Hinsdale's Downtown Parking Fines May Increase

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale has plenty of parking available downtown, thanks to the completion of a parking deck a couple of years ago, officials said this week.

The officials said they wanted to keep train commuters to Chicago from using on-street parking and the deck. They also said they aimed to keep employees of downtown businesses from parking on the street.

The village's goal is to reserve on-street parking for customers of downtown businesses.

Now, the village is considering doing away with the 300 parking meters downtown and instituting three-hour parking zones.

The fine for failing to feed parking meters is $8. Under a village staff proposal, the fine for exceeding the three-hour limit would be $25.

"That's not to raise revenue, but to have turnover," Village President Tom Cauley said at this week's Village Board meeting.

On average, 74 percent of parking spaces in the lower deck were occupied in the morning and 81 percent in the afternoon, according to a January study. Parking there is unlimited.

"Both the parking deck and alleviation of on-street parking is working fairly well," Cauley said.

Police Chief Brian King said the $25 fine has been effective in other towns. The challenge for years, he said, has been keeping downtown business employees from on-street parking.

"You have a high percentage of employees using metered spaces because the meter fees were so low and the fine structure was low, so people could move from spot to spot to spot," King said. "Occasionally, we would get complaints from one business that another business' employees were taking up their spots."

He said plenty of employee "red permit" parking areas are "sitting practically open."

"There is plenty of capacity to get the employees out of those metered spaces and create turnover," King said.

With the three-hour zone, the police would use license plate readers to enforce the rule. Even if a person moved to another spot in the zone and exceeded the time limit, that would count as a violation, officials said.

The village staff recommends increasing the parking fee at the Washington Street parking lot to $1 an hour, from 25 cents. That would be consistent with the Garfield Street lot.

The Village Board made no decisions. Village staff hopes to make the parking changes in June.