The Medford City Council voted 7 to 0 on Tuesday, October 13 to override Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn’s veto of the Boston Avenue Neighborhood Corridor District, the zoning for the commercial strip beside Tufts University that the council adopted on September 15. The mayor’s September 23 veto objected to allowing purpose-built student housing by right, rather than by special permit, in the BA-3 subdistrict.
Before the override, Councilor George Scarpelli tried to meet the mayor halfway with a motion to make student housing in BA-3 a special permit use. It failed 3 to 4, with Councilors Matt Leming and Justin Tseng, Vice President Emily Lazzaro and President Zac Bears opposed. Scarpelli, Councilor Liz Mullane and Councilor Anna Callahan supported it. Tseng then moved to override the veto and ordain the district as adopted in September; every councilor, including the three who had wanted the special permit, voted yes.
The council also passed, by voice vote, Scarpelli’s motion asking the mayor to remove from the city’s website what the motion called “untrue information” about the council’s September vote. Fourteen people spoke on the item, including Senior Planner Danielle Evans.
How the September vote went
The ordinance as adopted September 15 followed the Community Development Board’s recommendations, dropped a footnote on a building stepback for North Street and set a rule that up to 20 percent of residents in student housing may be non-students, with the rest enrolled at an educational institution. Leming’s amendment to make student housing by right in BA-3 failed 3 to 4 on the first try that night, passed 4 to 3 after Tseng moved reconsideration, and the final ordinance passed 7 to 0. Questions about the residency language and the by-right question were referred to legal counsel as part of a zoning cleanup.
Firefighters and the fire chief
The council had asked Fire Chief Evans to appear at the meeting to answer questions; the record lists no appearance by the chief. Jeremiah O’Brien, president of Medford Firefighters Local 1032, and union officers Brian Honeycutt and Bob Jones addressed the council. On a 7 to 0 roll call the council sent the administration four questions: whether the city understands the education credits and payments owed under the firefighters’ contract, why two firefighters whose suits have been settled have not been returned to duty, how many Level 1 grievances the chief has handled without escalation, and whether the administration will agree to an outside audit, with a public report, of the city’s legal practices. The council’s related question to the mayor, whether a fully funded city solicitor salary would be used to hire a solicitor or for outside counsel, remained tabled.
PILOT and Tufts
A resolution by Bears and Tseng to develop a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes and community benefits framework, noting that Medford’s last written PILOT agreement with Tufts University expired in 2018 and that the arrangement since then has never been put in a public document, drew ten speakers and was referred to the Committee of the Whole.
Also at the meeting
- The council approved 7 to 0 a reappropriation of capital stabilization funds for Medford Public Schools, presented by schools Chief Operations Officer Kenneth Lord.
- Tabled: a resolution demanding the administration submit the new city charter, approved by voters in November 2025, to the city clerk for codification and meet with the council and School Committee on an implementation plan; an order to declare two vacant McCormack Avenue parcels surplus and sell them for affordable housing; the mayor’s request for police chief search funding; and the fiscal 2027 supplemental appropriation.
- Residents were invited to the Ward 5 neighborhood meeting on October 20 at the Missituk Elementary School, the Harvest Your Energy Festival at Riverbend Park and Sarah Bradlee Fulton Day at the Salem Street Burying Ground, both October 17.
- Scarpelli welcomed Leming back to Medford and thanked him for his service.
The council records are on the CivicClerk portal (October 13 records); the meeting video is on the city’s YouTube channel.
