Newton residents testified at a public hearing on the city's overnight winter parking ban Wednesday, Sept. 9, with speakers from multiple villages pushing for compromise or outright repeal of the 90-year-old rule.
The Public Safety and Transportation Committee continued the hearing to Wednesday, Sept. 23, when it will take additional public comment. Any ordinance change must reach the full City Council by Nov. 2 to take effect before the ban's Dec. 1 start date, committee Chair Tarik Lucas has said.
The ban prohibits parking on any Newton street for more than one hour between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. from Dec. 1 through March 31. Voters narrowly rejected a ballot question to repeal it in November 2025, with 10,894 voting to keep the ban and 10,823 voting to scrap it, according to a city Working Group report.
The Sept. 9 hearing was the first time the committee opened the item to public comment after holding it at six prior meetings dating to February, the Newton Beacon reported.
Speakers from Newtonville, Newton Centre, Nonantum and West Newton described the nightly burden of shuffling cars on narrow driveways. Ellen Silverman of Newtonville said her family went from two cars to four when adult children moved home, forcing a nightly reshuffling routine. Frieda Dwek of Newton Centre described constant arguments over who would drive a car to a municipal lot and who would drive the other person home.
Daniel Furlong of Nonantum, who leaves for work at Boston Children's Hospital at 4 a.m. and has eight people living in his house including someone with special needs, recalled getting caught by a police officer writing a ticket on Christmas Eve at 3 a.m. "I said, 'Santa Claus, is that my gift?'" Furlong told the committee. "And he looked at me and smiled, says, 'Well, if you come move your car now, you won't get it.' So, in my pajamas, I ran out to move the car."
Several residents urged the committee to push the ban's start date from December to January, arguing most heavy snowstorms hit after the holidays. Ron Fein of Newton Centre called the ban "a relic of the pre-satellite era" and said the mayor should declare snow emergencies when storms approach rather than enforce a blanket 120-night ban. Fein, who voted for full repeal in 2025, said he would accept a shorter ban as a compromise.
At an Aug. 5 committee meeting, a straw vote on shortening the ban to Jan. 1 through March 15 ended in a 2-2-2 tie, the Newton Beacon reported. Councilor Sean Roche argued at that meeting that December and late March snow accumulation "just isn't significant."
Not all testimony favored loosening the rules. Emily Hoenig of West Newton raised concerns about how pilot streets for a ban exemption would be chosen, warning that nearby developments at Dunstan East and the West Newton Armory could push overflow parking onto her street, Watertown Street.
Howard Rosenof of West Newton, a Working Group member and Keep the Ban Committee member, proposed that the City Council write restrictions into any ordinance barring pilot exemptions near zoning districts that allow new construction without adequate off-street parking, near colleges and near dense multifamily developments.
Teresa Sauro of Nonantum, who led the campaign to keep the ban, said she was open to compromise but questioned the Working Group's makeup. She said it lacks representation from every village or ward.
The Working Group, chaired by Chris Markiewicz, met eight times between May and July and submitted its report July 15. It reached unanimous consensus on codifying disability exceptions, creating overnight options for home health care aides and streamlining temporary waivers. It did not agree on expanding overnight parking to designated streets or shortening the ban's calendar window.
Most lot spaces sit empty. Only 186 overnight parking permits have been issued against 882 marked municipal lot spaces citywide. The Nonantum-area lots at Chapel and Adams streets are near capacity.
The continued hearing is set for Wednesday, Sept. 23. Residents can submit public comment through the committee.
