To self-serve and protect -- our own interests...

[inkarn8.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know why the City would ticket Somerville's own residents for expired inspection stickers? -- Two tickets 3 days apart? If I owned a driveway, they would not have done this... Can't they stick to the spirit of protecting our residential parking spots from outsiders? How about a warning instead, or a friendly reminder? And then a few days to get a sticker...

And why do they ticket cars after the street cleaner has already passed? I don't get any of those tickets for that reason, but it seems silly to not be able to park after the cleaner has clearly already passed... Is anyone else interested in getting some of these unfriendly policies changed? Also, why do we pay an extra Internet fee to pay tickets and update parking passes for a service which clearly must save the city time and money from waiting on us in person? How does the city award the contract to an Internet company which is making so much money for so little service?

Does anyone have a list of local politicians that support these policies and another list of who would rather see changes made?

Thanks so much!

Comments

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

Unless things have changed significantly from a couple years back, any approval for a curb cut requires that there be more off-street parking created than the curb cut removes from on-street parking (so, no one-car driveways). There may be other restrictions, but I don't know about those.

[inkarn8.livejournal.com]

Did you get a curb cut? I am not surprised...Can anyone else here verify that? So you have to be able to park more than one car to do it? Maybe we can get that changed for people who want to be able to charge their electric cars? Anyone here have any experience with getting policies changed locally? Maybe something more like this:

"California Bill Allows Renters To Install Electric-Car Charging Stations"
"Governor Brown’s goal of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles by 2025 just got a boost. Assembly Bill (AB) 2565 will allow renters to install electric-car charging stations." http://cleantechnica.com/2014/08/31/california-bill-renters-install-electric-car-charging-stations/

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I assume it'll involve some kind of approvals as well in the case of non-conforming properties (which - as near as I can tell - is 90% of somerville residential properties).

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

When I spoke to a developer about this, he said for any property that doesn't already have a driveway, getting permission for a curb cut is pretty trivial, and one-car driveways should be fine. I've never verified that or tried to do it myself, however.

[inkarn8.livejournal.com]

Thanks... I like that answer. Makes sense to allow it equally for these houses that don't currently have driveway, but probably did in the past...

[avjudge]

I'd heard the other way, that one-car driveways are frowned upon, because you're basically turning a public (street) parking spot into a private (driveway) parking spot that can't be shared with other users when your car isn't there. But I have no actual data, and don't even remember who told me this.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I know when I was looking at zoning my building into a 3 instead of a 2 family, the way they count needed parking spots meant you would never get enough parking to meet the off-street requirement. A one lane driveway was considered a single parking spot, no matter how many cars it could hold.

Not directly related to this issue, but I could see how they could make it tough if they wanted to.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

I brought my request to the Somerville "highway" department and they sat on it and never responded. As it happened I changed my mind about wanting it, so I didn't care per se. Prepare to have to follow up politely multiple times. And don't make the request in the winter, when they are busy with snow stuff.