Too many vehicles, and too little available street parking; that’s the dilemma some Naperville residents are experiencing. What is one to do?
Parking on the street in Naperville is prohibited from 2 to 5 a.m. Additionally, vehicles may not block any portion of the sidewalk, roadway, or curb line. The City sees this as addressing security and safety issues, while some neighborhood residents consider this as an inconvenience resulting in a huge headache.
Some council members view this as a one-size-fits-all issue, create an ordinance in which everyone abides by the same parameters, others think it should be flexible based on specific circumstances. The question becomes, how do you make this fair for everybody. The answer is you can’t unless one-size fits all.
Watch and listen to councilman Paul Leong as he questions/challenges Bill Novack, Director of Transportation, Engineering, and Development (TED) regarding Naperville’s current parking restrictions and the possible flexible guidelines:
Leong continues:
Finally councilman Paul Hinterlong reaches into his bag of common sense, keeping it simple, and being pragmatic:
Here is a unique idea, rather than using a garage as a gigantic garbage can, how about using it to house a vehicle or two.
Is parking a problem? Yes and No.
Most single family homes built in Naperville have enough driveway and garage parking to easily handle 3-4 cars. So the only time these residents have a problem is when they have visitors, give every child their own car or use the garage for something other then to park cars.
Townhouses and Condos have been built in Naperville to provide parking for 1-2 cars and provide an addition 1-2 parking places on the street. Again the problem here is when the when the designated parking is being used for other then parking (storing trail, boat, RV, etc) and when they have visitors.
The biggest problem tends to come from businesses or public use operations. Many businesses (retail, restaurants, bars, etc) clustered together (as in the downtown area) have not been well planned for providing their customer with parking spaces. There is a tendency for these businesses to each count the same parking spaces for use by their customers meaning any given parking space is being counted as usable for multiple business’s customers at the same time (not physically realistic). And in the case of public use there is a tendency to not plan any parking for when these public spaces are used to host community events (concerts, festivals, art shows, etc) aside for their normal public use.
But the biggest part of Naperville’s parking problem is everyone expecting they should be able to park right in front of the business, public space, resident, etc they are going to because that is what is most convenient for them. There is a growing tendency in both this city and this country for people to think only about what is best for them, what best serves their personal needs before what best serves the needs of the community.