New auto repair shops, already facing other anti-nuisance restrictions, would be required to have on-site space to park their customers’ cars under a measure that won preliminary Chicago City Council approval Tuesday.
The council’s Zoning Committee voted to require shops to have at least two parking spaces on the premises for every repair stall or every 300 square feet of shop space, whichever is greater.
Designed to combat the practice of some shop owners of parking cars on congested neighborhood streets, the measure will go before the full City Council for consideration on Wednesday.
While existing shops with proper licenses would be exempted from the new law, the measure still drew fire from the Automotive Service Association of Illinois, an organization with 700 local members who employ about 8,000 workers.
According to Mike Melfi Sr., head of the association, the law could be used to bar the expansion of existing shops. He also complained about those in the auto repair business being unfairly singled out.
Congestion on the street “is a problem that goes with urban living,” he said. “Why blame us? We are not the problem.”
Melfi’s shop is in the 4500 block of North Damen Avenue where, he said, there are 74 residences, but only 47 parking spaces along the street. The building housing his business was constructed in 1904 in a simpler and less congested era, when it was used as a carriage repair shop, he said.
Other association members who attended the committee meeting said that tight city locations would make it difficult for operators to find new sites big enough to comply with the proposed ordinance.
Moreover, Melfi contended that almost all shop owners have cars off the street by the time local residents arrive home from work, and he said they don’t leave customers’ autos parked on the streets overnight for fear of vandalism and theft.
But Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th), sponsor of another ordinance to be considered by the council Wednesday–one that would prevent repair shops from using alleys to test and shuttle cars–hailed the committee’s vote.
Community groups in her North Side ward continually complain “about the hazards and blight being created by auto repair shops storing and dumping vehicles on the residential streets,” Smith said.
