we don't have that for parking. I know they have that in ISD for trash. The first time you get a ticket, it's one and second time it could be another. It does escalate. But for parking tickets, doesn't. We might have a lot of upset people if we start escalating fees. But, we can look into anything. I I don't know what I think our system might be able to do it. I would have to check with our vendor to see if that is even something that it's able to do.

And we'd have to have a set of rules for it, like, what does the second escalation is it after a month? Is it after a year? Does it stop? Or, you know, there's there's a lot of rules and administrative procedures that would have to go into place for that.

Thanks. I appreciate your, helping me just get some orientation towards those possibilities. Thank you.

And, just on that, counselor Wheeler, are you specifically asking the director to look into this for for the escalation fees for contractors or just in general, for for for everybody?

I am not intending to be talking about just residents, doing repeated, violations. I'm I'm just thinking about the the contractors and

Yeah.

You know, contracting related permits.

Yeah. So

through the chair, that could be also an issue because they're based on plate. So we would have to assume that the person that's issuing the permit would know if they're a contractor or they got that ticket with that plate while they were being a contractor in the past. And there's a lot to go into it with this there's a lot of what ifs, and I'm sure that we can discuss them. But there is a lot of what ifs with that.

Thank you. I appreciate that. And, I I wanna be mindful of time. And

Yeah.

You know, just note that. I I I know we'll be able to have continued conversations about this, so thank you.

Yeah. So it is 07:25, right now, and our clerk needs to leave in five minutes, maybe fifteen minutes. I just wanna be clear for tonight, that our clerk is on vacation, and there was an issue with coverage there. So I really wanted us to discuss the three items, and the rest of the items will stay in committee so we can discuss them next month. And the items to let me just see what's the agenda.

This is the letter. So item they're not numbered here. But the items that we just discussed, twenty six zero one two three, twenty six zero six three four, twenty six zero six seven three. So the public communication and the two orders, I would like to to keep them in committee so that we can have ISD and the police department next time, speak to speak to the enforcement piece. So, clerk, if you could keep those in committee.

And then for the rest of the items, let's me just check with the clerk. Clerk, how many how much time do we have here before you have to leave?

Five. I can give five more minutes.

Okay. So I would like to to could actually, the could you read the last item resolution ID 260279?

Yes. 260279. A resolution by councilor length of the director of public works and the director of mobility update this council regarding plans to keep bike lanes, protected bike lanes, and other separated micromobility facilities clear and passable on major throughways with particular attention to school routes, timelines after snowfall, staffing, and equipment capacity.

Thank you, clerk. So for this item, colleagues, we had a lot of snow items. It's counselor, think it was calling them, that were discussed in a different committee, sustainability and infrastructure. This one was sent to traffic and parking, but it this was or this is covered was covered last month in a different committee. I would like to mark this item as completed.

And then we have three items, twenty six zero six zero three. This one, I would like to keep it in committee so we can discuss it next month. This is a big item. And then, director, would you be able in two minutes or three minutes discuss the any of the resolutions there? Twenty six zero one two one or twenty six zero three six three, or would you rather prefer just to discuss them next month?

Jared, thanks for the question. My recommendation to you and the committee would be to deal with those, with a little bit of time for actual discussion and q and a. I wouldn't wanna race through important items that counselors have submitted, given the time. So thanks for the opportunity for the question.

Okay. Alright. Great. So we'll keep all the rest of the items in committee. And, yeah. So it is, seven twenty nine. Again, thank you, neighbors, for, bringing all these issues to our attention. And, again, we'll keep those items in committee so that we can have ISD inspection services and the police department next time speak to the enforcement piece. And, yeah, I just, like, also would I'd say for the fines, council Wheeler asked the questions they wanted to ask director. All good there.

Yeah. And if there are no further questions, clerk, could you please call the role for adjournment and approval of the minutes at the same time. Yes. So for for approval of the minutes of the traffic and parking committee meeting of 03/16/2026

and on adjournment, councilor Mbaugh?

Yes.

Councilor Wheeler? Yes. Councilor Sate? Yes. We are adjourned.

Right. Thank you, everyone.

Thanks all.