Riverside is keeping a close eye on the parking spots in its Parking Lot 8 at 44 E. Quincy St. and how often people use them.
Following low usage of the parking lot’s non-commuter spots, Riverside staff are preparing to survey businesses in the nearby area “to further gauge the utilization and gather more data,” said Finance Director Yvette Zavala at the village board’s May 16 meeting. After the data is collected, the village board will decide whether to update the parking spot designations within the lot ahead of reconstruction later this year, which will turn it into Riverside’s third green parking lot.
The 37 spots in the parking lot have been broken up into three groups as part of a trial run since 2022. The first 20 spots are assigned to commuters with parking permits. The next 12 spots are reserved for permitted employees of businesses in the area while the final five spots are saved for use by First American Bank, which is located nearby at 15 Riverside Rd.
At the village board meeting, Zavala presented an update to trustees on the weekday utilization of the non-commuter parking spots since April 19. According to the presentation, about five people per day parked in the 12 spots reserved for nearby businesses, with the total each day ranging from three to seven, while only one person on one day parked in any of the bank’s five spots. A community service officer who is tasked with counting the cars in the spots each day compiled the data.
“What it shows is, most likely, the businesses’ employees are parking on the street and not utilizing the parking lot,” Zavala said.
Zavala’s presentation marks the first time the board has discussed or considered the allocation of parking spots in Parking Lot 8 since a meeting last May, when trustees decided to continue the trial run of parking spot distribution for a second year.
At that time, former Finance Director Karin Johns informed the board that staff had observed low utilization of the spots reserved for nearby businesses, similar to Zavala’s update this month; however, the board hoped that then-recently added signage would encourage employees to make use of the spots.
The trial run began in May 2022, two months after Riverside approved an agreement with First American Bank to transfer 12 of its parking spots to the village. In exchange, the sole responsibility for the repair and maintenance of the parking lot was placed on the village.
Before that, Riverside and the bank had an agreement stretching back to April 1987. The bank was granted exclusive use of the “easterly 25 feet” of the lot but had to share equal responsibility for the lot with the village.
Even before that, in 1985, Riverside agreed to provide the bank with five specific spots in the lot, a decision that has lasted to today. As part of the March 2022 agreement, Riverside agreed to continue providing the bank with five dedicated parking spots, though they can be any five spots in Parking Lot 8 “or elsewhere in close proximity” to the bank.
