Carpentersville vehicle ordinance stuck in neutral

Last month, Carpentersville village trustees told local school bus drivers to wait 30 days for an answer regarding a heavy vehicle ordinance that bars certain vehicles - including school buses - from being parked in private driveways.

With the first village board meeting of the month behind them, bus drivers say they are frustrated at the lack of movement on the issue and claim the village board is employing stall tactics.

"They have been putting us off since February when we first went before the board," Carpentersville resident and school bus driver Linnea Jaquet said. "It is so frustrating, They told us they would come back and revisit the issue in a month. We think they have been putting us off because school is almost out and they think the school buses will go away. But they won't."

Village Manager Craig Anderson said a memorandum from the village attorney or community development director outlining alternative restrictions is expected at the June 17 meeting.

"The board wanted us to look at more information and determine what options we have to best address the issue," Anderson said. "But whatever we do, there will be an effect on someone."

Anderson said the heavy vehicle ordinance has been in place for almost 15 years but was not enforced. The ordinance was brought to the attention of village leaders last fall and enforcement began.

Since February, bus drivers from Barrington Unit District 220 have asked village officials to rewrite the ordinance banning vehicles weighing more than 8,000 pounds from being parked on streets, alleys or private driveways.

Though vehicles that violate the code have received tickets, Anderson said school buses are temporarily exempt until a compromise is reached.

Village officials said the ordinance is intended to discourage the use of scrappers - pickup trucks and other larger vehicles that are modified to carry loads of scrap metal and other materials.

However, when bus drivers argued the ordinance would prohibit them from parking their buses at home, trustees at the April 21 meeting directed Village Attorney James Rhodes to include language exempting certain school buses.

But an ordinance that would have allowed school buses weighing up to 15,000 pounds was tabled at the subsequent board meeting in May. At that time, trustees proposed tweaking the ordinance to ban commercial vehicles weighing more than 8,000 pounds. Residents and bus drivers said the original ordinance would unfairly ban personal vehicles like the Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade.