Officials are taking a look at downtown Naperville’s parking landscape as another holiday shopping season draws near.
Members of the Downtown Advisory Commission agree that the availability and convenience of parking spots are crucial elements of a successful retail district. As work moves ahead on expanding the inventory of spaces available at the downtown parking facilities, city staff has been compiling data from a community survey and other sources about the availability of spaces for those who come downtown to shop and eat, with an eye on interim improvements. The commission is scheduled to hear a report in December summing up the input received.
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Usually conducted every two years, this year’s survey was the first one done since 2012, eliciting about 800 responses. Transportation team leader Jennifer Louden said the process was postponed a year because the Main Street Promenade East project was still under construction early in 2014. This year’s questionnaire drew 721 respondents, Louden said.
Commission members had their own parking concerns to discuss. Chairman Steve Rubin, a downtown property owner, said he has been “hearing more pressure on parking” related to his commercial spaces, including retail locations on Jefferson Avenue. Newly appointed commission member Tom Miers suggested adjustments could be made in the regulations at the Van Buren parking deck, where parking is prohibited before 9 a.m. unless the vehicle displays a permit tag – a measure put in place to discourage Metra commuters from parking in the structure.
The city’s collection of parking options in the downtown shopping district includes three parking decks, several surface lots and individual spaces lining portions of every street. All parking in the downtown is free.
Some officials have said they hear of people coming into the city to shop, only to leave because they couldn’t find a place to park. Commissioner Joe Costello, who lives in the south end of town, said he has neighbors who have told him they never come downtown if they don’t have to.
“That’s not what you want to hear,” said Costello, who owns a jewelry store on Jefferson Avenue and one in Glen Ellyn, pointing out that parking is an important component in the collection of amenities that attract visitors.
Additional public parking will come online relatively soon, when the 520-space deck now being built as part of the Water Street District redevelopment project is opened sometime in the last half of 2016. The structure, which will be owned by the city, will include 400 spaces for general use in addition to the 120 slots reserved for guests at the hotel that will anchor the development.
After the Water Street deck is completed, the city plans to take up the multi-year reconstruction and expansion of the Central Parking Facility, between Chicago and Jefferson avenues east of Washington Street. Scheduled to begin in 2017, the project is expected to cost around $30 million. Marcie Schatz, deputy city manager, said the parking facility overhaul will be part of the “high-level scrutiny” given to capital projects in a Nov. 23 City Council workshop. A portion of the city’s food and beverage tax is earmarked for parking use, but Schatz said that’s the only potential funding source so far identified for the project. The most recent city budget included $4.6 million from the parking fund for capital projects.
In the interim, DAC members want to find ways to communicate the availability of parking in real time more effectively. A page on the city website gives current counts of the open spaces in the Chicago Avenue and Van Buren structures, and those numbers also are kept current on electronic signs placed at the entries to the decks. However, commissioners say a mobile application is needed so approaching drivers can access that information more readily. A consultant could be hired to do it, but commission member Christine Jeffries, executive director of the Naperville Development Partnership, said one of the city-funded agency’s employees is familiar with app development and should be able to address the need at no cost to the city.
Costello said parking uncertainties can needlessly generate anxiety. It’s a popular misconception, he said, that there is little available parking downtown; people simply need help finding it. He agreed with Miers that parking is an important piece of the downtown’s success, in addition to high-end retail and attractions such as the Riverwalk, Naper Settlement and the DuPage Children’s Museum. It makes sense, Costello said, to market that deliberately.
“Perception is everything with the public,” he said.
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