Parking near the Greater La Grange Area YMCA still draws concerns from neighbors on one street in La Grange Park who say users take up spaces that should be for them and their guests.
Dave Meador, who has lived on Newberry Street for 22 years, said the parking situation will only get worse in January when people make resolutions to start exercising.
“We can’t even park in front of our own house,” he said.
Traffic, too, has increased, he said.
“The traffic flow has increased 80 to 100 percent on our street,” he said.
Solving the problem of parking and balancing divergent needs in an area with both commercial and residential uses has been no easy task for the village that has worked on the issue for years, according to village manager Julia Cedillo. Elected officials and staff have spent a lot of time and held numerous meetings trying to address the need for parking for the YMCA at 1100 E. 31st St., she said.
As a result, the village enacted new parking laws for the 1000 and 1100 blocks of Newberry Street that allow for parking on one side of street depending on whether it as an odd or even number day.
She said the restrictions have led to fewer complaints from neighbors. The village received 32 complaints from May to November in 2016 and 60 complaints for the same time frame in 2015. Prior to that she said the village received about 200 complaints a year.
Changing parking on the street that until 2007 had resident-only parking was because of safety concerns, she said.
“When the YMCA’s parking lot was filled, families were parking in the 1100 block of Newberry and were crossing 31st street, causing public concern for pedestrian safety,” Cedillo said.
The YMCA relocated to La Grange Park after the Rich Port YMCA, which had occupied the corner of La Grange Road and Ogden Avenue for 60 years, closed it doors in 2007. That site is being redeveloped as a 254-unit luxury apartment complex.
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Karen Dziagwa, associate director of the Greater La Grange Area YMCA, said the Y’s lease on 31st Street location does not expire until 2019. She does not know of any plans to relocate and said that is not a decision that will made by the local YMCA.
That is likely not of any comfort to Meador who said he didn’t expect the YMCA to stay as long as it has in his neighborhood.
“This was supposed to be a temporary thing. They were just supposed to lease for a little while,” he said.
He said the situation affects his enjoyment of living on Newberry Street.
“It doesn’t feel good. It’s not comfortable,” he said.
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