Hinsdale Downtown Workers Still Park On Street: Officials

HINSDALE, IL – Like many towns, Hinsdale is trying to get downtown merchants and employees to park off the street.

That way, customers can have the best spots.

"There are merchants and their employees still parking on the street," Village President Tom Cauley said at Tuesday's Village Board meeting.

The lower level of the 3-year-old parking deck is a place where employees with permits can park. The village has other places as well.

Officials said they have been reaching out to businesses to inform them of their options.

Since the parking deck opened in summer 2020, the village has allowed parking without restrictions on its lower level. Officials wanted to see how things played out, given the pandemic's unpredictability.

Now, Hinsdale is considering a six-hour parking restriction on the lower level. That is meant to keep commuters out of the deck and move them to the outside commuter lots.

Parking on the street is generally limited to three hours.

Asked about enforcement of the three-hour rule, Police Chief Brian King said it has gone relatively well. From January to mid-April, the village issued 359 parking tickets, he said.

"The key to success on that is turnover, whether they are individual tickets or the high-end users," King said.

Before the pandemic, he said, 30 percent of on-street parking was taken by merchants and employees.

Trustee Luke Stifflear asked the board to take no immediate action on the six-hour proposal for the parking deck. He said he received two emails from residents about the proposal and that he wanted them to get a chance to speak.

Cauley asked Stifflear about the residents' concerns.

Stifflear replied, "They didn't want their commuter spaces in the deck to go away because they are parking for free."

Trustees and others laughed.

The board took no action.