Massachusetts
Somerville looks to become second Massachusetts city to get rid of ‘unnecessary’ parking spaces
The Somerville City Council will consider a zoning ordinance to remove “unnecessary parking spaces” built with new developments, a request that proponents say is aimed at improving quality of life and “meeting climate goals.”
Council President Ben Ewen-Campen and Councilor Willie Burnley, Jr., are set to bring forth a resolution highlighting the framework of their proposal to the rest of the council on Thursday. They say they already have support from city administrators and advocates.
“This is about reducing traffic congestion, lowering costs, and meeting climate goals,” Ewen-Campen said Monday in a post on X.
In 2019, the council approved a zoning law that set a maximum number of new parking spaces built in its transit-accessible neighborhoods. The new proposal looks to apply that regulation to “certain large commercial developments” in other parts of the city while doing away with so-called “parking minimums.”
“The elimination of parking minimums in Somerville’s transit-oriented development areas has resulted in a remarkable 62% decrease in the number of parking spaces being built compared to what was previously mandated,” part of the resolution states.
Requiring “large commercial developments” to provide at least a minimum number of parking spaces, Ewen-Campen and Burnley, Jr. say, leads to “increased traffic congestion,” hampers residents’ quality of life, and impedes the city’s climate goals.
In a statement to the Herald on Tuesday, the city said Mayor Katjana Ballantyne believes the proposal “merits serious consideration” as it aligns with Somerville’s transition to cleaner modes of transportation and promotes affordable housing.
The request has caught some pushback in the community after Ewen-Campen posted a document of the resolution on social media Monday.
“Removing spaces causes more congestion with people looking for parking,” someone commented on X. “It also hurts business because many people can not navigate public (transit), and will go elsewhere if they can not park. It will bring more Uber traffic too.”
The city told the Herald that “the administration recognizes many residents currently rely on access to parking.”
“With this in mind, the City is committed to dedicating resources to employing curb use and other strategies that make the best use of limited parking resources,” a spokesperson said, “rather than mandating the creation of new parking.”
Rough 30% of parking spaces in new apartment buildings across Greater Boston are unused, according to undisclosed studies that Ewen-Campen and Burnley, Jr., cited in the resolution.
Cambridge in October 2022 became the first city or town in Massachusetts to eliminate all minimum parking space requirements from a zoning code. In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu signed an amendment earlier that year eliminating parking minimums for affordable housing developments.”
The resolution order in Somerville highlights how “the creation of even a single parking space costs, on average, $50,000 with significantly higher costs in dense metropolitan areas.”
“It is often said that zoning is the most powerful tool that municipalities have in the fight for housing affordability,” Burnley Jr. said in a post on Instagram. “By eliminating parking minimums like Cambridge did years ago, we hope to spur further affordable housing development.”
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Health insurance costs for companies soaring as we head toward 2026
Businesses and companies that provide health care coverage are facing the largest spike in health insurance costs in the past 15 years
Straight Arrow News
Elizabeth LaBrecque says the Taunton Area Chamber of Commerce created its Government Affairs Council for a very good reason.
“The idea is for legislators to help local businesses,” said LeBrecque, whose job description at the TACC is Director of Member Development.
LaBrecque, says the cost of health insurance continues to be a major concern among small and large businesses.
“Health insurance is always a major factor,” she said.
A survey of 635 small businesses in the Bay State, conducted in October 2024 by the UMass Donahue Institute in Amherst, found that 63% of respondent business owners – who offer employee health insurance and employ up to 50 full-time workers – strongly agreed with the statement that small businesses and employees in the commonwealth “have to pay higher health insurance premiums than big businesses and government.”
That sentiment was echoed by John Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.
“Health insurance has gone through the roof,” said Hurst, who has been president of the statewide business association for 35 years.
Hurst said that he and his retailers association regularly communicate with state legislators to make their concerns heard.
“And more importantly we urge our members to do that,” he said. “They are the small employers and voters in the legislators’ districts.”
The 4,000-member group also has an online “advocacy center” that connects members with legislators.
The Retailers Association of Massachusetts requested that UMass Donahue Institute conduct its survey, which included 635 respondents. The final report based on the survey results was completed in March of 2025.
Hurst also says that as of Jan. 1, 2025, the cost of health insurance for small businesses in the state had increased 13% since 2020.
LaBrecque said the TACC and its seven-member Government Affairs Council is also concerned about cost increases for other types of insurance coverage, which can include workers compensation, general liability and business owner’s policy.
It’s been three and a half years since LeBrecque came on board with the Taunton Area Chamber of Commerce – which also represents the interests of member business owners in the towns of Raynham, Dighton and Berkley. She says the TACC this past year reached a goal of 450 active members as compared to 250 when she was hired to her part-time position.
Some of those newer members, she said, also belong to other commerce chambers representing businesses in cities and towns like Fall River, New Bedford, Bridgewater and Easton.
The TACC, she said, continues to work closely with Taunton-based nonprofit SEED (South Eastern Economic Development Corporation), which provides low-interest business loans, as well as SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), a nonprofit sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Association that holds workshops and provides counseling to budding entrepreneurs.
The chamber’s website also lists a number of state and federal business resources and includes a City of Taunton Business and Development Guide created by Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) as well as a Town of Dighton Business Guide.
LaBrecque said trade tariffs imposed this year by the administration of President Donald Trump initially created concern among local beauty salon proprietors. But those fears of paying higher prices for certain products, she said, have since been allayed.
“There’s been a lot of uncertainty this year. It’s been a rocky economy,” LaBrecque said, adding that “we’re telling all our new businesses to spend wisely.”
BOSTON (WWLP) – Five Regional Transit Authorities and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) have secured $105.7 million in federal funding to modernize their bus fleets and facilities.
