As summer events start to kick off and highly attended events like Thursday Night Out and weekly farmers markets begin to draw crowds, Oak Park is expanding parking options for patrons.
Parking was extended by 30 minutes to allow patrons to park for free for an hour and a half at the Avenue Parking Garage, 720 North Blvd. The village is shifting enforcement hours to match peak activity, officials said.
The village has also established an email address to allow residents to flag parking issues directly at [email protected].
“It’s actually been a really good success because we’ve got a lot of constituents in the area that are reaching out, letting us know when they see issues,” said Marlin Jackson, Oak Park’s parking and mobility services manager.
One of the reported issues, he said, was ineligible people parking in ADA spaces.
Jackson said a parking app that the village started using in 2019, Passport Parking, has helped determine when and where parking in the village is most in demand, so the village’s enforcement team can be available to help. He said he’s also working to implement digital parking permits with the goal of having everything digitized by the end of the year.
The Hemingway District and the downtown area near Holley Court and Marion and Lake streets are some of the busier areas he’s identified. Some of the heavily attended events during the summer are Thursday Night Out, which runs from 5 to 9 p.m.every Thursday from June through August.
Over 700 people attend each Thursday event and more than 10,000 people came throughout the whole season last summer, according to the Downtown Oak Park Business Alliance.
The Oak Park Farmers Market averages approximately 4,000 people per market day, and nearly 100,000 annual visitors, according to Jackson.
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Adding to the need for parking solutions is the village’s streetscape project, which is limiting on-street parking in some areas of Oak Park, Jackson said.
Oak Park Avenue from Randolph to Lake Street has been closed to all north and southbound traffic and street parking, though sidewalks have remained open. The construction is slated to be complete in November.
The two block-long sections of Oak Park Avenue are expected to reopen in June, but the limited parking has had an effect on businesses.
Sarah Maher, the owner of Village + Vessel, a crystal and spiritual store, said business has been a “bit of a slog” since construction started. Her shop, a relatively new establishment, has been in business for around two and a half years, she said.
“It’s really hard for us — we depend on street traffic,” she said.
A lack of street parking near Manouche, a clothing store along Oak Park Avenue, has had a toll on business, according to owner Kim Shimkus.
Shimkus said walk-in traffic has slowed down recently after being at her Oak Park store for the past seven years. Unless her shop is a destination for people, she said hasn’t seen new customers coming in.
Jackson said he hopes that the new parking initiatives will help combat what the construction has done to businesses.
“What we’re trying to identify is, where can we focus to make sure that there’s tons of turnover, so that businesses can have people come and shop, or people are able to enjoy the village of Oak Park and all the amenities that we have to offer,” Jackson said.