The Medford City Council on Tuesday, September 15 adopted the Boston Avenue Neighborhood Corridor District zoning 7 to 0, but only after reversing itself on the question that would bring a mayoral veto eight days later: whether purpose-built student housing in the BA-3 subdistrict next to Tufts University should be allowed by right or by special permit.
Councilor George Scarpelli moved to adopt the Community Development Board’s recommendations, drop a footnote on a North Street stepback and add language that up to 20 percent of residents in student housing may be non-students. Councilor Matt Leming’s amendment to make student housing by right first failed 3 to 4, with Councilors Anna Callahan, Liz Mullane, Scarpelli and Justin Tseng opposed. After the ordinance passed, Tseng moved reconsideration, which carried 6 to 1 with President Zac Bears opposed, and on the second try Leming’s amendment passed 4 to 3 with Callahan, Mullane and Scarpelli opposed. The ordinance then passed 7 to 0 again. Alicia Hunt, director of planning, development and sustainability, and consultant Emily Innes presented. Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn vetoed the ordinance September 23; the council overrode her October 13.
Vijay D’Souza
The council voted 7 to 0 for a resolution by Leming, Bears and Tseng calling for the immediate release of Vijay D’Souza, a Medford resident and longtime member of the First Baptist Church of Medford, whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained at the Atlanta airport on August 29 as he returned to Boston. The resolution says D’Souza was working with an attorney on a green card application, that his wife was given no reason for the detention, and that the church ran a letter-writing campaign for him. It condemns “the latest of many unlawful abductions by ICE in and around our community.” Eight residents spoke.
The Chertok declaration
By 6 to 1, with Scarpelli opposed, the council adopted and authorized filing in court a declaration about Chertok v. City of Medford, a lawsuit over a council-enacted ordinance. The resolution says the council is “deeply concerned” by an August 27 stipulation in which the city agreed to a permanent injunction against enforcing the ordinance, that the mayor and KP Law “neglected to adequately consult the City Council,” and that the council supports intervention by a resident or the attorney general to defend the ordinance. State Senator Pat Jehlen was among 25 speakers.
Trees, the train station and the police chief
Callahan’s Public Tree Preservation, Protection and Replacement Ordinance, which sets rules for the tree warden on removing and replacing public trees, protects designated landmark trees and creates a Tree Fund financed by fines equal to the cost of replacing lost canopy, was ordained 7 to 0 after a 5 to 2 vote to waive three readings, with Scarpelli and Bears opposed to the waiver. Vice President Emily Lazzaro’s resolution for a committee meeting with the MBTA and the state delegation on safety at the West Medford station, where John Westwater, 77, was struck by an Amtrak train on July 20 and died, passed 7 to 0; it notes the MBTA has known of the at-grade crossing’s dangers since at least 2023. Lazzaro was named the council’s representative on the police chief hiring panel.
Also at the meeting
- Scarpelli’s resolution demanding the administration state whether a new “building height” definition discussed in the Medford Square rezoning was ever adopted, after residents at Zoning Board of Appeals hearings were reportedly told it had been, was approved, along with his requests to draft an ordinance accepting Chapter 40U for municipal fine collection and to clarify the city’s responsibilities on private ways.
- The mayor’s supplemental appropriation was tabled to September 29, and her appointments of Meghan Kelly (Affordable Housing Trust), Perry Band (Civic Auditorium and Convention Center), Dina Caloggero (Council on Aging) and Jennie Vital (Board of Health) were approved.
- A common victualler’s license for Nippon Unlimited, doing business as Ebisuya, was approved, and the council marked National Recovery Month and remembered Lorraine Marie Miles.
The council records are on the CivicClerk portal (September 15 records).
