Joliet council gives green light to free street parking downtown

Free street parking in downtown Joliet is scheduled to start Sept. 1 after the City Council gave its approval on Tuesday.

The plan provides for free parking for up to two hours throughout downtown, where street parking now is regulated by meters.

Motorists still face the prospect of a $30 ticket for over-parking, and the free-parking system includes a somewhat complicated zone system that motorists will need to understand to avoid tickets.

But any free parking is a momentous change for the downtown area where businesses long have contended that paid parking is one of their biggest challenges.

“This has been a long time coming,” Councilman Joe Clement said. “All the neighbors, the business owners and people who come downtown want this.”

Downtown businesswoman Monica Cicimov, who also chairs the Joliet City Center Partnership that promotes the downtown area, told the council before the vote that businesses and customers “desperately need the affordable access” that free parking provides.

The council voted 9-0 for the plan, which still required some explaining at the time of the vote.

Motorists will need to be wary of the zone system to avoid getting tickets if they come downtown more than once during a day.

People can park in two or three different zones throughout the day. But parking in the same zone twice could trigger a ticket.

The two-hour limit, designed to prevent people from hogging spaces all day long, will be enforced with a mobile license-plate reader.

That reader will register a car parked in the same zone as over-parked if it is downtown for more than a two-hour period.

Councilman Larry Hug noted the complications posed by the possibility of coming back to the same business later in one day to complete a transaction.

“If I come back four hours later, it’s going to compute me as being there for four hours,” Hug said.

Motorists, however, will be able to come back downtown to a different zone.

The license-plate reader apparently will be able to register a car parked in a different zone but not in a different space in the same zone.

Downtown will be divided into three zones: one in the core of downtown, another on the north end, and another on the east end around Slammers Stadium.

Signs will be installed to inform motorists of the zone system and how it works.

Motorists also have the option of parking in the two downtown decks if they are staying for more than two hours. But the decks will continue to have paid parking.

Commuter parking lots also will continue to be paid parking.