Chelsea’s Traffic and Parking Commission turned down four more requests for handicap parking signs on Tuesday night, plus an appeal from a resident it had turned away in September. In each case, the reason was the same rule it began enforcing this summer: no more than two handicap signs in a given area of the city. Applicants told the commission that neighbors treat the existing signs as private spaces. They described being told to move, finding spaces blocked, and in one case returning to a scratched car.
“Our regulations are clear about the number of spots available on any given street with any given area of the city,” a commission member said before one denial. Before another, a member told an applicant: “None of us were here when it was created. It is a part of our code as a commission. We have to follow it. And I know that that’s frustrating.”
When the commission turned down three signs on September 2, its members gave two versions of the limit that did not match. On Tuesday they gave two more. One member called it a “2,000 square foot grid.” The chair responded that the text “doesn’t say square foot. It just says 2,000-foot grid.” Asked whether the grid is measured from the applicant’s house, the chair answered: “Doesn’t specify.” Earlier the chair had said: “It’s vague. That’s the thing with the ordinance. It’s not very specific.”
Five turned down
The commission denied applications from residents of Fourth Street, Essex Street, a second address on Fourth Street, and Clark Avenue. In each case its list showed two signs already standing nearby. The Essex Street application had been tabled in September while members checked whether the list matched what was on the street.
The Clark Avenue applicant said a sign had stood outside the house in a late parent’s name. After the parent died in July, the applicant asked to put the sign in their own name. The city instead took it down, saying two other signs were within the area. The applicant said two people with disabilities live in the house, up more than 20 stairs, on a street where parking is rarely open. “This regulation is not fair for nobody,” the applicant said.
The appeal came from the Reynolds Avenue resident turned down on September 2, who is recovering from a broken ankle. “I’m not asking you guys to give me a parking handicap for the rest of my life,” the resident said. “I’m just asking for temporary parking.” The commission has no temporary signs. One of the two signs counted against the request is around the corner on Bassett Street, and city staff said Tuesday that its holder’s placard expired in September. If that holder does not renew, the sign can be removed and the resident can apply again. “I’m the one who’s limping, and I’m going to wait another three months for this?” the resident asked.
One member argued for approval. Drawn one way, the member said, a 2,000-foot box around the home holds only one sign: “To me, I feel like we could approve this because of the density in this area.” Others said a box drawn around Reynolds, Bassett and County Road takes in both signs, and the appeal was denied.
The same night, the commission voted to remove a handicap sign on Chester Avenue at the request of City Clerk Jeanette Cintron White, because the holder had not updated an expired placard. City staff said placard holders are notified a month before expiration and usually get about a month to send in new paperwork.
“Nobody should be harassing you”
Two parents applying for signs near their homes said they could not reliably use the existing ones. One said a young son runs into the street, so a long walk from the car is dangerous. Both said people living next to the existing signs had knocked on their doors and told them to move. One said a neighbor blocked a space with a car that had no license plates. The other said a neighbor sent someone to sit in the space on a chair. One said they filed a police report after finding their car scratched while it was parked in one of the spaces.
Commission members said, as they did in September, that any handicap space can be used by anyone with a placard. “It’s reserved for anybody with a handicap spot,” the chair said. Staff said they had sent letters to placard holders in the area saying so. Members told the applicants not to argue with neighbors and to call the police instead. “Any time you have an issue, continue to call the police, please,” a parking office staff member said. “Because nobody should be harassing you.”
One commission member objected that the rule ends up favoring the neighbors who cause the trouble. “Bad behavior is getting rewarded is basically what’s happening,” the member said. A police officer who has worked the area said such disputes are often over before officers arrive.
A police sergeant attending a first meeting as the department’s representative offered more. “As long as I get a list of these things, I can make sure that we can take some enforcement action,” the sergeant said. With a list of problem addresses, the sergeant said, officers could be directed to run “what we call impact patrols in these areas.” The commission said it would provide the list. Another member asked staff for a map showing where the city is already at the limit, so residents could learn before they apply.
The commission told one of the denied applicants that they could take the case to the Chelsea Commission on Disabilities through the city manager’s office. Councillor Lisa Santagate walked the applicant down the hall to that office before the meeting ended.
The full meeting is in our transcript. The commission’s other business, including a new bus stop design under the Tobin Bridge, is in our separate story.