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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Plowing Of CVS Parking Lot/Magoun Square Discussed At Latest Public Works & Utilities Meeting



The past two snow storms have uncovered serious issues concerning proper plowing of the CVS parking lot located in Magoun Square. These issues were discussed at the last Public Utilities and Works meeting that took place on January 20th at City Hall.

According to city snow emergency procedures, residents can park in municipal city lots, but need to move their cars two hours after a snow emergency has been lifted to ensure proper plowing of these lots. Residents have been great about moving off of the even side of the street, however, moving their cars out of the CVS lot after the snow emergency has been lifted is a different story, according to plower, Dave Ross. In order to properly remove snow out of the lot, all (or a majority) of the cars need to be moved, so the snow can be piled and trucked out.

The first significant snow storm of the year, brought numerous difficulties for Mr. Ross as no one moved their vehicles in the time allotted and two Zip Car users even left their rentals in the middle of the lot due to no available spots. This caused a one-lane only passage for the plow and eventual towing of both Zip Cars.

(Basil Tree rents two deep parking spots in the rear of CVS for vans)

One change could come in the form of the revisiting to a previously made parking agreement between the city and Basil Tree Catering. Currently, the Magoun Square catering company rents out two large spots behind CVS in which they park four vans used to cart food. This, according to Ross, could be easily roped off during a snow emergency and used as a storage space for snow, so it can be easily placed in a truck and moved off the premesis. This would force Basil Tree to find another parking location for their vans, but would only occur during a snow emergency. Alderman Sean O'Donovan put this idea in as a motion and will end up in the hands of current Traffic and Parking Director, Matt Diaz (a Ward 5 resident).

The last issue, residents not moving their cars fast enough has caused some concern around the neighborhood. While younger residents can easily head up to the lot and move their cars, older residents may not be able to. This, I will present to my readers for them to think about and comment their ideas on how to resolve it.

3 comments:

Ron Newman said...

I don't know what else you can expect the Zipcar renters to do. The cars have to be returned to their assigned lots at a set time, since their next customers are expecting to find them there.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Zip Cars should be in that lot. Parking in Magoun Square is tough enough without Zip Cars taking up much needed spots in that parking lot. Put the cars elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure where anyone parked in that lot was expected to go. Nashua Street is still a disaster & basically still only down to parking on the odd side. a few people have dug out spots on the even side, but with nowhere to put the snow it has proved difficult. You have to play chicken with oncoming cars on Nashua right now so instead I 3 point turn on Richardson to get back to Lowell st. to avoid the headache of nashua.