Impromptu car meetups, ‘nuisance gatherings’ in McHenry now could face fines and tows

Just two weeks ago, an unlawful use of a weapon charge came out an unofficial car meetup in McHenry, Chief of Police John Birk said.

That and other public safety issues, ranging from reckless driving to other gun charges, have been at issue as his department has seen three or four of these meetups – impromptu gatherings of vehicles and drivers in city and private parking lots – each week this summer, Birk said. Attempts by officers to mitigate negative behavior at these meetups have not been successful, he added.

“We see a negative impact on the community,” Birk said, including parking spaces being taken away from legitimate customers, conflicts with other planned gatherings, “littering, squealing tires, reckless driving, vehicle accidents, hit-and-run accidents, disturbances ... and other behaviors all of which compromise the safety of our community.”

In an effort to discourage these gatherings, the McHenry City Council on Monday unanimously approved changes to city ordinances, including requiring permits for car meetups and adding ticket fines for violations.

“With these new ordinance revisions, officers will have additional options to deter the behavior and illegal activity.”

—  McHenry Police Chief John Birk

Those ordinance changes include adding a nuisance gatherings category, adding the city permit, allowing a $25 fine for remaining in a parking lot for more than 30 minutes without visiting a business and impounding cars involved with “drag racing, drifting, street sideshows, reckless driving, fleeing and eluding, and/or any other violation that resulted in injury or death to any person.”

A nuisance gathering is defined as three or more persons gathering on any property in the city committing any one of 27 ordinance violations. If declared a nuisance by a police officer, those gathering are required to disperse, with fines of $500 and an order to appear in court.

If the organizers of a car meet up do not obtain a permit, they can also be fined $50 per vehicle.

If a vehicle is impounded by police, the administrative penalty is $1,000 if the vehicle was involved with any of the reckless driving allegations, and a $500 fine for the tow.

“With these new ordinance revisions officers will have additional options to deter the behavior and illegal activity,” Birk said.

The plan is not to start handing out tickets and fines immediately, but to offer warnings first, Birk said. “We will have time to educate them.”

McHenry is not the first suburban town to have car meetups come in and cause issues.

”They move from community to community” as towns figure out how to eliminate the behaviors, Birk said. He reached out to Schaumburg and Arlington Heights to see what measures those towns used to curtail the meet ups.

The local meetups have started as early as 4 p.m. and have 10 to 40 cars show up.

“We see them regularly at Green Street,” Birk said. They’ve also used the Kmart lot on Richmond Road and the 4400 W. Elm Street Shopping Center lot, Birk said.

Aaron Dullum, manager at The Vixen, located at 1208 N. Green St., is coordinating a Monday cruise night at the city’s Green Street parking lot this summer. Most of the cars showing up for the impromptu meetups arrive after the cruise night has shut down, he said, adding most of what he has seen is people driving recklessly and speeding as they leave the lot later in the night.

“There is not a lot we can do about it,” Dullum said.

Birk said signs will go up and he hopes the new ordinances will prompt people to move their meetups elsewhere.