Naperville City Council members want the Transportation Advisory Board to review the city’s overnight parking ban before they consider possible changes to the decades-old rule.
Since at least 1960, Naperville has prohibited on-street parking between 2 and 5 a.m. City staff believe the overnight parking ban was adopted as a way to deter crime in an era when it was uncommon for households to have multiple vehicles.
Complaints about the restriction began increasing around 2010, and while the city has exceptions to the rule, residents continue to seek relief, according to a staff report.
Residents living in certain multifamily developments can park overnight with a hangtag as part of the city’s overnight parking program. Those ineligible for the program may request temporary permission from the police, limited to three requests per vehicle per month.
Last year, Naperville received 10,776 temporary parking requests and issued 9,334 overnight parking citations, staff said.
To address some of those concerns, staff presented the council with a number of possible changes, including a recommended option to allow parking between 2 and 5 a.m. on one side of the street, with the allowed side alternating depending on the calendar date.
Staff noted that the rule should not apply when there is 2 or more inches of snow on the ground, in certain sections of cul-de-sacs or on streets where overnight parking would leave less than 18 feet of usable roadway.
“It’s a tricky problem because something like this, we’re trying to improve quality of life for our residents,” Councilman Patrick Kelly said. “What I’m hearing from a lot of folks is that if you try to improve the quality of life for some people, it might arguably decrease the quality of life for others.”
Other suggested alternatives include the complete elimination of the overnight parking ban or the expansion of eligibility requirements for the overnight parking program.
Currently, the program is open only to multifamily neighborhoods developed prior to 2015 with an active homeowners association. The association distributes the hangtags, which can only be used in the neighborhood in which the resident lives.
“One of the compelling arguments for looking into this is times have changed,” Councilwoman Mary Gibson said. “There’s more multigenerational households, more kids coming back to live at home, so I do think it’s worth reevaluating.”
Gibson added that she would like more data on how cars parked on the street impact safety.
“There seems to be this perception that it’s more dangerous to have cars out on the street, kids darting out in between them, and I wonder if that’s really the case,” she said. “One of the compelling arguments I heard was actually, when there’s cars on the street, the street’s more narrow and it forces drivers to slow down.”
Councilman Benny White said Naperville’s varying street layouts may require a more tailored approach to parking enforcement.
“I don’t think a one-size-fits-all approach is going to work because Naperville is made up of different types of streets,” White said. “We’ve got the historic district. We have a downtown. I live out in south Naperville, the streets are wider down there. … Our speed limits aren’t the same on every street because it’s a different condition, different environment.”
Not everyone was on board with altering the overnight parking ban, with some council members and residents expressing concern that changing it could cause more problems.
“Others have rightly noted that in towns where overnight parking is permitted, the garages tend to turn into storage units and streets fill up with cars,” resident Tim Messer said. “We know that this happens now and I think it’s only going to increase.”
Resident Marilyn Schweitzer made a similar point, noting that some of the reasons she hears for lifting the ban — including having to move cars to accommodate work schedules — do not qualify as “hardships.”
She added that coordination with street cleaning and leaf pickup is already difficult and will likely worsen if the rules are changed.
Councilman Nate Wilson said he shared many of Schweitzer’s views, including concerns over increased safety hazards and enforcement challenges.
“This really needs to be heard (by) the Transportation Advisory Board and there should be some public hearings on this particular issue,” Mayor Scott Wehrli said. One solution could be to have a complaint-based system rather than active police enforcement, he said.
The council unanimously agreed to send the issue to the board for further review.
cstein@chicagotribune.com
