City councilors want to look at ways the city can hold landlords of larger developments responsible for snow removal.
At Monday night’s meeting, Council Vice President Norieliz DeJesus introduced a motion asking that the city manager work with relevant departments to develop a stricter enforcement policy addressing snow removal compliance by large property owners.
The motion stated that the policy should focus on property owners that are in frequent violation, especially those with repeat violations, with particular attention given to pedestrian safety, accessibility for residents with mobility challenges, and the maintenance of ADA-compliant pathways during storms.
The motion opened a wider discussion about snow removal in the city.
“This comes from the many headaches I gave our city manager and (Steve Staffier) from 911, and possibly also DPW during the storm,” said DeJesus. “In my district, I got many, many calls from my constituents. Unfortunately, what we are seeing is a pattern that repeats itself on a yearly basis.
“Although this is in my district and I have a few repeating offenders, I know that this is also a larger situation across the city.”
DeJesus said she is looking forward to working with the city manager and other relevant city departments to maintain safeguards for smaller property owners, but to also hold larger property owners to account.
“There are buildings with large property owners who just dump their snow on top of crosswalks and you have folks, for example, at 260 Clark who cannot get around and literally depend on their wheelchairs just to get across the street to Walgreens,” said DeJesus. “This is unacceptable and I want to see how we can put our brains together and figure out better ways to address this for our families in Chelsea.”
District 4 Councilor Tanairi Garcia said the majority of her calls during and after the storm were from elderly people who couldn’t shovel themselves out of their homes. She noted that the senior center has a list of volunteers who help shovel out elderly people following storms.
District 2 Councilor Deron Hines said many of his calls were from parents concerned about their children being able to make it safely to school.
District 5 Councilor Lisa Santagate thanked everyone who helped shovel out their neighbors after the storm, and also reminded residents to shovel out fire hydrants in front of their property if they are able.
“I think this is an important issue, I think we all got calls,” said District 1 Councilor Todd Taylor. “I think part is, of course we should all help our neighbors, but getting rid of this problem of scofflaw repeat offenders.”
Taylor said the issue might be one for a larger subcommittee meeting, where the council and city officials can both look at measures to control repeat offenders and set up a system to help residents who cannot shovel for themselves.