Glen Ellyn increases municipal lot parking fees

GLEN ELLYN – It will now cost more to purchase a municipal lot parking permit in Glen Ellyn.

At their June 25 meeting, Glen Ellyn village trustees unanimously approved an increase in the rates. Rates need to be increased to help generate funds for a new parking garage in the central business district and to maintain the lots, Glen Ellyn Finance Director Christina Coyle told trustees.

As of July 1, residential permit parking rates for the train station parking lot increased to $400 a year from $340 a year. Fees for all other municipal lots in Glen Ellyn are now $350 annually for residents, an increase from $280.

Merchant rates will be discounted at 50 percent of the resident rate. In addition, non-residents will see the permit rates for the train station parking lot increase to $600 annually, up from $580 annually. Non-resident permit fees for the other lots increased to $525, up from $520.

The 2018 budget included $275,000 in revenues from annual permit fees. With the increase, revenue is now projected at $313,000, or a $38,000 increase, she said.

The $2 a day rate for residents and non-residents in the Duane and Lorraine streets parking lot would not change, Coyle said.

"We changed that, I want to say three years ago, to $2 a day," she said. "And right now, that's fairly in line with the surrounding communities. So we're not recommending an increase to that at this point in time."

There will be another increase effective July 1, 2020, that will increase residential parking rates for the train station lot to $500 a year and $400 a year for all other lots. Permit fees for non-residents to use the train station parking lot will increase to $750 annually and $600 a year for all other lots.

The majority of the permit fees were last adjusted in 2002.

"As part of the current funding plan, the parking fund needs to contribute $50,000 per year towards repayment of the debt service of the garage," Coyle said. "In order to have this funding available, rates need to be increased."

She also said rates need to be increased to provide funding for the maintenance of the current lots. However, Coyle said even with increasing rates as proposed by staff in 2018 and 2020 and continuing with consumer price index increases thereafter, the fund does not have adequate cash levels to pay for all scheduled rehabilitation.

That concerned trustee Mark Senak.

"I'm not necessarily comfortable approving a rate increase that doesn't serve the purpose of providing funds necessary to do foreseeable capital improvements over the next 15 years," Senak said.

In response, Coyle said the village needed to adjust its rates to be comparable to surrounding communities, and rates might have to be adjusted again in the face of the lots needing repairs.

"We're not saying this is the only time we're going to look at it," she said.