Naperville wants best parking solution

Adding more than 1,000 parking spaces to the landscape of downtown Naperville in three separate locations is going to create some problems.

That's why city officials have compiled a series of potential solutions to the myriad challenges that will arise when construction begins. They just want the public's input regarding which ones it prefers.

The city held back-to-back meetings Monday evening and this morning to gather input from downtown stakeholders. Unfortunately, the sessions combined to attract less than two dozen people.

However, anyone interested in putting in their two cents still can respond to a downtown parking survey available on the city's Web site at www.naperville.il.us.

"The purpose of all this is we're trying to focus on managing parking while we're down spaces," said Carmen Carruthers, transportation and planning operations manager. "Some of the solutions will address multiple concerns."

One of the chief concerns that needs to be worked out is the timeline for building the decks. Currently, there is a projected overlap when construction of the 517-space Nichols Library deck and the 317-space addition to the Van Buren deck would take place.

"That's not the preferred way," said Kim Grabow, the city's project engineer. "We don't know when both will go out for bidding, but if the expansion at Van Buren is up first, we'd evaluate moving Nichols back."

The third proposed deck, - along Water Street - currently has no projected construction timeframe.

Al Knotek, one of the owners of a medical office campus at the northwest corner of Van Buren Avenue and Webster Street, said any construction overlap for the two projects would be a detriment to his property.

"If you can't get around, you're not going to stay and if two decks are out of commission simultaneously, people are either going to leave or find a place to illegally park," he said. "We have a problem already with this and there's no construction going on. The tighter parking gets downtown, the more of an issue it becomes for us."

Safety and mobility concerns also are topping the list for city staffers. Requests for crossing guards during construction and creating one-way streets for the duration of the construction cycle also are being tossed around.

Once all the recommendations and information from the public is gathered next month, the city council will receive reports indicating preferred methods of managing the issues when the projects start up, city officials said.