The funding, sourced from the Federal Transit Administration’s Low or No Emissions Grant Program and the Buses and Bus Facilities Program, will be used to purchase zero and low-emission buses and upgrade transit facilities across Massachusetts.
“Low and no emission buses deliver smoother rides, lower costs, and healthier air,” said Governor Maura Healey. “These funds will help regional transit authorities across the state purchase new buses and deliver the service that the people of Massachusetts deserve.”
The following projects received grant funding:
Low or No Emission Grant Program Awards (Total: $98,381,757):
- Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA): $78.6 million
- Merrimack Valley Transit Authority (MeVa): $7.2 million
- Lowell Regional Transit Authority (LRTA): $7.2 million
- Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA): $5.4 million
Buses & Bus Facilities Program Awards (Total: $7,475,955):
- Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA): $4.5 million
- Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA): $3 million
“PVTA is pleased to receive this significant award from the FTA’s Bus and Bus Facility Discretionary Grant Program,” said PVTA Administrator Sandra Sheehan. “This grant will enable us to maintain the Northampton Operations and Maintenance facility in a state of good repair, which is crucial for improving the safety, capacity, and reliability of our entire transit system as we work to meet growing demand as we expand service.”
Governor Healey expressed gratitude towards the team at MassDOT, the MBTA, regional transit authorities, and Senators Warren and Markey for their leadership in securing the funding.
The federal funding is expected to enhance public transportation in Massachusetts by providing cleaner, more efficient bus services, benefiting both commuters and the environment.
Local News Headlines
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Download the 22News Plus app on your TV to watch live-streaming newscasts and video on demand.
All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by WWLP. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat information into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by WWLP staff before being published.
Massachusetts
Cape Cod lobsterman scores win in fight against local Massachusetts red tape: ‘This is politics’
A lifelong Cape Cod lobsterman has received overwhelming support in his fight for survival, helping him claw through bureaucratic red tape that could revive a nearly century-old family tradition of selling lobsters from his home.
Yarmouth resident Jon Tolley says he is still wary of whether town officials in the mid-Cape Cod town will allow him to reopen his shop next year at his home, even after residents approved a bylaw that opens the door for him to do so.
“The whole town was behind me,” Tolley told the Herald via phone on Friday. “I knew they were going to be. It’s a sad thing. One person complains, and then I have to go through all of this, get lawyers and everything. For what reason? For no reason.”
The 66-year-old has caught lobsters out of Sesuit Harbor in Dennis and sold the fresh crustaceans from his home in West Yarmouth for nearly his entire life. As a youngster, he helped his father, Fred, run the family business on the same property before he took over operations in 1975.
Despite Tolley’s success over the decades, town officials forced him to operate elsewhere this past season amid a controversy that blindsided the fisherman and his neighbors.
The battle with the town began in late August 2024 when Tolley received a violation notice that he said startled him. Zoning bylaws banned retail lobster sales in a residential district, the notice stated.
An unnamed West Yarmouth resident complained about a business sign Tolley put out on Route 28, the town’s main corridor, prompting the fight, according to town officials. Tolley has argued that the complaint came from a Yarmouth police officer.
Yarmouth allowed the retail sale of fish as a commercial use in the residential district by right and without further permission until 1982.
The Zoning Board of Appeals shot down Tolley’s two appeals for a variance, which would have let him continue selling the locally harvested lobster from where his father opened up shop in 1957.
Town officials and Tolley settled on a compromise for the 2025 season.
The lobsterman found a private vacant lot along Route 28 to sell his lobsters, from where he said he found reasonable success, while the Planning Board drafted an amendment to the zoning bylaw.
Residents at a Town Meeting this week eagerly raised their hands in support of the amendment, which allows fishermen to sell their legally caught live lobsters at their homes via a ZBA-issued special permit. Less than a handful of attendees disapproved.
“In theory, even though it is a bylaw now, they can still vote no,” Tolley said of the ZBA. “See what I mean? They can vote no, and of course, you take them to court, and you win in one second because it is a bylaw.”
“All of this is politics,” he added.
In a video previewing the Town Meeting, Town Manager Robert Whritenour called the lobster bylaw his “favorite” article that residents would be voting on. He described Tolley’s situation as “quite a kerfuffle.”
The bylaw, Whritenour said, will “provide a process to enable a fisherman to sell live lobsters out of a residential location, obviously under certain safeguards to protect the integrity of the neighborhood, but that addresses … concerns.”
Residents at the Town Meeting voiced their outrage over how lobster sales became controversial.
Resident Sally Johnson said she’s been a “very strong advocate” of Tolley’s. She pointed to how she felt the ZBA chairman was “very intimidating to his board and to the community in the building” during a meeting in April.
The chairman, Sean Igoe, blocked Tolley’s attorney, Jonathan Polloni, from arguing his client’s case and the dozens of residents in support, who flocked to Town Hall, from expressing how they viewed the business as not a detriment to the community.
Residents shouted out their sharp disappointment: “Read the room!” “Dictatorship!” “Generations are leaving Cape Cod!” “You will only have millionaires living here!”
“It is absolutely ridiculous that it’s gotten to this point,” Johnson said on Monday. “It has mushroomed into chaos.”
Tolley has sued the town over his battle, filing a complaint in land court. Following a July hearing, the court encouraged the lobsterman and officials to “consider the possibility of mediation or remand of this matter to avoid the time, expense, and risk of further litigation.”
As of Friday, the case wasn’t scheduled to be heard again until next March, according to records.
“It’s a shame Jon had to fight this battle,” resident Cheryl Ball, who leads the group, Cape Cod Concerned Citizens, told the Herald, “but I’m thankful our community and several board members stepped up to support him. We need to continue to defend Cape Cod’s culture before it’s completely eroded.”
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