Village Board Allocates Parking Spaces in Metra Garage to Local Businesses

The Oak Lawn village board approved a request to allot 20 parking spaces on the first floor of the Metra parking garage for patrons of nearby businesses. Village trustees voted unanimously to approve the request, despite initial unrest on the issue. The board plans to discuss assigning more spaces for area customers in an attempt to attract vendors to the building at 5100 Museum Drive.

Trustee Mike Carberry (Dist. 6) suggested allocating even more spaces to business patrons. Although this would force some commuters who use the first floor for Metra parking to park on a higher level, he said he thinks most people will understand the investment the community is making.

“If the Oak Lawn residents, if we’re going to get a bang for our buck, they’ll park in the second floor when they’re gone for eight or ten hours of the day if they can make money on the first floor,” Carberry said.

According to village manager Larry Deetjen, a national chain is currently considering opening a franchise in the building at 5100 Museum Dr., and requires that the building have sufficient parking assigned to patrons. Deetjen said adding more spots for customers could bring in companies that hadn’t previously considered the area due to lack of parking.

Trustee Carol Quinlan (Dist. 5) originally voiced concerns that commuters who pay to use the lot would be upset about giving up the prime first floor spots and said she would prefer that customers park on a higher level.

According to Mayor Sandra Bury, “first-come, first-serve” parking has not been an effective strategy for attracting new vendors. She said setting aside parking on a higher level would deter customers as well.

“Do you think you would want to go get a sandwich, park up on the roof of the parking garage and come back down five flights to go across the way?” Bury asked. “They could do that now, frankly, and we’re just not seeing that.”

Trustee Bob Streit (Dist. 3) noted that Metra financed approximately 75 percent of the parking structure and said he wondered what reaction Metra would have to this decision. Deetjen said that he and the mayor had recently spoken with Metra officials who were “amenable to seeing the village experiment” with the new parking arrangement.

Finance director Brian Hanigan said that the village has been counting cars in the garage for the past several weeks and the garage typically only fills 350 to 375 of its 822 available spots.

“That garage should have been mixed use, but I don’t want to Monday morning quarterback it again,” Deetjen said. “It’s a very positive thing for the village. All I’m suggesting is it’s underutilized.”

The $2 a day fee for the parking spaces would still be collected for the business patron spots and would be paid for by the landlord or individual tenants.