Naperville may allow some overnight street parking in neighborhoods where parking on residential property can be a challenge for residents.
The city prohibits on-street parking from 2 to 5 a.m., and vehicles parked in driveways must not extend over the sidewalk or the roadway or curb line.
Issues have arisen in town house communities, where driveways often are shorter and some residences have single-car garages, according to Michael Prousa, project manager with the city’s Transportation, Engineering and Development department, or TED.
On Thursday, the city’s Transportation Advisory Board Thursday will discuss a program that could give homeowner associations the authority to issue up to one overnight parking pass per residence.
Under the plan, associations would have to apply to participate. If approved, the association would determine how the passes are distributed; track the name, vehicle and address where the hang tag is registered; and supply the city with the information upon request.
Passes would be issued only to passenger vehicles. Any vehicle weighing 8,000 pounds or more is not permitted to park overnight.
Each hang tag pass would be coded to permit overnight parking only in the subdivision where the participating homeowners association is located.
A benefit with hang tags is that police can easily determine if a car is legally parked overnight with a visual check.
Overnight parking also would be restricted to the side of the street without fire hydrants to allow emergency vehicles easy access.
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To ensure city operations will not be affected by overnight parking, each homeowner association request will be evaluated individually by TED and the police, fire and public works departments.
Prousa in a memo to the transportation board said city restrictions prohibiting overnight parking have been on the books since at least 1960, and the times were changed in 1989 from 2 to 6 a.m. to 2 to 5 a.m. to allow parking for those who left early for work and wanted the ability to park on the street before 6 o’clock.
In recent years, city officials have received complaints about the citations police issued for parking on-street overnight, Prousa said. Those violations most often occur in town house communities that have shorter driveways and single-car garages, he said.
The city first piloted parking pass program in 2014 among town homes in the Villages of Westglen on Bannister Drive and Fessler, Rennet and Grimes avenues.
Prousa said staff was unable to assess the pilot properly because of the lack of resident participation.
Another pilot was initiated in March 2016 at another town house community, The Enclave at Country Lakes, which included Golf Ridge Circle, Genesee Drive/Court, Overlook Court, Oneida Lane and Woodewind Drive.
He said that program received more participation so the city was able to assess potential effects on city services and operations, such as emergency access, snowplowing and enforcement.
Staff concluded that allowing overnight parking on one side of the street in an organized manner did not affect operations and further expansion of the program to other areas should be considered on a case-by-case basis, Prousa said.