CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Conduct the first reading on the ordinance amending Section 11-2B of the Naperville Municipal Code to eliminate commuter parking permits and expand daily fee parking
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation, Engineering and Development
SUBMITTED BY: William Novack, Director/City Engineer
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
For decades, commuter parking options at the City's Metra stations have consisted of a combination of renewable quarterly permits and daily fee spaces. However, these two options are no longer meeting the needs of the commuter population.
Prior to the pandemic, this was illustrated by the combination of years-long waitlists for quarterly permits for the Naperville station and higher use of the daily fee spaces than the permit spaces. The permit lots were oversold by more than 50% and use continued to be lower than the daily fee spaces. Similarly, in the Burlington lot, there were 870 permits for 525 spaces in the third quarter of 2019. In September 2019, the Burlington lot was 90% occupied (472 vehicles observed).
In 2019, a Commuter Parking and Access Work Plan ("Work Plan") was developed to address operational issues with, and abuses of, the City's legacy parking programs. Concurrently, staff was also preparing to implement technology to improve commuter access to the existing parking supply. The Work Plan was developed under the assumption that demand for commuter parking and access would remain high, however, the COVID-19 pandemic led to historic low levels of commuter activity.
Fall 2020
Staff issued a survey during fall 2020 to obtain commuter input that would be used when establishing new goals and actions related to commuter parking and access. At that time, the 2,172 survey responses indicated that:
1. 37% of commuters would commute four or more days per week.
2. 45% would commute one to three days per week.
3. Approximately 75% said that the ability to work remotely would influ...
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