Background: On August 19, 2024 I received a copy of the TRC’s recommendations regarding the Overnight Parking Ban Petition, which was sent to the Town Manager 5 month’s prior. On August 20th, I emailed Matt this rebuttal.

The Rebuttal

My Comments are in bold.

Enforcement of Current Ban

• The Police Department policy, over at least the last 20 years, has been to only enforce the ban during the winter. Based on data I collected, an estimated 1.1% of all vehicles parked overnight received tickets last year, and this was in spite of the fact that there was a 400% increase in tickets issued compared to the previous year. According to the police chief, the PD only tickets side streets if neighbors complain (https://winchesternews.org/winter-parking-ban-issues-begin-as-residents-seek-leniency/). Lax enforcement is a common strategy for towns that use fines for revenue collection rather than public safety purposes. If the lax enforcement is a result of lack of staffing, then why is the ban being enforced at all?
• Enforcement of the overnight parking ban is not intended to be punitive or a revenue generator for the Town. A fine is punitive, whether it is intended to be or not. Furthermore, the intention of the ban is to keep the streets clear in case of plowing, and it is not effective in doing that (Winchester Parking Ban Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=411AFvyWXi8). The only thing the ban accomplishes is allowing residents who don’t like people parking on their street to punish their neighbors.
• The Town lacks a Parking Department.  The Police Department enforces the overnight parking ban as-needed based on staffing levels. This doesn’t explain the actual enforcement that occurred this year. In particular: police who targeted vehicles in specific locations while ignoring other vehicles that were clearly visible in the same area. (This map shows the locations of 350 vehicles parked on the street on February 11^th, and the location where 3 overnight parking tickets were issued on that same night; vehicles parked on Nelson St and Oak St. were clearly visible to the officer who issued tickets for 3 vehicles while blatantly ignoring others: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1G4l5e5MuQftgb0WIR5Fe912btx6n1BY&usp=sharing.
• Enforcement of the ban is not intended to be discriminatory.  The poorest people are most affected by monetary fines; this is why fines are considered discriminatory (When Police Become Tax Collectors: https://www.arnoldventures.org/stories/when-police-become-tax-collectors). Due in part to a lack of a parking department or dedicated parking enforcement staff, the Police Department often relies on residents reports of vehicles parked overnight and creating public safety issues to investigate. On any given night in the winter, there are hundreds of vehicles parked on the street (https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1AIeNuYGU-6ylDIz-ojHwOnI8wgr9m0o&usp=sharing). Thus, the Winchester PD does not need any  “help” from residents to find vehicles parked overnight on the streets. This also does not necessarily mean a ticket is issued. The fact that the PD has leeway in deciding who is ticketed for overnight parking offenses opens the door to targeting specific streets instead of fair enforcement.
• The Police Department do make exceptions if notified in advance of guest parking and other limited extenuating circumstances. Further down in this report, it will be claimed that exceptions to the winter parking ban are not advised because it will lead to increased enforcement to determine if an exception has been made. Since exceptions are already made, that point is invalid.

Snow/Emergency Response

• The Department of Public Works endeavors to plow streets from curb-to-curb.  When cars are parked on the street, it limits their ability to do so. Agree, but an overnight parking ban doesn’t address snow plowing during the daytime.
• DPW reports that residential driveway access is impacted when they can’t plow to the curb, and this creates complaints that requires additional staff resources to address. Same point: overnight parking ban doesn’t cover daytime road plowing.
• The petition submitted did not account for the variety and variability of events that occur.  DPW may pre-treat or salt during events that do not result in snow, for example a rain to quick freeze event.  Although the last few winters have been relatively mild, the more snow on the ground, the harder it is to plow. None of these three points above are valid because the current solution is not effective in keeping the roads clear in the winter.
• DPW noted the varied topography of the Town, particularly with respect to the number of hills that may require additional or different treatment methods. Tentatively, these additional or different treatments would not increase the number of nights when vehicles need to be removed from the streets.
• Variability of the weather forecast was noted as were concerns about providing sufficient notice to get vehicles off the street overnight in the event of rapidly changing forecasts. There isn’t any issue with erring on the side of caution when asking people to remove their vehicles from the streets. Better communication is the key, and right now one of the biggest blocks to effective communication is that the current low enforcement of the parking ban communicates to people that it is OK to park their cars on the street overnight.
• Allowing overnight parking during the winter will require that more snow emergencies be declared to keep the streets clear for plowing.  Each snow emergency requires further notifications/communications from staff. The fact that snow prep also necessitates keeping the roads clear is not an excuse for declining to implement a better solution that will actually keep the roads clear. Would it be a hardship to send out an SMS blast before each occurrence of street sanding/plowing? You are asking residents to walk their cars to Jenks every night for 3 months out of the year because it would inconvenience the town to effectively communicate when snow prep and removal will occur.
• DPW did report instances where parked vehicles prevented plows from plowing streets. That’s an understatement; I found 76 vehicles parked on the street during the January 16^th snowstorm, and I covered less than 50% of the streets. (Winchester Parking Ban Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=411AFvyWXi8)
• In addition to making plowing operations more difficult, having parked cars on the street increases the potential for plow damage, particularly during long duration storms. We’re on the same page here.
• DPW and public safety respond to emergencies year-round.  DPW recently responded to a downed tree overnight and had difficulty getting down the roadway due to parked cars. Staff had to knock on doors during the night-time hours and ask residents to move their vehicles. This doesn’t seem applicable to overnight parking; the same issue would have occurred during the daytime. I have found no evidence to suggest that there are significantly less cars parked on the street during the daytime. 
• The main issue with the ban is that it is not effective with getting vehicles off the street during a snowstorm (Winchester Parking Ban Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=411AFvyWXi8). While there are less cars parked on the street during the winter, the number is still in the low hundreds. (Map showing location of vehicles parked overnight on February 11^th and March 2^nd. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1AIeNuYGU-6ylDIz-ojHwOnI8wgr9m0o&usp=sharing).
• The 2^nd biggest issue is that the overnight ban does not address snow clearing that happens during the day and evening.

