Agenda Text
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Fred Berman and Lori Segall submitting comments re: the snow removal ordinance.
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Official Text
Dear Members of the Board of Aldermen,
Somerville's snow shoveling ordinance is an important step forward in promoting civic responsibility. It signals our commitment to put an end to unshoveled sidewalks that remain treacherous for days or weeks after a snowfall; to inaccessible one-foot-wide paths that snake through snowbanks; to paths that abruptly end at an impassable mound of snow at the end of a block; and to un-sanded icy sidewalks that put pedestrians at risk of dangerous falls.
Homeowners and commercial and institutional property owners need to take responsibility for making our sidewalks passable and safe for pedestrians, including people pushing baby strollers, people using wheelchairs, and seniors and persons with disability. A snowstorm shouldn't mean that folks with mobility challenges face home confinement until the snow melts. Paths need to allow access all the way into the street: people shouldn't have to climb over snowbanks to cross the street or board a bus.
We applaud these increased expectations, the imposition of penalties for non-compliance, and the mechanism (property tax lien) for collecting fines and recovering the cost of remedial snow removal.
That said, changes are needed.
The Ordinance must reasonably anticipate the needs of, and provide reasonable options for, all kinds of property owners (and tenants required by their leases to remove the snow), including people who work long days, people who work non-traditional hours, and people who are physically unable to shovel their own snow, for reasons of frailty, disability, pregnancy, illness, etc. We suggest the following provisions:
Special Case: Elderly, disabled, and otherwise infirm homeowners who cannot shovel snow and cannot privately arrange for snow removal
The City has made a good start at identifying snow-shoveling resources that older and/or disabled homeowners can call on for help. More are needed.
One recommended improvement in the system: instead of waiting for these residents to ask for help each time it snows, the City should use the Census process to find out who will need help with sidewalk snow removal and cannot privately arrange for such help, due to age, infirmity, or disability. Certainly, any homeowner who has qualified for a property tax exemption under Chapter 59, Section 5 of the Mass. General Laws should be offered that opportunity, and perhaps even presumptively added to the list for help. Other homeowners who cannot shovel their own snow and would have a hardship arranging for commercial snow/ice removal assistance should also be able to call 311 to be added to that list. Such requests for assistance would need to be renewed annually, or with each census.
The City would take interim responsibility for removing the snow/ice and sanding those sidewalks for the period of time (year?) specified in the Census. It would engage volunteers, high school students, and private contractors, as needed. There could be some standardized calculation of the cost of that snow removal, based on linear feet of sidewalk and on the depth of the snow removed.
Taxpayers should not be burdened with the cost of paying for snow removal on sidewalks that are the responsibility of a homeowner, or on sidewalks that the City has assumed interim responsibility for clearing/sanding on behalf of an elderly, disabled, or infirm resident. In the same way that the existing Ordinance allows the City to attach a lien to properties that are in violation of the snow removal requirement as a fine and to cover the City's cost of removing that snow/ice, it could attach a lien for the calculated cost of snow removal from sidewalks that were the responsibility of elderly, disabled, or otherwise infirm persons who cannot shovel their own sidewalks, that cannot make private arrangements for snow removal, and that the City has assumed interim responsibility for removing snow from:
• Persons whose property taxes are subject to abatement under Chapter 59 Section 5 would not be expected to pay for that snow removal; the cost would simply be added to their already deferred property tax obligation.
• Other persons would pay for the snow removal as an add-on to their ordinary property tax bill, in the same way that the Ordinance attaches a lien for fines and the cost of remedial snow removal on sidewalks that are in violation. The City should develop some kind of financial hardship provisions on behalf of low income homeowners covered under these provisions.
Note: If a property owner has, by lease, assigned responsibility for snow removal to a tenant, and the tenant fails to fulfill those responsibilities, the property owner would be fined and charged for remedial snow removal via the standard mechanism, i.e., a lien on the property. If the tenant is unable to assume this responsibility due to age, disability, or other infirmity, that tenant would be entitled to request City assistance through those same Census or 311 mechanisms, as property owners, and the property owner would be charged via a lien on the property, as described above. It would fall to the landlord and tenant to resolve any dispute about the responsibility for payment of such charges.
Everyone else
The current deadlines may create a hardship for persons who work long days and for people who have to make private arrangements for snow/ice removal. We suggest alternate deadlines, to give able-bodied residents who work a full-time job the opportunity to shovel after or before work, and to give those residents who can't clear the snow/ice themselves adequate opportunity to negotiate assistance with snow/ice removal.
For all residential property owners other than elderly, disabled, and infirm persons covered under the previously described provisions, and for all commercial and institutional property owners, the following requirements would apply:
• If the snow ends between midnight and 2pm, the sidewalks need to be shoveled, and if necessary sanded, by 11pm that night.
• If the snow ends between 2pm and midnight, the sidewalks need to be shoveled, and if necessary sanded, by 11am the following day.
That is, if the snow ended at 12 noon on Monday, the sidewalks would need to be cleared by 11pm Monday night. If the snow ended at 4pm on Monday, the sidewalks would need to be cleared by 11am on Tuesday.
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The existing Ordinance was an important step in the right direction. At Wednesday's hearing, the Board of Aldermen will hear testimony from residents who have struggled to comply with that Ordinance, and we will learn from the extraordinary experience of this highly unusual winter.
Adjustments are certainly called for, but the heart and soul of the Ordinance should be preserved: Somerville pedestrians deserve to be able to safely navigate our sidewalks within a reasonable amount of time after a snowfall, and the cost of clearing the snow/ice from sidewalks should be borne by the abutting residential, commercial, or institutional property owners, subject to reasonable hardship provisions.
Thanks for your consideration of these comments.
Fred Berman / Lori Segall