The city of Aurora is set to pilot a new on-street parking schedule to aid snow plowing that would allow parking on one side of the road or the other, depending on the day.
The plan, as presented to the Aurora City Council’s Committee of the Whole on Nov. 18, would test the new parking schedule on certain roads that have seen the most parking tickets or that the city streets division has seen the most issues with. Currently, city code bans parking on streets when there are two or more inches of snow on the ground, but during and after a snowfall cars may be parked in a driveway over a sidewalk or in a house’s front lawn.
“We’re starting to realize that there’s some communities that just don’t have enough room within their driveways to do this,” Adrian Perez, city superintendent of streets, said of the current parking restrictions.
The pilot parking plan was designed to help these communities have a place to park where their vehicles won’t be ticketed or towed, Perez said at the Nov. 18 meeting.
Signs are set to go up on roads included within the pilot program to mark which side of the road can be parked on during even-numbered calendar days and which side can be parked on during odd-numbered calendar days. An example of a sign shown during the meeting restricted parking on one side of the road from 2 a.m. to 3 p.m. on all even-numbered days.
The streets city staff are looking at doing the pilot parking schedule on are Sheridan Avenue, Forest Avenue, Mountain Street, Pierce Street, Zengele Avenue, Windsor Avenue, Farnum Avenue, Maple Avenue, Best Place, Monomoy Street and Liberty Street between Farnsworth Avenue and Beckwith Street, according to the presentation.
Currently, the streets division is having an issue where some cars aren’t being moved off the streets on snowy days, Perez said. His presentation showed this can create icy roads, drainage problems and longer response times, which means an increase to operational costs.
This parking schedule could be used year-round to help better clean streets with the street sweeper, Mayor John Laesch said at the meeting.
While no specific timeline was given on when the pilot program may begin, Perez said he was hoping it would be ready by Dec. 1. The presentation was given to the Aurora City Council for information only, and the pilot doesn’t need approval from the council to begin.
Some aldermen had concerns about the parking schedule, particularly around putting it in place in areas that already have parking issues.
Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, said there are areas he represents where people are parking on both sides of the street with nowhere else to go, which is a problem all day, every day. While the pilot is a good idea, he isn’t sure it will work, he said.
Ald. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward, said he was concerned about the messaging around the pilot plan because, in some areas, there will be “an uproar.” According to Laesch, the plan is to send community engagement staff out with flyers to every resident who would be impacted to explain the change in English or Spanish, in addition to other methods of outreach.
Elgin has a similar parking program, according to Perez. He said he spoke with officials there and learned that there was a “learning” and “adjustment” period.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
