Supporters of a long-discussed downtown parking deck brought their case Wednesday to the Naperville Public Library Board, arguing that strained supply and growing frustration show there’s a need for additional parking.
Plans for a deck to be built on the city-owned lot at Nichols Library have been discussed on and off for close to two decades. The structure is back on the table
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with plans to update the architectural design in 2027 and build the deck in 2028, according to Katie Wood, executive director of Downtown Naperville Alliance.Currently, the Downtown Naperville Alliance and the Downtown Advisory Committee are gathering feedback on the proposal ahead of city budget workshops later this year.
Should the plan move forward, it could increase the city’s downtown parking supply by 10%, increasing capacity at the library site from 130 to 500 spaces, according to the original 2008 architectural design. Current estimates put the construction cost at about $32 million to $36 million, with a third of funding coming from the downtown food and beverage tax and the rest from the city.
“(Parking) is the top issue we hear anecdotally from among our downtown visitors,” Wood said. “There’s heated frustration with, ‘We just can’t find available parking,’ so much so that it’s the key reason people don’t come downtown. … It’s the top issue we hear from our downtown merchants.”
That frustration extends to library patrons as well, with parking at Nichols Library at 200 W. Jefferson Ave. being the top issue for patrons in the 2026 Naperville Public Library community survey. About 11% of respondents said they wanted to see parking improvements at the downtown branch, an uptick from 9% of respondents in the 2023 survey.
“It was a much larger reach this time in the survey data so that means more people are dissatisfied with parking now than even the last time we did the survey,” Naperville Public Library Executive Director David Della Terza said.
In response to this concern, many respondents said they would either like to see more parking spaces added to library location or more spots reserved just for library patrons, which Della Terza noted would be an unrealistic thing to enforce.
About 9.5 million people visit downtown Naperville every year, which translates into about “10,000 to 30,000 visitors a day,” Wood said. Downtown currently offers 3,500 public parking spaces and 350 private parking spaces, with employees taking up anywhere between 20 percent to 25 percent of that supply on a daily basis.
To compare, downtown Downers Grove and downtown Wheaton offer a similar number of parking spaces, at 3,065 and 3,000 spots. However, both see only about 4 million visitors a year.
On the other hand, Fox Valley Mall in Aurora offers 8,000 parking spaces to accommodate 8 million visitors a year and Chicago Premium Outlet Mall in Aurora offers 4,000 parking spaces for about 10 million visitors a year.
“Can we do better with those 3,500, 3,800 spaces? It is a constant discussion. Every meeting I’ve been to over the year, every day, we’re talking about parking,” Wood said, noting that the city has added time limits to certain spots and parking counters to tell people where space is open in parking decks.
“We’re constantly trying to work to optimize parking,” she said.
On top of that, more developments are in the mix downtown, including plans to develop an empty lot in the Main Street Promenade and possibly redevelop the Walgreens property into “some new mixed use” with retail, restaurant and possibly residential use involved, she said.
Adding a fourth parking deck has also long been part of the city’s 2030 Downtown Plan and part of a larger effort to keep the area pedestrian-friendly. The city’s Central Parking Facility at 75 E. Chicago Ave. also needs significant renovations, which can only be done when an additional supply is available.
Although library trustees did not have a vote to endorse the proposal Wednesday night, the city will seek trustee support at some point in the future, Wood said.
When asked by Trustee Ashley Anderson whether the library would need to close during construction, Wood said that was hard to anticipate but that crews generally try to work during off hours so business is not disrupted. Access points could shift during construction, she said.
“I would say first of all and foremost, the presentation was very well done,” board President Reginald Gardner said. “We don’t have any disagreements, I don’t think, but in any project plan, there (are) always gates, if you will, for go, no-go decisions. At this point, highly supportive. Looks great.”
Gardner added that he would like the board to be kept in the loop should the scope and cost of the project change.