Joliet taking another step that could lead to free parking downtown

The city is about to buy a mobile camera that could help Joliet move to free parking downtown.

The City Council on Tuesday will vote on whether to spend $56,738 for a mobile license plate reader.

The equipment can be used in the enforcement of current parking regulations, so buying it is not a guarantee that the city will switch to free parking.

But it could serve as an alternative to parking meters to enforce time limits downtown if the city does switch to free parking.

“This will give us much more active enforcement if we go to free parking, which has been the direction we’ve been going towards,”

—   Greg Ruddy, city of Joliet public works director

Public Works Director Greg Ruddy referred to the free-parking question when the City Council Public Service Committee discussed buying the mobile reader on Monday.

“There have been discussions about going to free parking in the downtown area with a two-hour limit,” Ruddy told the committee. “This would be able to patrol through, see that someone’s been there for over two hours, and at that time they would be ticketed.”

One of the long-standing obstacles to free parking is that it would allow some visitors or workers to hog street-side parking spaces in front of businesses that want them available for customers.

Meters motivate people to move their cars at a certain point, but so would the mobile license plate reader.

“This will give us much more active enforcement if we go to free parking, which has been the direction we’ve been going towards,” Ruddy said.

A parking consultant last year recommended that the city switch to free parking downtown.

The council in March extended the consultant’s contract to provide recommendations for removal of on-street parking meters and instituting new time limits.

Ruddy’s comments were in response to council member Pat Mudron’s comments about the city’s exploration of time limits for downtown parking.

“There’s been some conversation about the core of the city having maybe a different time limit than outer,” Mudron said as he questioned Ruddy on whether the mobile camera could be adjusted for different time limits.

It could do that and more, Ruddy said.

While reading license plates, the camera system can detect stolen vehicles and vehicles with multiple pending infractions, he said. That information can be forwarded to the police department for action.

Minuteman Security Technologies is the company selling the system to the city.

The contract is on the council’s consent agenda used for non-controversial items likely headed for approval.