On Thursday, February 12, 2026, the Peabody City Council convened for a regular meeting that included subcommittee reports (Municipal Safety Committee and Legal Affairs Committee) followed by the full council session. The meeting covered the creation of a new Complete Streets Advisory Committee, adoption of a state law allowing beer/wine license conversions to full liquor licenses, multiple special permit hearings (sign, fast food restaurant, retail, distillery, entertainment, and vehicle dealer license transfer), reinstatement of a billboard ordinance, and several other motions and appointments. All votes were unanimous (10-0) unless noted.
Complete Streets Transportation and Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee (Municipal Safety Committee): Councillor Ladoff proposed a resident-led advisory committee (one resident per ward, plus city council representative, police, public services, historical commission, disability commission) to review traffic and pedestrian safety data, develop prioritized recommendations, and strengthen grant readiness. The committee would not enforce laws, affect budgets, or handle parking enforcement. The mayor expressed support and had already identified representatives from police, disability commission, and historical commission. Two additions were approved: a school committee representative (motion by Councillor Rosignal) and a fire department representative (motion by Councillor Hockman through Ladoff). Councillor Turko cautioned against adding too many members but the motions passed.
Legal Affairs Committee – Section 12D Alcoholic Beverages Conversion: Attorney Lashway explained that Section 12D, enacted in the FY2026 state budget, allows on-premise wine/malt licensees to convert to all-alcohol licenses without changing the city’s quota. Converted licenses cannot be transferred unless first reverted to wine/malt. Renewal fees increase by about $600 per license (from $1,650 to $2,250). The committee recommended adoption, and the council voted 10-0 to adopt the ordinance.
Special Permit Hearings (all approved 10-0):
Welcome, good evening. Welcome to Municipal Safety Committee meeting, uh, of which I am chair. I would like to ask Councillor Ladoff to sit in for Councillor Peach. Thank you. And oh, and here comes Councillor Daigle. So therefore, you're off the hook, Council Turko. And uh tonight's meeting, we have one item on the agenda, which um is to speak on the War Two counselor's creation of uh complete streets transportation and pedestrian safety committee proposal. Um, which uh at that I would hand it over to uh Councillor Ladov to um speak on that subject, but can we I have a motion? We have two late communications. Uh could I have a motion from a committee member to receive late two and late six? Um, thank you, but I think Councillor Rosignal will do that as a committee member. Thank you, Councillor Gamash. Oh, you are. Well, I'm sorry, I missed it there. Okay. Well, the motion to receive by Councillor Gamash. Thank you, Councillor Gamash. Okay, so those two late communications are now on the floor in the meeting, and at this point, I will hand it over to Councillor Ladoff. Hello, thank you so much for letting me um discuss the complete streets program with you. This is something really close to my heart, and it was something that came about through uh not just campaigning, but um, my why on this is um more so because through the years, actually through decades in PBD, I've heard a lot of concerns about traffic and pedestrian safety through the community. I first heard it as um a parent, I heard it as a resident, I heard it as a business owner, and then as counselor, it's been loud and clear that it's a consistent problem through our community. As I was campaigning um over the summer, one thing I found very consistent when I would meet with other um counselors and other people in other wards was the can the common thread that um traffic pedestrian safety was something that was a concern for everyone. So whether you were in ward two or if you were in West Peabody, it's really a common thread of problems that we have across the board. What I was looking to do, I'm gonna go more into details of it, but just want to give you the background of my why on starting this and doing it the way I set it up. Um I really believe in having something that is resident led, and I wanted the residents to be involved in the process as much as possible. I'm someone who's very hyper focused on collaboration, and I believe in trying to bring the residents together to help resolve solutions. I love to bring people part of the the input to get public opinion and to help create structure in the process, and really it will help connect the departments the way it's set up and to help prioritize results. And this would be something that would not just be on one person's desk if it was just a single something that was just handled by like one particular person, but it would be something more collaborative among departments and residents if this is something that we all work on together. I'm just going to go through the proposal. Um as traffic patterns develop in pressures with cut through streets in continuing. I'm so sorry, my chair just keeps rolling. Um with cut through traffic and with increasing measures throughout neighborhoods. We're seeing that residents across the board have raised concerns regarding speeding unsafe neighborhoods. When I say unsafe neighborhoods, um, someone brought up to me over the summer they thought like unsafe meant like someone was robbing them on the street. I'm not talking about that type of safe. I'm talking about, you know, sidewalks, um, potholes and brick that may be broken and whatnot, so that type of particular safety. This is something that's um consistent, whether you it's for like children, seniors, young adults, people who are disabled, and it's just something that we need to address and kind of bring this in a fragmented manner together. Um you look at complete streets, complete streets is a program that started in 2016, and other communities have a complete street program. And it's focused on transportation, pedestrian safety, and it just works on having a resident-led solution from an advisory committee focus to help coordinate and elevate these concerns and to be more transparent and data informed and data-driven. Um, it works with MassDOT and it helps prepare us for grant readiness, which is great because um don't you just love a good grant to help pay for things? So, this is something that the way it's structured would be set up as not just a one-time grant, but a continuous flow of grant opportunity for us with the way we would structure it. Um the proposed committee would um serve as a structured forum to review resident concerns, evaluate available traffic and crash data and safety data. It would develop prioritize advisory recommendations for short-term and long-term solutions. The committee would work collaboratively collaboratively with the police department, public service planning, the mayor's office, the historical commission, and the disability commission as well. They would have no rules of um enforcing any law, it would not affect any type of budget, it would use open meeting law, and it um as I mentioned, it does not need a budget. In addition, um the company uh the committee would um review and find problems, and they would research not just the Mass Dot grants, but bring to forward if they found some other grants available regarding transportation and safety. Uh Complete Streets has a focus on like ADA compliant improvements, traffic calming, pedestrian bicycle safety. These recommendations would be on the advisory level in nature and intends to support city departments in the mayor's office, prioritizing projects and trying to strengthen our opportunities to get competitive funding for these. They would do nothing related to parking issues or any like thing like that, no fees, nothing of that nature. Um, the committee would be set up and structure that I proposed structure would be that one resident from each ward would be selected to represent on the committee.