Many Are Hoping Current Study Leads to More Parking

With a parking study of downtown Downers Grove underway, village officials are cautious to opine whether a shortage of spaces even exists until the study is completed. 

Others, however, are convinced there is a definite need for more parking.

“Obviously we are challenged for parking north of the tracks,” said Willis Johnson, owner of the Tivoli Theatre and Tivoli Hotel. 

Linda Kunze, president of the Downers Grove Downtown Management Corp., agrees there is a shortage of parking. She said her organization has worked over the years to listen to residents’ concerns and has sometimes helped individual businesses with parking issues. 

“It’s enough of a concern that the village designated money to do a study,” said Nan Newlon, director of Public Works. The study will look at available parking, where the demand is, how residents perceive downtown parking, long-term needs, and whether existing parking is being managed in the best way, she said.

Is there a shortage? “I don’t think we’re really going to know that until we complete the study,” Newlon said, adding that the way the village manages parking also could be an issue. “That’s what we’ll look at.”

Expensive solutions

No plans are currently underway to create additional parking, Newlon said. “Additional parking is, frankly, expensive. We don’t have money included in the budget for additional parking.”

But some solutions are more expensive than others. Creating parking in an elevated structure costs about 10 times more than in a surface lot, she said.

The size and location of the land available for parking often dictates the shape it will take. Sometimes the only option is to build up. Or, the parcel may be prime real estate in the downtown area and, therefore, less desirable to use for parking.

If the study results indicate parking is needed sooner rather than later, further in-depth analysis will be done as to the specific location, the cost and funding, Newlon said.

The parking study, conducted by Michigan-based Rich and Associates Inc., is scheduled to be completed in early September. The contract for nearly $45,000 was approved in May. The 18-week study is now in the data collection phase—pedestrian, resident and business surveys are being completed, along with a parking space inventory, land use review, and analysis of signage and enforcement. Current parking management policies also will be examined. 

Recommendations, including implementation schedules, costs and benefits, will be categorized as near-, mid- and long-term.

Those most impacted by downtown parking fall into two groups: commuters and business customers and employees.

Commuters, who pay a daily fee to park, complain there’s no space for them, but perhaps, they’re not looking in the right places, Newlon said.

Meanwhile, business owners always are sensitive to customers who say they experienced parking troubles, she said. For them, there aren't enough short-term places to park. 

Two floors of the downtown parking deck, 945 Curtiss St., are reserved for commuters. One floor is open to employees, while the ground floor offers free parking for less than four hours.

The village also has an agreement with Metra. Lots A and B are located on property but owned by the Burlington Northern, which requires the village to provide a specific number of commuter spaces.

Kunze said it’s always challenging to convince Metra to cede street spaces in exchange for deck parking. However, the village has been successful in working with Metra, which has given up more street spaces.

Vying for spaces

Kunze said there are plenty of commuter spaces allotted, but they are all full. There is a waiting list for commuters who want street parking, which includes commuters from other towns who drive to Downers Grove to catch the train.

Eventually, some commuters may be moved to the Belmont Road parking lots, Kunze said.

Newlon said the village hears the “north of the tracks” complaints as well. “I think that maybe there’s a perception that when there’s a deck on the south side maybe there should be more parking on the north side,” she said. 

“We would love to have another parking deck for employees there—and the theatre,” Kunze said. “That would be a dream come true.”

Employees and customers always say there is not enough parking, she said. Customers want parking on the street right in front of the building, though many are utilizing the deck, which offers four-hour parking for shoppers.

Kunze said her office is trying to convince employees to park in the deck and leave street parking open for customers. “Customers are our priority, and we’re always trying to find more parking,” she said.

Parking also can be a problem for residents of downtown apartments which don’t provide parking. Kunze works with the village to get residential permit parking spaces allotted in the deck.

Some have suggested constructing a second parking deck on the village lot behind the library at Forest and Burlington avenues. Kunze hopes the question will be addressed by the study.

The current parking deck met with considerable resistance when it was approved a decade ago. “People were basically skeptical that it would be beneficial to the downtown,” said Doug Kozlowski, communications director. “And as it turns out it’s been incredibly beneficial and very highly utilized.”

A June 15 survey of the parking deck indicated the average occupancy was 90 percent, with 691 or the 772 spaces filled, he said.

A north-side solution?

But if parking can be an inconvenience south of the tracks, the businesses north of the tracks are hurt as a result of the limited parking available there, Johnson said. “The railroad tracks are not only a physical barrier, but a psychological barrier.” 

Several years ago Johnson and others tried to promote a mid-block track crossing between Main and Washington so people could easily access the lot on the south side of the tracks, but the railroad company vetoed the plan, he said.

Johnson, who also owns property adjacent to the theatre, “offered to make some land available” a few years ago in an attempt to provide a north-side parking solution.

“I had some discussion with the village regarding some property, as to whether or not they might be interested in some kind of arrangement that they could build parking on the north side,” he said. Village officials looked into it and “decided that it did not work for the village,” he said.

Johnson has attended meetings about the parking situation and was interviewed for the current parking study.

He is pleased the village commissioned the study, but disappointed with the current situation. He would have preferred the current parking deck to be one-third smaller—and, as a result, less expensive to build—so a second deck could have been built on the north side.

“It’s very easy for a lay person like myself to point and say ‘you should do this,’ but you don’t know all that goes into it,” Johnson said, adding that is why the village is having a study done. 

“I think we’re, unfortunately, a step or two behind where we need to be or should be, but you know, the world is not perfect, but they’re at least stepping up to the plate by doing the parking study,” he said. “I think this is a very positive move and I support them.”