Oswego officials hear plan to restrict parking in neighborhoods near Oswego East High; permits would cost $400

Oswego Village Board members heard a proposal to restrict student parking in residential neighborhoods near Oswego East High School during an Aug. 9 committee of the whole meeting at Village Hall.

Police Chief Jeff Burgner presented the proposed ordinance that would create permitted parking zones in the Prescott Mill, Ogden Falls, Brighton Meadows, Steeplechase and Churchill Club subdivisions located near the high school at 1525 Harvey Road.

Under the ordinance, students would be able to purchase parking permits for $400. Parking permits for OEHS students issued by the school cost $200.

Permits will be issued for specific zones, and will not be interchangeable. All parking on Harvey Road will be prohibited.

Burgner said he did not want to prohibit student parking in Prescott Mill as previously suggested by the Oswego SD308 Board of Education due to the concern it would push the parking problem into a different subdivision.

Burgner’s proposal would restrict parking from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days in the new zones from Aug. 1 through July 31, corresponding with the school year.

Residents within the zones with vehicles registered to their homes would be exempt from the restriction and would not have to obtain a permit.

Burgner said the permit application process would be run online through the police department’s website, and permits would only be available to village residents. Students residing outside of the village would not be eligible for a permit.

Village Administrator Dan Di Santo said roughly 30% of OEHS students are village residents, the rest come from neighboring communities including Aurora and Montgomery.

Burgner said the new parking zones would require the instillation of about 15 additional signs throughout the subdivisions.

Parking would be enforced primarily by the department’s Community Service Officers, with police officers on site as needed. Parking in the zone without a permit would be a class 4 violation, resulting in a $250 fine.

Burgner said, under this ordinance vehicles with multiple unpaid tickets could be immobilized and vehicles that would receive three or more tickets within seven days would be subject to tow.

“This is not our first choice, this board has talked about this problem for years,” Di Santo said. “We’ve done a lot of measures already to change the problem and effect a solution, it just hasn’t happened.”

Responding to homeowner complaints, the Village Board previously passed two ordinances restricting parking in Prescott Mill in 2018 and 2021, respectively, that limit parking on three subdivision streets closest to the school to a two hour limit from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Village Board members previously questioned and criticized Oswego SD308 Superintendent John Sparlin over the parking shortage at Oswego East High School at a June 14 committee of the whole meeting at Village Hall.

At the June 14 meeting, Village Board members voiced support for the school district constructing an 80-space parking lot on school grounds to accommodate overflow student parking, which the School Board went on record June 6 as opposing. Instead, the School Board asked the village to impose additional parking restrictions in Prescott Mill.

Sparlin suggested the village could prohibit on-street parking on selected streets in the subdivision from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday.

“Since we believe adding additional spots will not fully address the issue, the Board of Education asks that the village consider adding additional parking restrictions to that subdivision (Prescott Mill),” Sparlin told the Village Board at the June 14 meeting.

Di Santo said that since that meeting, the village delivered a check to the school board for $189,444, per their engineer’s estimate, for the construction of the suggested 80-space lot, funded by impact fees from the Avanterra Wolf’s Crossing development.

Di Santo noted that the village’s planning and zoning committee also approved ordinances raising the minimum number of parking spaces required at Oswego high schools and allowing for the construction of gravel lots, but said the village has received no sign that the school board plans to build the lot.

Trustee Brian Thomas said he thinks the school board should be responsible for finding a solution, and doesn’t believe the ordinance will solve the problem.

“We need to put this back on their (the school board’s) shoulders and not on ours,” Thomas said. “This is a great proposal, but I don’t think it’s going to do anything.”

Thomas suggested doubling the permit fee to $800 for non-residents, in order to increase the pressure on the school board from residents.

The board did not come to an agreement on the length of time the restriction should be or how many permits per zone or per household were going to be allowed, but a straw poll at the Aug. 9 meeting showed unanimous support of the ordinance.

The ordinance is set to come before the board for decision next Tuesday, Aug. 23, and Di Santo said, should it be approved, enforcement would likely begin this fall.

Burgner said that once public works had all the new signage in place, there would be a 30 day probation period and 30 day warning period, run consecutively, during which tickets would not be issued.