Naperville council cool to added parking

Naperville city councilmen have little interest in significantly increasing commuter parking near the downtown train station, at least not on the city's dime.

Councilmen on Monday expressed concerns about a city staff recommendation to build a parking deck just north of the train tracks. They also turned down a proposal by the plan commission to add an additional parking lot east of the train station.

"We've got to get cars off the road; why would we invite them to drive through town and park there?" Councilman Kenn Miller said. "We could build 6,000 parking spaces to take care of the 6,000 backlog, and I don't think it's our responsibility to do that."

Parking, land use and building heights near the train station all were on the table as councilmen discussed a plan to guide future development in the area around the Fifth Avenue Metra station near downtown.

The study also includes Washington Street between Benton and Ogden avenues.

Commuter parking near the train station long has been an issue for the city; some commuters spend years on a waiting list to get a spot. The city likely will be losing some of its spaces south of the tracks as the Fifth Avenue proposal includes creating a bus depot on the current Parkview lot.

The city staff had called for building an 840-space parking garage on the site of the current Burlington lot north of the tracks.

Councilman Jim Boyajian said he doesn't think he could support using taxpayer dollars on a commuter parking deck, even if the city's budget was in better shape. The deck would cost an estimated $22 million.

"If we're going to put money into transit for commuters, it ought to be buying remote lots somewhere, doing park-and-rides, getting people on buses and bringing them up here," he said.

But he and several other councilmen said they would consider allowing a developer to build a parking deck near the station and manage it privately.

One of the other areas being looked at for parking is the former public works site east of the station, as well as the nearby Kroehler parking lot. The city recommends using one of those for surface parking and the other for development of some kind, but the plan commission had deviated from that view and called for both to be used for parking.

Most councilmen on Monday supported putting out a request for proposals to see what kind of creative ideas arise for the two sites as they don't want both to be solely for parking.

Councilman Richard Furstenau was one of the only councilmen who preferred for using the two sites for parking and said he was worried about a development disturbing nearby residents.

Councilmen made a few other tweaks to the recommendations regarding land use and building height. The majority wants building heights of no more than 43 feet along Washington Street both north and south of the train tracks instead of the proposed 50-foot limit.

They also called for the properties along Washington north of the tracks to be a combination of residential, commercial and offices, instead of strictly commercial, to allow more flexibility.

Councilmen also said they prefer the mixed use instead of medium-density residential development along Ellsworth Street just north of North Avenue but want to limit height on that parcel to 43 feet.

In addition, they made the block of Washington between Franklin and Benton from the Fifth Avenue plan part of a separate downtown study.

City planners will revise the Fifth Avenue study based on councilmen's input and will likely bring it back to the council in December.

Parking: Council fears effects downtown