By Patrick McGroarty
Reporter Staff

A plan to institute four-hour resident-only parking in a portion of Edward Everett Square will come to a vote at the John W. McCormack Civic Association meeting on June 20.

The decision to implement an adjusted resident-only period, Monday through Friday, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., was made at a special association meeting on Thursday evening.

Civic association members have lobbied for a resident parking program since 2003 in an effort to discourage commuters from leaving vehicles on the neighborhood's streets while they commute into downtown or out to Quincy on the Red line using JFK station. Last year, a petition proposing a 7 to 11 a.m. resident-only window gleaned the requisite 50 percent-plus-one signatures from inhabitants of five contingent streets surrounding lower Mt. Vernon and Buttonwood, streets considered by residents to be the most congested by commuter parking.

Leading up to Thursday's meeting, some area residents had expressed frustration that the Transportation department, and subsequently the civic group, had shifted the discussion to a six or eight hour window. At last month's regular association meeting, attendees voted to enact a six or eight hour window and arranged for Thursday's meeting with Timlin to hash out precise hours of enforcement.

"When I signed the petition, it was for a four-hour window," said Michelle Lysakowski, a 35-year resident of Mt. Vernon St., as Thursday's meeting began. "Some of the considerations change with making the period such a long time."Tom Timlin, transportation commissioner for the City of Boston, explained that the issue was not the length of the window, but the start time. 7 a.m., he said, was too early to get meter maids into the neighborhood.

"You've come to us asking for help," said Timlin. "I need enough time to get into the neighborhood and deliver the effect you want."

He suggested a compromise, in which the original four-hour window would be restored, beginning at 10 a.m. The idea met with little resistance, save for several business owners hesitant not about the specific hours of the window, but the crunch a resident program would create for employees of businesses along Dorchester Avenue and Boston Street, who rely on side street parking.

"During this period, there would probably be four or five employee vehicles in need of parking spots just from businesses on our block," said John Gillespie, owner of the Dunkin' Donuts located in the New Store on the Block at 847 Dorchester Avenue. "I just want this process to take their needs into account as well."

Again, Timlin assured attendees that a compromise could be reached, in part by placing visitor or two-hour parking spots throughout the neighborhood at locations chosen by residents and business owners.

Timlin said that a walk-thru between a city engineer and residents to determine the location of visitor and temporary parking spots could take place within the next two weeks. If the adjusted four-hour window is ratified by a vote of the McCormack Civic Association on June 20, installation of no-parking signs would begin almost immediately thereafter.