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Record of Proceedings

Somerville City Council Licenses and Permits Committee Meeting – April 9, 2026

Meeting Portal — Thursday, April 9, 2026

BodySomerville, Massachusetts

SessionMeeting Portal

DateThursday, April 9, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 7:32

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:02

Welcome to the licenses and permits committee meeting of the Somerville City Council on April 8th.

0:10

I'm Emily Hart, Ward Counselor from Ward 7.

0:14

And we're joined tonight by Clerk Michael Potier and other members of the committee.

0:20

I will read the notice.

0:45

Thank you.

0:46

All right, clerk, can you please call the role to establish quorum?

0:50

Absolutely.

0:51

Counselor Davis here.

0:53

Councilor Wheeler.

0:54

Here.

0:55

Chair Hart.

0:56

Here.

0:56

You have a quorum.

0:58

All right.

0:59

Thank you so much.

1:01

So the first item on the agenda is approving the minutes from the last meeting, which was March 25th.

1:08

Are there any comments or questions about those minutes?

1:12

Okay, seeing none, we'll lay those on the table for approval at the end of the meeting.

1:17

We do have a very short one item agenda tonight.

1:21

And it is a public hearing.

1:24

It is a for a new used car dealer class two license.

1:30

And do we have is there someone here who is the applicant or representative to speak on this item?

1:39

Madam Chair, I do see a hand raised.

1:42

Excellent.

1:44

Is it she, Mr.

1:46

She?

1:46

Hey, how's it going?

1:48

Hi, I'm Alan.

1:49

Hi, Alan.

1:50

Can you guys hear me?

1:51

Yes.

1:52

I'm not sure why.

1:53

That's not allowing me to like talk.

1:55

I don't think or I don't think the camera or anything's coming on.

1:57

Sorry about that.

1:59

No problem.

1:59

We can we can hear you.

2:01

Okay, perfect.

2:02

So if you'd like to tell us a little bit about your application and your business, that was absolutely.

2:09

So this is a car rental business that I basically started uh two years ago around my sophomore year college.

2:14

And now I'm a senior in college, just finishing up and really just looking to do car rentals and have a car dealership from the same location, basically turn one customers into two since they're pretty related to each other.

2:26

And we do have a big enough space.

2:28

So this, I guess it's just another thing we want to tackle on.

2:32

Okay.

2:33

All right.

2:34

Um are there any before I open the public hearing?

2:41

Other um other committee members, do you have any questions?

2:48

Yes.

2:49

Counselor Wheeler.

2:51

Hi, um, I'm excited to hear about this and and welcome.

2:54

Um, just to sort of clarify, so uh I'm seeing here this is talking about 45 vehicles outside.

3:02

I'm sure there's some inevitable blurring of the lines between these two different businesses that you're talking about having in the same place.

3:09

Yep.

3:10

I I have not heard anything from anybody who lives around there about ah, there's there's so many vehicles outside or whatever.

3:17

Yeah, this map is very helpful.

3:18

I just wanted to get a little clearer on these are all on your own lot.

3:23

They're not parked on the street.

3:25

No, no, absolutely not.

3:27

Um, so we actually have 93 vehicles as is right now.

3:32

They never sit because they're rental vehicles, they're always out on the road.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Miscellaneous█████████████████████████████████████████████47%

Procedural██████████████████████████27%

Licenses And Permits█████████████████████████26%

Summary of Proceedings

Somerville City Council Licenses and Permits Committee Meeting – April 9, 2026

Note: The meeting minutes and transcript both state the meeting occurred on April 8, 2026, but the provided instruction specifies the date as April 9, 2026. This summary uses the instructed date while noting the discrepancy.

The Licenses and Permits Committee met via Zoom at 6:00 p.m. on April 9, 2026, chaired by Councilor Emily Hardt. The meeting had a single substantive agenda item, a public hearing for a new used car dealer license, and was adjourned at 6:07 p.m.

Consent Calendar

Approved the minutes of the March 25, 2026 meeting (ID # 26-0505) by a roll call vote of 3–0 (Councilors Davis, Wheeler, Hardt).

Discussion Items

New Used Car Dealer Class 2 License – Xeluxe Auto Group, 20 Cummings Street: Applicant Alan Xie described his existing car rental business (operating since April 2024) and sought to add used car sales at the same location. The license would allow 0 vehicles inside and 45 vehicles outside, operating Mon–Fri 8 a.m.–6 p.m., Sat 8 a.m.–2 p.m., closed Sunday. Xie confirmed all 45 vehicles would be on his own property, not on public streets. He noted his rental fleet of 93 vehicles is rarely all on-site because they are constantly rented, leaving space for used car inventory. Councilor Wheeler asked about parking compliance, and Xie stated there have been no complaints. Chair Hardt inquired about the rental business’s track record; Xie reported no complaints and a top ranking on the Turo platform. No public speakers participated in the hearing.

Key Outcomes

Recommendation to Approve License: The committee voted 3–0 (Davis, Wheeler, Hardt) to recommend approval of the new used car dealer license for Xeluxe Auto Group. Chair Hardt reminded the applicant that final approval requires a vote by the full City Council and the mayor’s signature.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI

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