Saugus parking woes become battle

SAUGUS – A dispute over parking among neighbors has earned the nickname “The Battle of Summer Drive” after the problem was brought before selectmen this week.The situation began last winter, when a member of the Defarias family at 14 Summer Drive backed a vehicle out of the driveway and almost hit a truck belonging to Jeff Plouffe, a neighbor who frequently parked in the street. Arguments among the Defarias family and Plouffe escalated to neighbors choosing sides over whether residents should be allowed to park on the narrow street.?I never had an issue with parking. I park in the street, my husband parks in the street,” neighbor Ann Dominick, 9 Summer Drive, told the board. “This is just some difficult people who want to complain about anything.”The issue before the board was a vote on whether to grant the Defarias family a parking space for the disabled on the street so they would no longer have to back cars out of their driveway and therefore avoid hitting Plouffe?s truck. Selectmen Clerk Wendy Reed said Annette Defarias is disabled, according to documentation she provided to the police department in her application for the spot.No member of the Defarias family showed up at the meeting, but Plouffe told the board he has parked his truck in his driveway every night since he was issued warnings by police. Plouffe said he had parked on the street for “seven years without incident,” and did not know why the Defarias family suddenly had a “slight problem with the situation, as they sometimes do.”Plouffe added, “As for the handicapped sticker, someone with a six-car driveway doesn?t need it.”Saugus Police Sgt. Paul Van Steensburg, who has been monitoring the situation at Summer Drive, told the board that the department did not recommend the approval of the handicapped spot. “It?s a very tight street,” he said. “It will cause greater traffic problems.”Van Steensburg said it didn?t make sense to place a parking spot for the disabled in the street because it would be farther away from the house?s entrance than the driveway. To park in the street, the handicapped individual would still have to walk through the driveway or across the lawn. “There?s a fairly large driveway with two vehicles,” he said. “That?s the safest option.”The board agreed to follow Van Steensburg?s recommendation, voting unanimously to reject the space for the disabled. Following the vote, Selectman Steve Castinetti, who gave the dispute its nickname, told the group of residents at the meeting that they would have to learn to live together.?This isn?t the first time we?ve had a neighborhood dispute manifested in terms of parking,” he said. “Putting in a handicapped parking space or putting no parking signs on one side of the street ? doesn?t do anything to solve the problem.”Even though the board rejected the space for the disabled, “something tells me it?s not going to end there,” Reed said. “It?s pretty sad that the neighbors can?t work it out.”