Bonnie Haloulos waits up every night for her 21-year-old daughter to come home from school or work. Once she arrives safely, mother and daughter begin a trek.
They search their Oak Park neighborhood for a parking space. All too often, the best spot they can find is a long, sometimes frightening four-block walk from their home.
“I own my home, but everybody in the family has their own car and their own schedule, and there isn’t enough room to park all the cars on our lot,” Haloulos said. “And we can’t park in front of our house. It’s really frustrating to have to walk so far just to park the car.”
That frustration will be eased soon for Haloulos and more than 2,100 other Oak Park residents caught in the village’s parking crunch. Village trustees agreed this week that they will work to ease Oak Park’s 65-year-old overnight parking ban in several high-density areas as a short-term solution to the parking shortage.
Parking has long been at a premium in a village designed when few families had cars. Now that many families own at least two cars, however, the need for parking spaces has increased tenfold and put residents in frequently uncomfortable situations, said Charlotte Cohen, a longtime village resident.
“My roommate and I walk a half-mile to our parking spaces at 11 p.m.,” said Vanessa Sanchez, an apartment dweller. “That’s scary. We should not have to choose between our personal safety and getting a (parking) ticket.”
“It’s not Oak Park, it’s `Oak No-Park,’ ” added resident Jim Stevens.
Citing safety and crime prevention, Oak Park has banned on-street overnight parking since 1929. The ban was first eased in 1988 to allow residents of several multifamily buildings to park on one side of the street.
Police have found no correlation between crime and on-street parking, said Oak Park Police Chief Joseph Mendrick.
The new plan will allow on-street, overnight permit parking for 2,172 vehicles between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. in neighborhoods with a heavy concentration of multifamily housing along South Austin Boulevard, Oak Park Avenue, Marion Street and Washington Boulevard. Parking would not be permitted in front of schools, churches or parks.
The village’s 2:30 to 6 a.m. parking ban will remain in effect in neighborhoods zoned for single-family homes and some multifamily residential areas, officials said.
Parking will be restricted on alternate sides of the streets between 8 and 10 a.m. for daytime street sweeping, fall leaf removal and snow plowing, said Vincent Akhimie, public works director.
While acknowledging the new plan is a “Band-Aid solution” in the long term, trustees agreed that freeing on-street parking space is a temporary necessity.
“Given the size, scope and urgency of the problem, and the relative modesty of the solution, I don’t see how we can say `no,’ ” said Trustee William Fillmore.
Most village residents agree the lack of parking is a problem. Many see it as a problem for renters, a group that homeowners often think of as transient.
But at least half the village’s 55,000 people live in rental properties, and apartment building owners say it is increasingly difficult to rent units without readily available parking space.
“Tenants and landlords are a significant part of the affluence of this village,” Trustee Vernette Schultz said. “People must stop thinking they are not.”
Village staff members will fine-tune the parking plan during the next several weeks. Trustees said they expect to approve the plan Oct. 3.
Despite trustee support, some residents remain skeptical about the solution and asked officials to extend their study of the problem. Haloulos has an offer for them.
“Come to my house, bring your car and spend a week with me,” she said. “I guarantee you’ll change your mind.”
