The Village of Hinsdale is thinking about removing parking meters from the Central Business District and replacing them with a 3 hour parking zone, town officials said at a recent meeting.
If the board approves the village staff’s recommendation, 300 parking meters downtown will be switched to three-hour parking zones in an effort to reserve on-street parking for customers of downtown businesses as opposed to the spots being used by Metra commuters or employees of stores.
Village officials said the purpose of the meters is to create turnover in the business district so there is enough parking for use by shoppers. A parking study conducted by the village found that up to 30% of the metered parking is currently taken up by merchants or their employees.
According to Hinsdale Police Chief Brian King, there is a high percentage of employees using metered spaces because of a low fine structure and a low meter fee. People would also move from spot to spot, King said at the meeting last Tuesday.
The village estimates that 50 vehicles, owned by employees or store owners who park in the area, will be “displaced” if time zone enforcement is approved, but the red permit areas and adjacent lots have enough capacity to accommodate them.
As it stands, the fine for not feeding parking meters is $8. Under the 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 the meeting.
Village staff said they would use a license plate reader attached to a patrol vehicle that would virtually mark a parked car to enforce the three hour limit. If a car is parked in the business district longer than three hours a ticket will be issued, officials said.
In combination with the free parking deck that was completed two years ago and the 8-hour parking lots on Washington and Garfield, there shouldn’t be an issue for anyone trying to find a spot.
The Washington lot, however, would increase from 25 cents an hour to $1 hour to make it consistent with the Garfield Lot. The areas next to the central business district won’t see any changes.
In a January survey, Hinsdale Police determined what weekday parking availability was like in the parking deck during peak demand times in midmorning and afternoon hours, showing an average occupancy of 74% in the morning and 81% in the afternoon. And a separate count of open spaces of street meter parking determined that there was available on-street (meter) shopper parking during peak hours, according to the survey.
“Both the parking deck and alleviation of on-street parking is working fairly well,” Cauley said at the meeting.
If approved by the Village Board, the changes in parking will go into effect June 1.
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