Arlington Hts. alters rules on van, truck parking

Cargo vans -- with or without small ads -- are now permitted in Arlington Heights driveways and garages.

Before Monday they were not, according to village code.

At a board meeting, the Arlington Heights village board unanimously approved this and several other changes saying where some vehicles with commercial ad displays can park in residential neighborhoods.

Jon Ridler, executive director of the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce, and Jim Platt, owner of Sylvia's Flowers in Arlington Heights, both said the changes won't be popular in the business community.

"You're regulating how a business can operate," Platt told board members. "You're telling a business how much signage they can have on their vans and how they can market their business."

Ridler said some parts of the village code were not changed and should've been. For example, a cargo van or truck with "a wrap ad" -- which is an ad that covers almost the entire vehicle -- is not allowed in residential driveways or garages. That part of the code wasn't changed but should've been changed to allow wrap-ads, said Ridler after the meeting.

"There are a lot of home-based businesses out there," he said. "It's something we could've asked our members about."

However, the actual number of Arlington Heights home businesses is hard to determine, said Charles Witherington-Perkins, the village director of planning and community development.

"A lot of people take their work trucks home with them," he said. "We don't have data on that."

Perkins also pointed out that most of the changes approved on Monday were "relaxing the rules" for commercial vans and trucks.

For example, cargo vans and pick-up trucks with signs that take up only 25 percent of the driver's-side door are now allowed in neighborhood driveways and garages. Before Monday they were not, Witherington-Perkins said.

Other changes include limiting the number of commercial vehicles on a residential lot to two. Before there was no limit.

Pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles with no signs are still allowed.

The new changes don't affect vehicles parked in business districts, such as downtown Arlington Heights.