La Salle council says no to golf carts, other non-highway vehicles

After nearly two months of talk and information gathering, the La Salle City Council decided not to allow golf carts, ATVs, UTVs and other non-highway vehicles to be driven on the city’s streets and property for now.

On Monday, the council voted 6-2 in favor of accepting the Streets, Alleys and Traffic Committee’s request to continue to deny the use of these vehicles. This issue also was brought in front of the council about two years ago where it met a similar ending.

Over the course of the deliberation the council heard from many throughout the city, such as members of the public, City Attorney James McPhedran and Police Chief Mike Smudzinski.

“If it’s a little town, I could see Ladd, Cherry places like that, it’s fine,” said Alderman James Bacidore. “Here we get too much traffic. They’ve got to cross Third Street to get downtown and sometimes you can sit there for a minute trying to get through.”

Over the course of the lengthy discussions many issues arose from the possibility of allowing these vehicles, but some of the biggest ones included insurance, enforcement, safety and regulation.

“We are going to have headaches and we are not getting anything from the headaches,” Bacidore said. “The Chief (Smudzinski) stood right there and said it’s going to cause him headaches and we’re not getting anything from it.”

During the previous council meeting on May 3, Smudzinski spoke against the idea of allowing these types of vehicles citing public safety and enforcement of the decided regulations as some of the reasons. Smudzinski was not able to attend Monday’s meeting because of a prior obligation.

Alderman Diz Demes also brought forth the option of creating an ordinance that would allow the use in certain cul-de-sacs around town, such as VermilionVue where, according to Demes, individuals are already using some of the vehicles in question.

Some aldermen said this may open the door for possible discrimination based on where a resident lives and wanted to ensure the same rules applied for all residents and it was not pursued.

The council separated the ongoing discussion of motorized bicycles from the golf cart and ATV item.

Most of the council believed action was needed to help the La Salle Police Department regulate the drivers of these vehicles and give police the ability to hold them to the same traffic laws as any other vehicle driver.

“I think we should create an ordinance that gives the police some power so when they see them run a stop sign they can pull them over,” Demes said. “They shouldn’t be running stop signs.”

According to McPhedran, the city already has an ordinance in place that prohibits the use of motorized vehicles that are not licensed as motor vehicles.

Moving forward McPhedran, Smudzinski and the rest of the La Salle officials plan on reviewing a possible amendment to this ordinance that will more than likely include higher fines to discourage these drivers from disobeying the regular traffic laws.