Elgin listens, won't expand odd-even parking ban
With fall in full swing and winter seemingly around the corner, don't look for Elgin city leaders to expand their odd-even parking area beyond the Gifford Park and South West Area Neighbors parts of town.
Residents in Eagle Heights, a west-side subdivision that's about 45 years old, recently rejected the odd-even parking restrictions that city leaders believe will make leaf collection easier and snow plowing more efficient.
RuthAnne Hall, city management analyst, said about 350 postcards were mailed out to homeowners in the subdivision. Of the 186 responses, 109 were opposed and 77 favored the plan.
City leaders wanted more input from the subdivision than the 22 of 29 people at a summer homeowners meeting that favored the ban.
"If a majority (of postcards) came back opposed, we would not institute an even-odd parking ban at this time," Hall said, adding no new subdivisions are under consideration right now. "This is it for 2009. In 2010, we're still looking at all the leaf rake-out areas."
Last year, the city targeted four test neighborhoods in an effort to improve snow removal, leaf pickup and street sweeping. This spring, it dropped the restrictions for two neighborhoods - the southern part of Cobbler's Crossing and Randall Ridge - but extended them to year-round for the Gifford Park and SWAN areas.
Hall said the city recently purchased new signs and they will be installed in coming weeks. She said the winter will give city officials more time to evaluate how seven amnesty days on major holidays work, along with the times where people must move their vehicles.
Now, people must move their cars before 2 a.m. and can't move it to the other side of the street until 3 p.m. later that day.
John O'Haire, Eagle Heights Residents Association president, favored the odd-even restrictions and said he was slightly disappointed with the result.
"I thought it was something to try. I guess the people didn't think it was a good idea," he said Wednesday. "We'll see how things go. Depending on how much snow we have, we might revisit it in the spring."
Ban: Most residents opposed expansion