Customers at shops such as Sephora, Old Navy and AT&T in downtown Oak Park can expect a new parking system intended to reduce abuse of the surface lot and eliminate the need for towing to go into effect soon.
The village and business owners have received complaints about the enforcement measures for parking restrictions at the parking lot at 401-435 N. Harlem Ave., 1128-1165 Westgate St. and 1137-1147 Lake St., said Emily Egan, the village’s development services director. Visitors to this lot were often towed, a method of enforcement that often hurt business operations.
The new parking system
The new system will be in operation 24 hours, seven days a week. Under this method, the entrances and exits to the lot will have cameras that will collect a vehicle’s license plate as the driver enters and exits the lot. This is known as license plate recognition technology.
Those in the lot for 30 minutes or less will not be charged. Customers of the shops of downtown Oak Park will be able to validate their parking through QR codes or through a text function, and also will not be charged. Shop merchants can validate parking even if the visitor does not buy an item but does browse the store. For visitors who park in this lot, stay more than 30 minutes, and do not get their parking validated, they will have to pay through a website, an app or by phone call.
For 31 minutes to an hour, the fee will be $2. For one hour to two hours, the fee will be $4. The increments go up each additional hour by $2 until four to six hours of parking. For four to six hours, the fee is $12. Six to 11 hours is $17, and 11 to 24 hours is $24. The transaction fee may also be about $0.99 per parking session.
This surface lot, like The Emerson Garage, will not produce any revenue for the village. Both are private property.
To enforce this new system, visitors who leave without paying, when required, may receive an invoice in the mail with an additional fee. This fee would likely be about $50, according to a representative from SP+, the parking service lot provider. For non-repeat offenders, they can ask to have this fee waived.
The system is intended to identify and send an invoice to “chronic abusers” of the lot, said Karl Camillucci, the attorney of the applicant, SDOP Corp., a Delaware Corporation.
If a repeat offender’s invoice is not paid and they park in the lot again, they could be towed. Towing is inconvenient but usually effective, Village President Vicki Scaman said.
“Towing is the only thing that changes people’s behavior,” Scaman said. “Once you have been towed, you don’t do it again.”
Trustees’ discussion
The license plate data will be stored for 90 days, according to village officials, as long as the parking session was paid. If a user does not pay or validate their parking, their license plate data may be kept for up to five years.
The way the system is set up, license plate data would be collected from any vehicle that enters the lot, even if the driver is just passing through. Owner information is not collected and stored, however, said Craig Failor, the village planner.
Trustee Cory Wesley, who voted against both agenda items associated with this plan, said he opposed the collection of data for drivers who are only passing through. Trustee Chibuike Enyia agreed.
Camillucci said he could talk with the technology provider about ways to purge that information sooner for drivers who clearly did not park in the lot based on timestamps from the cameras.
Oak Park’s plan commission voted 6-2 in favor of the new parking system. At least one of the commissioners also did not like the disclosure of license plate data associated with this system, said Nick Bridge, a member of the plan commission.
Visitors can, however, opt in to having their credit card on file for convenience when paying for a parking session, Camillucci said. In that case, the payment information would be stored. He suggested those concerned about having their personal information stored not opt in for this option, in which case their payment information is purged immediately.
Trustee Brian Straw said he thinks there are better ways to use the land in downtown areas than promoting use of surface lots. He said allowing surface lots to generate revenue was a “poor precedent” to set.
“This structure starts to read as almost as predatory as towing,” Straw said, referring to the collections industry standards.
“This is not a predatory endeavor,” Camillucci responded. “This is really a property owner who is trying to respond to past criticisms from the residents, customers of its own property and the village.”
Trustee Susan Buchanan, who voted in favor of the new system, said she was “flummoxed” by her fellow trustees’ concerns.
“Driving is a privilege,” she said. “Nobody has a right to free parking in downtown Oak Park … People need to change their parking behavior.”
The amendment to the zoning ordinance for the new system passed 5-2 with Straw and Wesley voting against it. The ordinance granting a special use permit for the lot passed 6-1 with Wesley voting against it.
The trustees’ approval to the special use permit was conditional on two things: additional signage for parkers to be aware of the new parking fee system and development of a policy that is consistent with the village’s relationship with third party credit agencies. The village does not turn over past due tickets to credit reporting agencies, Scaman said. Staff will approve this policy.
“I am not confident that this is going to do what you think it’s going to do in making more parking available for the people who shop at the shops in that lot,” Scaman said. “I just believe you have the right to make your own mistakes.”