Marblehead Nixes Winter Parking Ban, Boosts Snow Emergency Fines

MARBLEHEAD, MA — While Marblehead residents will be able to park overnight on the street this winter, they will have to pay up a lot more if they don’t remove vehicles during a snow emergency.

As a result of a combination of two articles overwhelmingly approved at the special town meeting held under the tent at Our Lady Star of the Sea Community Center parking lot on Saturday, the overnight parking ban in the winter will be lifted and in its place the fine for parking on the street during a snow emergency will increase from $25 to $100.

The vote followed a working group's recommendation that the increase of the snow emergency ticket was enough of an incentive to get people to get their cars off the road when a snow emergency is declared.

The two articles were passed among the 300 who attended the special town meeting.

"It went very well under the tent," Marblehead Town Administrator Jason Silva said. "The weather was cold, but that didn't keep residents from attending. … Even while it was raining, all stayed dry, sound and visual displayed worked effectively."

Silva said town meeting attendees stayed socially distanced under the tent and were encouraged to wear face masks at all times.

Other notable articles included one approving the acceptance of a donation of land for the intersection project at Village, Vine and Pleasant streets, and one allowing the town into temporary and permanent easements for the project.

Attendees passed an article allowing the Board of Selectmen to set 20 mile-per-hour safety zones in certain parts of town, and set the speed limits at 25 miles per hour in all thickly settled areas of town that were previously unposted.

An article aimed at restricting gas-powered leaf blowers during certain times of the day in the summer failed.

The meeting members also voted to create a stabilization fund to hold the town’s reserve funds and to place a deed restriction on the town-owned Pickett House. The restriction will allow two units in the building currently rented to seniors to count toward Marblehead's subsidized affordable housing inventory.