Equity

• Petition signed by 30 residents.  For context, there are about 8,900 households in Town. It isn’t known what percentage of residents would like to eliminate the ban. If it is a minority, this would be largely due to the practice of targeted enforcement, which is potentially unethical and possibly illegal.
• The overnight parking ban has been in effect since 1936 and most residents are aware of the ban. This is not a safe assumption. Even if true, most residents are also aware that they have little to no chance of getting a ticket for parking their vehicles on the road at night.
• The Jenks and Aberjona lots are available for free overnight parking for residents with insufficient off-street parking. It isn’t practical for most residents to park downtown EVERY NIGHT during the winter. For example, residents of George Rd live 30 minutes’ walk from Jenks. Also note that Elwood and Vine are a very short walk from Jenks, yet the residents here park on the street rather than taking their vehicles to Jenks: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1AIeNuYGU-6ylDIz-ojHwOnI8wgr9m0o&usp=sharing.
• To support transit-oriented development, the Select Board adopted a policy allowing up to 25 free Town Center daytime parking permits (with a $10 administration fee) for residents in the Center Business District that do not have parking spaces assigned to their unit. This isn’t applicable to the overnight parking ban or snow clearing.
• Staff feels that issues related to tandem parking are a convenience issue and not an equity or hardship issue. This is a side issue that has little importance to the issue being discussed.
• Staff noted signage could be installed at the Town boundary noting the parking ban (examples attached). Note that these signs won’t be effective with a year-round ban because anyone who sees the signs will quickly decide that the ban is rarely or never enforced.

Other Communities

• Most other surrounding communities have overnight parking bans:
  • Lexington:  Year-round ban, however only enforced during the winter.
  • Arlington:  Year-round overnight parking ban, with limited waivers issued by the Police Department by night.  Pilot program through the Office of the Select Board granting up to 125 overnight parking permits on a first-come first-served basis.  Not valid in a snow emergency.
  • Medford:  Overnight parking restrictions during snow emergencies.  The City has a parking department and many areas have permit parking.
  • Stoneham:  Overnight parking ban from December 1 to April 1.
  • Woburn:  Overnight parking ban on alternating side of the street, November 15 to March 31.
  • Belmont:  Year-round overnight parking ban.
  • Wellesley:  Year-round overnight parking ban.
  • Milton:  Year-round overnight parking ban, with a hardship policy if no parking is available (convenience not a hardship).

My research of other communities in the Boston area (covering more than 60 towns) is found here: https://winchesterparkingban.us/solutions/other-town-overnight-parking/.  Only 2 towns that have an overnight ban are known to strictly enforce it: Brookline and Watertown. Residents of other towns claim that the bans are not enforced unless neighbors complain.

Review of Potential Solutions outlined in Petition

• Any plan should be both predictable and simple and not require additional staff resources. Parking a car at Jenks for 3 months of the year (or paying the parking fines) is a great inconvenience for residents. Why is it that any plan to alleviate this must be simple and not require additional staff resources?

• Convert to winter only ban:  this is essentially the Town’s unofficial policy as it relates to enforcement.  Although there occasionally other weather events (heavy rain, wind storms) that a year-round overnight ban addresses, these are less frequent than during the winter. There doesn’t seem to be any logical point to that last sentence unless it is to support the enforcement of an all-year parking ban.
• Winter ban with exceptions:  as noted above, the Police Department grants exceptions for overnight visitors and other extenuating circumstances. The petition references allowing tandem parking to be included as an exception, as noted above this is a convenience issue and not a hardship issue. An exception program would require additional staff resources and potentially a parking permit program.  Exceptions require increased enforcement to check if vehicles parked on the street have a permit/permission or not. It is not correct to assume that this must result in increased enforcement. At present, there are more vehicles parked on the street at night than could be ticketed by multiple officers working all night long, so why is there no talk of increased enforcement to address this issue? And as noted above, exceptions are already being made, so this argument is not valid. It’s not clear what the actual exceptions would be. The obvious exceptions would be for (1) handicapped and (2) residents who have more registered vehicles than off-street parking spaces. As noted above, the Town offers free overnight parking in the Jenks and Aberjona lots. As noted above, this option has already been proven to be ineffective.  Staff do not support this option.
• Town-wide resident [permit] parking:  The petition notes that this is unnecessary. This option doesn’t address the issue of clearing roads for snow, so I don’t support this option.
• Eliminate the ban completely:  This option creates plowing, public safety, and staffing issues as noted above.  Staff do not support this option. This option doesn’t address the issue of clearing roads for snow, so I don’t support it either.
• For crowded streets, the Town should use more appropriate solutions such as parking on one side of the street and no parking signs where appropriate:  This could increase the number of signs in Town significantly.  Some streets already have parking restrictions. This is something that the town should be doing anyway, and is not a factor in determining whether or not we should have a parking ban in place. I have personally talked with a resident who says that she has trouble getting out of her driveway because of cars parked on the street. Instead of asking the town for no parking signs to be put up, she is considering complaining to the police to get the vehicles ticketed for overnight parking violations.

 In summary, the overnight parking ban is ineffective at what it is supposed to accomplish, and it is widely being used to address issues that result from the fact that the town is not properly dealing with parking on crowded and narrow streets.