City Council Agenda Highlights (12/5/16) (One Response)
By
, on December 3rd, 2016
In:
Council Agendas.
Tagged: Foundry, Harvard Sq, Hubway, local retail, Outdoor Lighting, parking.
The agenda for the Cambridge City Council meeting on Monday, December 5 is posted online. Coming on the heels of Thanksgiving and this week’s roundtable on our Sanctuary City policies, this may be the leanest agenda we have seen this year. Those of us on the Human Services Committee will still spend a good chuck of Monday in the Sullivan Chamber, as the committee will meet to discuss various initiatives and concerns related to homelessness. The committee’s public hearing will run from from 2:00-4:00pm, and the Council meeting follows at 5:30pm, as usual.
City Manager’s Agenda
#5 New name for the GLBT Commission: Now to be called the LGBTQ+ Commission, the commission was created in 2007 by an ordinance, so updating its name requires Council approval. There is a vacancy on the commission; apply by 12/16.
#6 Valente Library Grant: The branch library on Cambridge St is being reconstructed as part of the $160M King Open/Cambridge St Upper School and community complex project. The city manger intends to apply for a state grant to offset about 45% of the $5M cost of constructing the library portion of the project. To note, the construction of the school and pool complex is being financed with $146.6M in bonds spread over FYs17-20.
#7 Small business and retail study in 2017: The Economic Development Department, which is part of CDD, is seeking a consultant to develop a Retail Strategic Plan next year. The study will address concerns about how to maintain a vibrant retail ecosystem in the face of rising rents and competition from online merchants. Based on what’s happening in Harvard Square, I worry that the study could be more of a post-mortem.
#8 Pay-by-phone parking in Harvard Sq: Just in time for the holidays, shoppers in Harvard Square will be able to pay for metered parking with the Passport phone app, which is the same system used in Boston. You can still use quarters, and in fact you will save money that way, since you will incur a 35-cent transaction fee to pay with the mobile app. It will also cost the City more if you pay by phone, since we get charged credit card fees based on usage; the fees could cost us as much as $21K/year in Harvard Square alone. If the pilot goes smoothly pay-by-app may be expanded to meters in the rest of the city by mid-to-late 2017. The convenience may be worth the extra cost to some users, but the potential amount of public funds going toward credit card processing fees does give pause.
#9 Bike parking in winter: This response comes to an order that was adopted just 2 weeks ago, asking whether we can leave some of the on-street bike parking “corrals” up through the winter. The staff have decided to leave 5 of the most heavily used corrals up and to test whether there is demand and to see how the corrals stand up to snow plowing, which could damage a bike left in the corral during a storm. Three of the winter corrals will be in Kendall Square (in front of the Cambridge Innovation Center and Firebrand Saints), and one each will remain in Harvard Square (in front of American Apparel) and at CRLS.
Calendar
#6 On the Table: The Foundry: An order I co-sponsored to re-open the discussion about the governance, financing and use of the Foundry building has been in limbo since the end of October. It came in response to an outcry that too little of the space would be publicly available for community use. This week the East Cambridge Planning Team voted unanimously to ask the Council to appropriate more funds to enable the building to be redeveloped and programmed with more community-oriented and subsidized public and non-commercial uses. This likely will come up for discussion during Monday’s meeting.
Policy Orders
#1 Logos on Hubway Bikes: You may have noticed that some Hubway bikes are branded with the New Balance logo and some display the City of Cambridge’s official seal. The branded bikes belong to Boston, which chose to defray part of its costs to subsidize the program this way. Since we can’t prevent the branded bikes from winding up on our streets or in our docking stations, this order suggests that we may as well sell the right to brand our bikes, too. The Hubway stations have posters that could display commercial ads, but I would prefer that the city continue to dedicate that space to promoting our own programs.
#2 My committee hearing about Harvard Sq on 12/13: This order asks that the Economic Development and University Relations Committee hearing, which I am chairing on Tuesday, December 13 from 5:00-7:00pm, be televised and live streamed. My goal is to bring together the major property owners and their agents and city staff to discuss the situation in Harvard Square, where small businesses are being priced out even as ket properties are left unleased. The Historical Commission’s third hearing on Equity One’s redevelopment of the Curious George, Urban Outfitters and Tess buildings drew a large crowd, and the decision by the Commission not to oppose the demolition of the Urban Outfitters building even though a replacement building has not yet been approved raised questions about how whether a Conservation District can protect the Square from market forces that are eroding its character. I feel the high level of public concern over the state of the Square and the busy time of year warrant making a video record of the meeting so that more people, including the Harvard Square merchants, can time-shift their viewing.
#3 Diversity Values Discussion: The mayor intends to convene a facilitated “community conversation” in early 2017 to talk about race, class, gender and culture and how we can better bridge our differences. I think we are going to need frequent community conversations to drown out the demagoguery coming from Washington. There is a newly posted vacancy on the Human Services Commission (apply by 1/11).
Committee Reports:
#1 Resident Parking Policies: If you are standing in line to renew your parking permit this month, you may be surprised to learn that despite the uptick in population the number of resident permits issued has decreased by 880 since 2013 (to 34,802 in 2016), with a corresponding drop in revenue to the Parking Fund ($862,464 in 2016). The $25 fee was set in 2013 with no provision for an increase, and in order to raise it the Council would have to vote to amend the ordinance. There was debate about the legality under state law of increasing a fee without a demonstrated increase in the cost of administering the program, or whether we could legally charge more for a second or third car. Most of our neighboring cities have more restrictive resident parking policies. Somerville charges $40/year and an additional fee for a guest permit. We asked the staff to look into our options, though Councillor Toomey, who chairs the committee, opposes any change. When you renew your permit residents have the option of making a voluntary contribution to support the City’s sustainable transportation programs; last year we collected only $5,204 in donations.
#2 & #3 Outdoor Lighting Zoning and Ordinance: We held back-to-back hearings on proposed changes to the rules for lighting on the outside of buildings. (This law would not apply to light emanating from inside of buildings, a concern in mixed use areas where modern glass-clad office buildings and labs have lights on at all hours). Many people expressed concern about light pollution and fear that the ordinance might allow garish facade and rooftop lighting that would shine into residential windows and overwhelm the nighttime sky. The matter remains in committee — and the existing rules may allow some of the too-bright lighting that people most fear.
Awaiting Report
There are 34 orders on the city manager’s awaiting report list. Councillor Cheung’s suggestion to wipe the slate clean when the new manager took office was voted down.
Public Comment and Viewing Meetings:
Public comment begins at 5:30 pm. Each person is allowed to speak for up to 3 minutes on any agenda item except for communications from other members of the public. You may call 617-349-4280 on Monday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm to sign up to speak, or sign in when you arrive (before 6:00 pm). To submit written comments, please email council@cambridgema.gov and cc City Clerk Donna Lopez at dlopez@cambridgema.gov. Your comments will appear on the public record (under “Communications”) at the next regular Council meeting.
City Council meetings are televised on Channel 22-CityView and live streamed on the City Council’s website. Recorded versions of all Council meetings may be found on the city’s Open Meeting Portal.
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