City Councilors Take Up Issue of Private/Public Alleyways

The contentious issue of public vs. private alleyways has been taken up by City Councilors Felix Arroyo and Bill Linehan who requested a hearing on the issue during Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

Arroyo, an at-large councilor and Linehan, who represents a large portion of the South End, filed a petition requesting a hearing on the issue last week. On Wednesday, Linehan said many South End residents are understandably confused over the distinction between public and private alleys. While abutters of public alleyways receive city services such as plowing and pothole repairs, those living along private ways do not.

“What we’re looking for is just to have a hearing [so] we know what we can do with these private alleyways.” he said Wednesday.

District 1 Councilor Sal LaMattina, who represents Charlestown, the North End, East Boston and Beacon Hill, said the issue is very much city-wide.

“There’s a lot of private alleyways in my district that face the same problems,” he said. “We pay the same amount of taxes to the city of Boston and the people that live in these private ways deserve the same level of services.”

LaMattina and Councilors Maurreen Feeney and Charles Yancey added their names to the petition, which was sent to the council’s Committee on City and Neighborhood Services.

The issue of private vs. public alleyways has been debated frequently in past months by various South End neighborhood associations who brought the matter to the council’s attention, Arroyo said Wednesday.

In particular, residents of the Eight Streets neighborhood were at odds last October over a installed at the entrance to the Milford/Hanson Street alleyway, preventing access to emergency responders. According to abutters, the gate was installed by a neighbor without their knowledge despite the fact that, as a private alleyway, each abutter owns a slice of it.

A conflict among residents of the Ellis neighborhood erupted in December when abutters were asked to split a $154,000 bill for the renovation of sewer lines along an alleyway behind their properties. The existing lines, which dated back to 1886, were in dire need of replacement, said association member Paul Duffy.

“It was an expensive problem," he said at the time. "We had to get the health department involved because people didn't want to pay."