By Journal Staff
The Revere Traffic Commission (RTC) held a regular monthly meeting on Thursday, November 20, in the City Councillor Joseph A. Del Grosso City Council Chambers. DPW Director Christopher Ciaramella presided over the session that was attended by fellow members City Engineer Nick Rystrom, Police Chief Maria LaVita, City Planner Frank Stringi (for whom this was his last RTC meeting after serving for 41 years on the RTC), and Fire Chief James Cullen.
The commission conducted three public hearings pertaining to handicapped parking spaces. The members voted to remove a handicapped spot at 5 Dedham St. (because the resident who needed the space had moved from that location) and to add a handicapped space at 37 Tapley Ave.
However, they denied a request to add a handicapped spot at 29 McCoba St. on the basis that residents of the condo complex there already have off-street parking spaces available to them.
The commission then took up requests to establish 24/7 resident-only parking
regulations for Pearl Ave., Crescent Ave., and Summer St. The measure had been put forward by the Dept. of Planning and Community Development.
City Parking Director Zach Babo told the members that flooding is typical on these streets and they are among the few streets in Beachmont that do not have 24/7 parking regulations. He noted that in May of 2024, the Parking Dept, issued 124 tickets (in the nighttime hours, when parking is limited to residents only) an indication that non-residents are using those streets to park.
The members voted to table the motion, upon Ciaramella’s suggestion, until the RTC can conduct some outreach to the residents of those streets (none of whom were present for the meeting) to gauge whether they support the measure.
The commission next took up changes pertaining to the snow removal parking regulations by adding Bradstreet Ave. southerly (odd side), Atlantic Ave., Endicott Ave., Winthrop Ave. southerly (odd side), Broadway, and Beach St. (all of which already are posted for snow removal restrictions, but which are not formally entered in the city’s parking regulations), but removing Nahant Ave. easterly from the snow removal regulations.
Ward 2 City Councilor Ira Novoselsky, the dean of the City Council, spoke regarding Nahant Ave., suggesting that Nahant Ave. should not be removed from the regulations because with parking on both sides, snow plowing will leave only one lane available for travel. “We should leave this on the books and begin to enforce it,” said Novoselsky.
The members voted to send all of the items that constitute additions to the snow removal regulations to a public hearing for next month’s meeting. However, they agreed with Novoselsky’s recommendation and rejected the change to Nahant Ave.
A request to limit parking on Cary Ave. to one side of the street was tabled by the commission. The change had been submitted by Ward 3 Councillor Nicholas Cogliandro at the request of a constituent who said that parking on both sides of the street makes it difficult to exit their driveway. Ciaramella suggested that the commission obtain community input before taking action, and his fellow commissioners agreed.
A request to officially remove Cary Ave. as a one-way street was moved to a public hearing, though with the restriction of keeping it as a one-way street during the school arrival and dismissal hours (for Revere High and Rumney Marsh Academy) in the morning and afternoon.
Julie DeMauro from the Dept. of Planning and Community Development’s Traffic Working Group (TWG) presented the TWG’s findings on speed data for the following streets: Rice Avenue, Mills Avenue, East Mountain Avenue, Lantern Road, and Atwood Street.
DeMauro said that only two of the streets qualify for traffic-calming measures, those being Rice Ave. and Lantern Rd., both of which see a heavy volume of traffic and a large number of cars that are going too fast. DeMauro said that the TWG is recommending that one or two removable speed humps be installed on both Rice Ave. and Lantern Rd.
She noted that Mills Ave. and East Mountain Aves. did not have either excessive volume or speeding issues. DeMauro added that the TWG as yet does not have data for Atwood St.
The members voted to send the speed hump recommendations for Rice Ave. and Lantern Rd. to a public hearing.
The final matter of the evening was a presentation by Steve Conte of Commonwealth Electrical Technologies regarding on-street EV charging installation projects on McCoba Street, Hutchinson Street, and Proctor Avenue.
Conte noted that the city received a grant for the installation of the EV charging stations in January. He said these will be level 2-charging stations (as opposed to fast-charging stations) designed for residents of the area. The city will own the charging stations.
There will be six charging stations each on McCoba and Hutchinson Sts. Conte said that the parking spaces must (per the terms of the grant) be dedicated to electric vehicles for at least 12 hours each day. The EV owners will pay for their use of the charging stations.
Conte said his company surveyed city residents to determine the appropriate sites for the charging stations. He also said that the stations will be protected by bollards and they will be installed on sidewalks wide enough to allow for handicapped access.
The commission voted to table the matter to a later date in order to obtain additional information.
