How Naperville plans to improve downtown parking
Facing the lowest customer satisfaction with downtown parking in 15 years, Naperville is taking several steps to better manage and monitor demand.
The city plans to study development of an app to make parking information more accessible, evaluate the effects of rideshare trends on parking needs, host a parking summit, consider financing and location options for a possible new or expanded garage, and work to increase use of private reserved spaces.
These plans come after satisfaction with downtown parking dropped to 50 percent in a study conducted last summer - down from 61 percent in the previous study in 2012. The satisfaction rate is the lowest since the city began parking studies in 2001.
The study also found average parking occupancy across all hours in the two-day study increased to 78 percent - up from 68 percent in 2012. Council member John Krummen cautioned the data isn't as dire as it sounds.
"Although it looks like a dramatic increase, it's really not. It looks like a trend is developing, but two data points do not make a trend," said Krummen, who voted against a set of parking action steps along with council member Rebecca Boyd-Obarski. "I don't see the great urgency. I just see random data being random."
Still, the 2015 study shows satisfaction decreases as parking occupancy increases. So council members said it's time to improve management of the 3,500 spaces in the area.
The idea that raised the most eyebrows was studying how to pay for and where to locate a new or expanded public parking garage. Money for land acquisition to expand the Chicago Avenue garage - $4.3 million of it - was cut from this year's budget. Krummen and Boyd-Obarski said they don't want city workers spending time evaluating garage construction when it doesn't seem feasible.
"We can't afford a deck at this point, but there are other things to look at," council member Becky Anderson said.
Mayor Steve Chirico agreed there's no harm in evaluating options.
"We're at least several years away from starting a shovel in the ground," he said.
In the meantime, council member Patty Gustin said it would cost about $35,000 to develop a smartphone app to connect users with downtown parking information. The city could lead app development or find someone else to do it and provide a connection to the parking guidance system that counts spots in the garages on Chicago and Van Buren avenues.
Parking information that displays in real time how many spaces are open in the two garages is listed on the city's website as one of the quick links near the bottom of the home page. But council members said few people seem to know it's there.
"Overall the cost of putting an app together is minimal and if it could help relieve some pressure, it's probably worth it," Chirico said.
The city will work with businesses that own private reserved parking spaces to make sure customers and employees know the spots are available. The city also could ask if the public can use the spots when the company doesn't need them.
The parking improvement steps the council endorsed this week also include working with police to improve enforcement and studying whether the use of ridesharing apps such as Uber and Lyft is changing the need for parking spaces.
City staff members plan to host a parking summit or a series of such events in May or June to call together anyone who has an opinion about challenges of finding a spot downtown and opportunities to make it easier.