Worcester City Council Agenda Preview: November 18, 2025
Honorary Streets, Fixing the City Website, Taxes
The City Council meeting is Tuesday at 6:30pm.
Zoom link: https://worcesterma.zoomgov.com/j/1613631913
Public and Private Streets: There’s a request to make a private part of Hooper Street a public street. This will go to the Public Works Committee for discussion.
Honorary Streets: There are requests to make part of Sutton Lane an honorary Perlman Family Way, after a family which has “provided funeral services for over 110 years,” and part of Commercial Street an honorary Sandy L. Dunn Way, after the longtime manager of the DCU Center. These will go to the Public Works Committee for discussion.
Resident Permit Parking: There are requests for resident-only parking on parts of Howland Terrace, Elizabeth Street, Beaver Street, Norton Street, Melville Street, and Windsor Street. These requests will go to the Parking Committee for discussion.
Schools: There are a few items, both from the Public Works Committee and Councilor Ojeda, having to do with school cafeterias, food waste, and students providing meals to poll workers, possibly all of which are outside the purview of the City Council. I note these here because a few years back the Council frequently had items on the agenda that only the School Committee had authority over, but it’s been awhile since that’s happened.
Rental Registry: Under the city’s recently-adopted “rental registry” program, “Newly developed dwellings … shall be exempt from the requirement to register said dwellings for a period of five (5) years from the date of the occupancy permit.” Councilor Haxhiaj has a request for an amendment to the ordinance that would eliminate this grace period.
More Rental Registry: If a new building is sold within the 5-year grace period, the grace period expires. There’s a 370-unit complex recently opened near downtown called Alta on the Row, which was sold last month. Councilor Haxhiaj has an additional item asking the Manager to make sure the rental registry requirement is enforced and that they pay the $15/unit fee.
Rodeos: Councilor King has an item prohibiting “tools of torture” at rodeos in Worcester, and in particular prohibiting electric prods and flank straps. (A quick Google search shows that there are rodeos in Worcester.)
The New, Screwed-Up Agenda-Management Software: The Clerk has a long letter complaining about various problems with the city’s new agenda-management software, as well as new software they’re supposed to use to register marriages, dogs, and businesses. As a casual user of the city’s public meeting web pages, I’ve mostly noticed problems, and not benefits, of the new platform. Among other things, the Clerk requests that the Chief Information Officer come up with a plan “to rebuild the city’s agenda management software,” “to return all functionality lost on the city’s website after the city transitioned to a new website vendor,” and to ensure that all the old “Citrix- based programs be updated and maintained.”
Constables: The Manager is appointing Angel L. Santana, Carmen De La Cruz, Juan De La Cruz, and Kevin Derry as constables.
Boards and Commissions: The Manager is appointing Jeffrey Burnett to the Historical Commission, and reappointing Thuha Le and Roxana Vargas Gomez to the Elder Affairs Commission.
Poor Farm Brook: The Council is asked to approve property owners granting a conservation restriction to the Greater Worcester Land Trust for 10 acres at 115 Northeast Cutoff, associated with Poor Farm Brook (aka Great Brook). This doesn’t involve the city in any way except that the Council must approve conservation restrictions.
Selling 100 Providence Street: The Manager wants the Council’s approval to try to sell this “vacant, 12,440 square foot building on a 9,987 square foot parcel of land,” which the Fire Department controls but doesn’t want, for $1 million.
Property Tax Rates: The Manager has a report on some tax rate and budget stuff, as the Council begins the post-election process of figuring out property tax rates for next year.
Personal Property Tax Exemption: The CFO would like the Council to adopt a personal property tax exemption for small businesses, which wouldn’t have to pay taxes if they owned less than $10,000 of things like “furniture, equipment, electronic devices, piping, wiring, etc.” This would cost the city less than $250k of tax revenue per year, and if I’m reading the CFO’s letter right, we’d save more than $250k of staff time by ignoring that stuff.