The Village of Oak Park | 123 Madison St.  Oak Park, IL 60302 | village@oak-park.us

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Parking Review - North Avenue, Roosevelt Road & Adjacent Neighborhoods

As the comprehensive review of Oak Park’s wide array of parking rules and regulations continues, the discussion is focused on improving the customer experience, enhancing public safety and implementing strategies that can adapt to meet parking needs as they change.

This latest in the series of Village Board parking discussions is scheduled for 7 p.m., Mon., July 10 at Village Hall, 123 Madison St.

During this discussion, the Village Board will examine current restrictions on two of the Village’s heavily traveled border streets - North Avenue and Roosevelt Road. These two sections of the Village share similar traffic patterns and regulations, and have busy commercial properties directly adjacent to residential neighborhoods. They also have experienced changes in demand over the years that may no longer be properly reflected in the current regulations.

Officials say comparing these two high-traffic routes could offer insights into how regulations, restrictions and technology could help simplify parking rules not only along our borders, but on other Village streets as well. 

As the Village Board considers regulation changes, residents are invited to read the information below and watch the video, then share their comments with the Village Board.

Comments posted on this page by noon the day of the scheduled meeting will be shared with the Village Board prior to the meeting. Comments will be moderated and will not appear immediately.

Comparing North Avenue and Roosevelt Road

On North Avenue, the issue primarily is customer parking. Restrictions vary from block to block, space is limited and the old meter technology is outdated and inefficient for managing current parking needs.

To the south on Roosevelt Road, parking rules also vary greatly and may not accurately reflect today’s needs. Developing opportunities for permit holders to share limited space with employees and customers of local businesses is essential.

Among the ideas for improvements on these two important roadways are standardizing time restrictions, testing flexible, new meter technologies and identifying new parking spaces. 

 

Comments

Submitted by Mindy Wade on

Our block currently has parking prohibited M-F 8-10 a.m. I believe that's more of an inconvenience to the residents of our block than a worthwhile restriction to deter parking from North Avenue businesses.

Submitted by Julie on

Please require alternate side of the street parking. We have rental units on our block and our street is never completely swept by the street cleaning vehicles, As a result I have to clean off our street sewer or our sidewalk and parkway will flood.

Please do this!

Submitted by Holly on

We live on a block that only allows overnight parking for permit holders. This is a huge hassle for our overnight guests and babysitters. Can you start allowing residents to buy booklets of single-use overnight permits, so our guests don't have to park over a block away?

Submitted by RichF on

I am against overnight parking. Cars parked overnight limit the police in curbing crime. Police can check on cars parked illegally overnight easier than if a street is filled with cars not knowing if they belong or not. A ban on parking also makes it easier to clean the streets. Towns that have overnight parking have streets that are not swept properly and are cluttered which is not what people living in Oak Park are paying taxes for.
A general observation is signage can be very confusing especially if a lot is used for multiple purposes. An example is the lot in the 900 block of S. Oak Park Ave. There's around 5 signs that make it almost impossible to figure out if you can park or not.

Submitted by John Vicars on

I live on the 1150 block on S. Scoville, bounded by Roosevelt Rd on the south. We are required to comply w the same 2-hour daytime parking restriction that non-residents and commercial users do. As a homeowner on this block, I believe I should be entitled to park on my own block during the daytime without restrictions just as those homeowners on blocks north of us can. Property owners on our block should issued permits to display on our cars - and those permits should be free and not involve an added fee anymore than other blocks have to pay to park in front of their homes.

Submitted by Stan on

We have a park across the street from our house where lots of kids play; I do not believe laxing the parking restrictions in the area would be good for the neighborhood due to the increased traffic it would produce. Allowing additional non-permitted parking on Maple Ave would create a public hazard. I am witness, many baseballs and soccer balls find there way across Maple Ave. Besides that, every single home bordered by Maple Park has a garage.

Submitted by Dan Seltzer on

We have no parking allowed on the 900 block of S. Kenilworth between 8 and 10. Clearly the purpose is to prevent folks from outside the neighborhood from parking on our street all day while they catch the Blue Line back and forth from work. I agree that this is a reasonable restriction - it would add traffic and use to our street and result in higher upkeep costs and make safety more difficult (especially bad since we're only a couple blocks from Lincoln). My beef is that there are times when it makes sense for me to park my vehicle in front during those hours, and I am prevented. Since Oak Park publishes the license plates on Village Vehicle Stickers, why not make an exception for those living on the block - ticket writers can check plates and Village Sticker and if the plate is registered to someone living on the block - then no ticket should be issued.

Submitted by Jacob on

We live in SE Oak Park, near Roosevelt. Many cars park on our street during the day, and some residents park on their garage aprons overnight. We support continuing the regs on overnight parking. It's our understanding that overnight is permitted during the holidays and up to 10 nights per month with notice to the OP police, and the first 3 are free. Our block can get noisy late at night, especially when the weather is nice. Much of that is due to visitors parking late at night, playing music from their cars and engaging in conversation. Any relaxation of the overnight parking restrictions on our block is likely to result in more of this, and cause a reduction in quality of life (esp. sleep) for residents, and conflicts. As far as I can tell, there is plenty of parking on Roosevelt for customers. Frankly, there isn't much commercial activity on either side of Roosevelt (esp. the Oak Park side) where we live, and more would be welcome, except we do not need more slots. We would welcome economic development initiatives from the village along Roosevelt and support a relaxation of parking regs needed to support those initiatives. However, at this time, parking doesn't seem to be a barrier to current business activity. It also seems there is capacity to support more business activity without making parking reg changes.

Submitted by Nancy Collis on

Whatever you decide, the signage needs to be much better than the new signs recently installed mid-town. Several of us - honors college graduates - failed to be able to interpret them. Thanks.