City Council

City of Salem, Massachusetts “Know Your Rights Under the Open Meeting Law, M.G.L. c. 30A ss. 18-25 and City Ordinance Sections 2-2028 through 2-2033.” The City Council Committee on Ordinances, Licenses and Legal Affairs co-posted with the Committee of the Whole_____________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ met in the Council Chamber on _April 8, 2026__________ at ______6:00______P.M. for the purpose of discussing the matters(s) listed below. Notice of this meeting was posted on ___ April 2, 2026__ at ___ 6:10 P.M._________________ (This meeting is being recorded) ATTENDANCE OLLA – Varela (chair), Prosniewski, Hapworth & Smith (zoom) COW – King, Flynn, Turowski, Sydoriak From the city Michael Cronse, David Kucharski (zoom). ABSENT WERE: OLLA – Holappa. COW – Davis & Merkl. #141 Ordinance Amending Traffic Ch. 42, Sec 17A Schedule of Fines (already adopted for First Passage) ___________________ #142 Order for Parking Rates and Dates for Congress St._________________________________________________________ #143 Ordinance amending Traffic Ch. 42, Sec. 56 Zones Established – Congress St._____________________________________ Varela – We have three items tonight and we will start with #143. Turowski – This is an order to establish parking meters on Congress St. on both sides of the road from Pickering Way south to Ward St. and some graduated parking rates. It is currently free parking with no time limit. There are few other options for employees that work and live in Pickering Wharf, but it is going to affect those employees that have been parking on that street during their shifts. Kucharski – I have been working with the mayor on ways to increase the parking fees that are in proximity to downtown. Much of Congress St. was established for metered parking. We are proposing to reintroduce the metered parking and have the parking rate fluctuate throughout the year. We would like to amend the ordinance to allow metered parking in this area. King – Do you have a rough sense of the income that these new metered spots could provide to the city annually? Kucharski – I don’t have anything for this area, but where we bag the meters on Washington St from Essex to Federal during October that are $7/hour and that brings in a few thousand dollars during October. Flynn – I am strongly against this even though this is not in my ward. It is going to affect the businesses and the employees that work down there. I am concerned about those people going into the parking garage at night and they will have to pay the parking fees because a lot of those people that work down there, don’t live in Salem so they won’t get any discounts for parking fees. I am not concerned about the little bit of money we could make. We lost about 10 metered spots on Washington St. because of a poor design and that will probably remain that way. It is a bad look for the city. Varela – I am a little conflicted on this. Early in the morning it is free and easy to access so a lot of the employees from Pickering Wharf are parking there but there are other areas of the city where the employees are subject to metered parking. I understand the city’s point of view that we want to maximize the revenue, but it may be too soon to talk about the parking on Congress St. I understand it will affect those employees, and we really don’t want to negatively impact the people that are working down there. Smith – This creates another hardship for those that work in the city. We have heard from a lot of people that it is difficult for them to park. The parking spots have become something that those people rely on. We are raising the parking fees for the garage so we shouldn’t take these spots away. If an employee gets paid $20/hour and they must pay $50 or $70 to park in the garage, that could be most of what they got paid for the day. We need to find other ways to increase revenue in the city besides increasing the cost of parking. We have tour buses that park for free in the city all the time, so why don’t we look into charging for the tour buses for parking? Hapworth – This parking area is not guaranteed to be accessible to employees. A smart tourist could arrive early and park in one of those spots all day for free. Is there a way or a downtown employee to qualify for resident parking if they don’t live in the city? Kucharski – We used to have permitted parking on that street where an employee could purchase a permit and be allowed to park on a particular street. We do that in Riley Plaza for employees that work downtown. The meters would be free for residents on weekends in October otherwise the pricing would be 0.50/hour from November 1st to June 30th from 8am-6pm and 1.00/hour from July 1st to September 30th and $7/hour during October. Hapworth – I would follow whatever our Ward 1 councilor would like but I am not in favor of something that would negatively impact our restaurant employees and small business owners. Sydoriak – I will default to Ward 1 councilor but all parking on public roadways is subsidized parking. We can’t guarantee that this is employee parking and I would like to get as much revenue from those visiting as we can. Turowski – I have talked to a lot of the people that work and live in Pickering Wharf. About 10 years ago, the employees were able to park at the overflow lot for the Waterfront Hotel across Congress St., but they were told they couldn’t do that anymore so now a lot of those people rely on those parking spots to go to work. I invited the property owners to a meeting, but they did not show. They do generate a lot of revenue for parking during October by charging up to $50 to park but most of the year the lot is empty. We let visitors park for free when they arrive on tour buses. I don’t think this is the right answer. If we can charge residents and employees for parking, then why can’t we charge the tour buses? I do not support this, so long as we are letting visitors park across the street in 2 year-round, 2-hour parking spots for free. We had the Director of Sales from the Salem Witch Museum say, if the Commission has ever considered paid parking, many of the tour bus companies would be willing to pay to be able to park somewhere that is safe, close, and comfortable. So, they would be willing to pay, and I think we should be taking advantage of that. Kucharski – I am working with the mayor to introduce a proposal to charge the tour buses a permit fee for parking. I hope to have that in front of you this month. Prosniewski – The metered spaces will be on both sides of the street and how many spaces? How much revenue do you think we will get? Kucharski – it wouldn’t be meters, there would be the passport signs. There is no cap on the amount of time so they can park all day. I don’t know how much revenue it would bring in since the fee fluctuates throughout the year. Prosniewski – I tend to lean towards charging the buses for parking instead of the meters on Congress St. My concern is for the availability of parking for those working on Pickering Wharf. Varela – It seems that this order is premature and we need more discussion regarding metered parking on Congress St. Smith – The ordinance says that it is 4 hours, are you saying that this would give unlimited time parking? Kucharski – Yes, it changes the ordinance to basically start over and remove the 4-hour cap on this area and make it unlimited. There are other existing meters that would remain as 4-hour parking, but the new spaces would be unlimited. King – I think the tour bus permits will bring in more money than the proposed metered spaces. I have received many comments from those that work there and no one was in favor of this, so I am not in favor of something that no one seems to be in favor of and with very little revenue. I think we should seriously consider having some sort of formal program for employee parking or have an employee parking lot. We are trying to raise more money from the tourists, so we should be thinking about those that work downtown as well. Smith – Motion to send back to the full council with a negative recommendation for #142 & #143 (since they both rely on the Congress St. parking). Seconded by Hapworth. Roll call vote – 4-0. #141 Kucharski – This order would raise the fines on temporary and permanent streets from $75 to $100 for September 15th to November 1st. It will remain a $25 fine the rest of the year. Varela – I think this is fine. King – I am fine with this too. How much revenue or how often do these violations happen? Kucharski – Last October, 135 tickets were issued. Last year, we issued 3,492 tickets. King – If a resident were to get a ticket, is this something that you would consider rescinding? Kucharski – Yes and we keep track of why violations were rescinded and most of them are for residents that have made the request for various reasons. Prosniewski – I agree with this. Crowds start coming right after Labor Day. Smith – Motion to send back to the full council with a positive recommendation and seconded by Hapworth. Sydoriak – How did we land at $100? Has any research been done on what deters people from these violations? Kucharski – We did look at the businesses and residents that are selling off street parking during that time. Some are selling it for as much as $75 per day, so we used that amount as a base and increased the fine from there. Varela – Roll call vote 4-0. On the motion of C. Hapworth the meeting adjourned at 6:46 P.M. Andrew Varela mbc (Chairperson)