Hello everybody.

Welcome to the November meeting of the licenses of permit committee for the Summerville City Council.

My name is Willie Burnley Jr., some real city counselor at large.

And where can the clerk scroll up so I may read uh the full proclamation?

Thank you.

Pursuant to the chap uh to chapter two of the act of 2025.

This meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation.

We post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of Somerville website and local cable access government channels.

Clerk, can you please call the rule to establish quorum?

This is real call.

Counselor Davis here.

Councilor Klingon.

Counselor or uh Chair Burnley.

Yeah.

Present.

All right.

Uh with two present and one absent, we have quorum.

Thank you.

We have a relatively short agenda.

Uh the clerk can scroll down really quickly.

Uh simply two items.

The first of which is approval of the minutes of our October 8th meeting.

Uh let's take that up.

Uh, do I hear any comments on the motion, any questions, any concerns?

Move to approve.

Okay.

Uh motion on the floor, movement to approve with no uh questions or comments or discussion on the matter.

Uh, we're gonna put that on the table for approval at the end of the meeting.

Um, and move on to item two, which is a grant of location uh by Comcast.

And this is to for the uh record of the public, this is not a public hearing, uh, but we do want to hear from uh the representatives of this application.

So if we could just have representatives from Comcast raise their hand using the raise hand feature, and we can promote you to speak on the item.

I do not see any hands right now.

If you're here to speak on item number two, please raise your hand.

There they go, seeing one.

Please identify.

Yeah, please uh please identify yourself, your relationship to this application, and then uh describe what its purpose is.

Um I'm I'm not from Comcast, I'm sorry.

Um Lisa White.

I live at Fort Houghton Street, and I wrote to you all um yesterday, I sent you an email um outlining our concerns about this.

Hello, uh Lisa White.

Uh I did get your email, did have a chance to read it.

Um, as we mentioned, this is not a public hearing.

I know.

But but I do think that you know, as an abutter and as someone in our community, uh you raised some uh important points uh which are worth addressing.

So I'd be happy to sponsor you to speak uh briefly towards uh those issues uh and what you'd like to see happen with this application.

Okay, thanks.

Go ahead.

Uh well, we live at Fort Houghton Street, and if you're aware, um, this 121 prospect uh project has been under construction for the past two years.

And the day that we uh receive this notification, we were also advised that Ever Source is going to be uh digging up and repaving the streets from their gas line work, in addition to the constant digging up of the street from this construction project.

So I would I wrote to JT Scott, I was completely frustrated that we were gonna have the street repaved, and then Comcast was going to come in at some point and dig it up yet again.

And my biggest question is why does 121 Prospect Street get a conduit buried underground and the rest of us get all this wiring wiring in front of my house on this actual poll, they were just dangling things that Comcast leaves there.

And if the project is 121 prospect, why is everything happening on Houghton Street?

So I would hope that Comcast will put it through a conduit on Prospect Street and not dig up our newly repaved street.

And if that's not possible, then I want it to be done expeditiously.

You know, this street is closed probably every single day of the week during construction for one reason or another.

So just mostly frustrated.

Thank you for uh attending and for voicing these concerns.

Uh counselor Scott of Ward 2, who's also listening on during this meeting, uh, did raise these concerns uh previously.

And you know, as residents, I think we can all understand the the rarity in of when streets actually are repaved, uh, and the kind of frustration that all the work that it takes to do that might just be undone uh for uh one a single project, but just in immediately after um that work has been done in general.

Um I have some ideas about how to potentially condition this uh grant of location, but I also would like to hear from Comcast to just uh have some certainty that any conditions placed on them would be feasible on their end.

Um I you know, we could say, for example, condition this uh grand location so that the work has to be done on uh prospect, not Houghton.

Uh, but you know, I don't I don't actually dig up the ground, I don't place wires, I don't know what to speak out of turn for a company that does that work.

Um so frankly, I I would rather have them as part of this conversation than try to um speed past them.

Uh with with that in the air, I want to open up to my colleague to see if he has any thoughts about how we may proceed on this item.

Yeah, uh, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

No, I'm I'm in line with you.

Um, I I don't know if we do have uh an attendee from um from uh utility here or not.

Um I think you know, if if not, I'm inclined to you know leave this in committee and and maybe get a communication out to them with some specific questions and instruction to appear.

But if they are, then great.

Um, you know, uh I I like you would like to hear their thoughts and and see if there's something we could do because it seemed like reasonable concerns that have been raised.

Great.

And I will I'll just note again for the for the record.

Uh counselors are aware of this, but Comcast was uh made aware of this meeting.

Uh, we reached out to via phone and likely email as well.

Um so just want to be clear that we're not hosting a meeting, hoping they're gonna show up without actually asking them to be here.

Uh, I do see that counselor Scott, who is attending, uh, has his hand raised.

Claire, could you unmute the counselor?

Uh, since we're below full quorum and uh allowing.

Thank you.

Counselor Scott.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh uh yeah, I appreciate you guys taking this up.

I'm uh dismayed, I suppose, that Comcast wouldn't choose to attend the meeting.

Um, but uh as Ms.

White points out, I mean, this is not just Ms.

White's house, but the Moreras and everybody else who lives down in Houghton, uh, you know, there's no less than 20 uh Comcast low voltage lines coming off the pole that already exists there.

Uh and in addition to the um to the concerns about digging up the freshly paved street in the midst of all the other disruption that's been down there.

I'd I'd also point out that previously the pros uh the 12 Prospect Street um property had a private poll on it that actually extended uh Comcast lines from the other side of Prospect Street.

So the line had already been run there previously.

So I think uh conditioning it and approving it with conditions would be a tricky one, especially without say engineering department here to talk about the feasibility of what's underground in Prospect Street right now.

Uh and certainly I wouldn't feel comfortable about uh proving something for an applicant that doesn't even show up for the for the meeting.

So uh I would be inclined to thank you and uh our colleague from Ward 6 for your time on it tonight.

Apologize to the public for having wasted everybody's time here and uh leave this in committee until they're willing to come have a discussion.

But that's that's just my druthers as a neighbor and a ward two counselor.

I appreciate the opportunity, sir.

Absolutely.

Um as a ward counselor, we appreciate your thoughts.

Um pretty sure you're not in a butter.

Uh don't want to get that on the record if that's the case.

Um not at all, not at all.

Thank you.

Um neighbor, but not in a butter, and that's an important legal distinction there.

Um, so given what we've heard today, uh, you know, I I think the could my thoughts is to leave this in committee.

Uh to just uh ensure that we have a robust discussion with uh the applicant to ensure that they uh can carry out this work without causing undue disruption to the abutters uh to and without undoing the work that was has caused so much uh frustration delay uh within the community on this street in particular.

Um counselor Davis, uh you think you feel good about that?

You have concerns?

Absolutely, Mr.

Chair.

I agree with you and follow your lead on this one.

All right.

Well, with that, then we will keep this item in committee.

Uh, and I see a motion from Counselor Davis uh to take up the item on the meeting uh minutes off of the table and vote on adjournment.

Yes, sir.

All right, uh on adjournment um and approval of the minutes, counselor Davis.

Yes, counselor Klingon, Chair Burnley.

Aye.

With two in favor and uh one absent.

The minutes are taken up and the an adjournment is approved.

Expeditious.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.