Mundelein to re-examine overnight parking rules
Facing public opposition, financial concerns and some bureaucratic confusion, Mundelein trustees on Monday junked a plan to limit overnight street parking and asked administrators to re-examine the issue.
"I think we need to step back and take a more holistic view of this," said Mayor Steve Lentz, who earlier this month had unveiled a plan to limit parking.
Under Lentz's proposal, people would have been asked to park on the side of the street with odd-numbered addresses between 3 and 5 a.m. on odd-numbered dates, and on the even side of the street for those two hours on even-numbered dates.
The plan followed Police Chief Eric Guenther's call this summer for some sort of an overnight parking ban as a way to minimize auto burglaries and improve fire trucks' access to residential areas, among other benefits.
Lentz called his odd/even approach a compromise, something not as strict as a total overnight parking ban.
But after Lentz announced the plan, officials discovered that many of the town's streets already have various parking restrictions, and some of those would be contradicted by the proposed new rules.
Additionally, the cost of creating and installing the street signs needed to tell drivers about the alternate-side rules would be greater than initially expected, Lentz said.
The public was against the change, too, criticizing it at meetings, on social media and in emails to village officials.
During Monday's meeting, Village Administrator John Lobaito said the goal now is to be "a little more strategic" with parking rules.
He said officials also want to hear from any residents who are aware of parking problems in their neighborhoods or elsewhere in town.
"If they have specific things they're having problems with, we'd like to hear about it," Lobaito said.
Trustee Holly Kim voted with the rest of the board to ask staffers to re-examine the issue, but she said she opposed creating any new parking rules. Instead, police should enforce the existing rules, she said.