The big items on tonight’s City Council agenda are the solar agreements, the Chief Economic Development Officer and the Broadway land takings. Below them sit nine new orders from two councillors, each a sentence or two long, that say a good deal about what residents are calling about.
Five from Leo Robinson
Councillor-at-Large Leo Robinson filed five. The first asks City Manager Fidel Maltez to “reach out to and meet with the owners of Market Basket to discuss their ongoing development plans and report back.” The Market Basket plaza is one of the two anchoring properties inside the West Chelsea overlay district the council created in June, and the city’s own zoning presentation named Market Basket and North Colony as the landowners whose plans matter most there. The council has not been told what those plans are.
The second asks for a status report on the commuter rail quiet zone. The council put $1,000,665 in free cash toward the quiet zone in May 2022, more than four years ago. Trains still sound their horns at Chelsea’s crossings.
The third calls a Public Safety subcommittee meeting with the police “to discuss how the City can address scooter safety.” Police Chief Keith Houghton told the same subcommittee in April that electric scooters are a problem in Revere and Boston as well, and that chasing a fleeing scooter rider is dangerous for officers. The fourth asks Maltez to collect from nonprofits a list of residents looking for housing and to work out what the city can do about “credit eligibility, rent costs and homeownership.” The fifth calls a Housing subcommittee meeting with the Department of Housing and Community Development on Broadway, “including, but not limited to: safety, parking, and housing,” to “begin work on a plan to revitalize Broadway.”
Four from Giovanni Recupero
District 6 Councillor Giovanni Recupero filed four. One asks the administration to look into a fund that would pay for repairs to senior citizens’ homes. One asks the Traffic and Parking Commission for stop signs on Congress Avenue in both directions at Maverick Street and at Essex Street. One directs Public Works to fix “the large hole at the corner of Central Avenue and Highland Street.”
The fourth would change how the council does its own business. It strikes Rule 31 from the council’s rules. Rule 31 requires every appointment and reappointment the City Manager sends to a board or commission to get two readings at two different meetings, unless the council unanimously agrees to waive that, and asks appointees to appear before the council in person. Tonight’s packet shows the rule in action: three reappointments, to the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund board and the Community Preservation Committee, were confirmed on second reading in June, 10 to 0. The order does not say why the rule should go. Rule changes go to the Rules subcommittee before a vote.
And the rest
The Traffic and Parking Commission reports that on September 2 it approved the Downtown Broadway construction plans and three handicap parking signs, on Addison Street, Maple Street and Crescent Avenue. The council will open with resolutions for the 131st anniversary of Zion Baptist Church and Bishop Robert G. Brown’s 47th year as its pastor, National Hispanic Heritage Month, Lewis H. Latimer Day, and the Chelsea 5K Road Race. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 500 Broadway.