Come May it will be illegal for non-residents of North Riverside to park on the village’s streets overnight if village trustees follow through on a vote next month to ban the practice.
On March 19 the North Riverside Village Board voted unanimously to instruct village staff to prepare an ordinance that would ban non-residents from parking on residential streets between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
“This is a long time coming,” said Trustee Rocco DeSantis, the chairman of the village board’s streets, alleys, sidewalks and garbage committee. “I think we’re the only village that doesn’t have any restriction on overnight parking. I think it’s long overdue.”
The village board discussed the issue during a committee of the whole meeting on March 12. At that time, North Riverside Police Chief Tony Garvey presented the board with the results of the survey done by the police’s overnight shift in early March.
Garvey reported that 22 to 24 percent of cars parked overnight in Nworth Riverside did not have North Riverside vehicle stickers.
Some of these cars, bearing Broadview vehicle stickers, were parked near the border with Broadview along 9th and 10th Avenues near apartment buildings along Cermak Road.
“I see these vehicles night after night when I drive my shift,” said North Riverside Police Officer Chris Devine, who is the officer in charge on the overnight shift.
Other cars parked overnight in North Riverside without vehicle stickers may belong to North Riverside residents who never bothered to purchase a North Riverside vehicle sticker.
Banning overnight parking by non-residents should induce more North Riverside residents to purchase their vehicle stickers. Last year North Riverside issued 479 tickets to residents for not having a village sticker, up from 321 tickets issued in 2009.
“It’s going to help us enforcing our vehicle tags,” said North Riverside Police Chief Tony Garvey.
Garvey also said the new ordinance, which has yet to be passed, would help police by giving them legal cause to talk to the occupants of suspicious cars lacking a North Riverside sticker that are on village streets in the wee hours of the morning.
“It gives officers some type of concrete reason to speak with the occupants of the vehicles,” Garvey said.
Residents who have temporary overnight guests from out of town will be able to call the police, and temporary out-of-town guests will be allowed to park overnight on the streets, Village Administrator Guy Belmonte said.
Once the ordinance is passed by the board, the village will have to put up signs at least at the gateways of the village stating that overnight parking is prohibited for non-residents. The costs of those signs are expected to be minimal.
The village board is expected to approve the ordinance banning overnight parking for non-residents some time in April.
