Brookfield officials say the village is looking to bring about changes this spring to parking downtown and near its three train stations.
The areas around the Congress Park and downtown train stations will see an increase in the amount of daily parking spots, said Noah Rife, a management analyst, on Jan. 12. The price of parking will increase.
As discussed in December, daily rates for parking behind village hall will increase from the existing price of $1.50 to $3. Daily parking along Brookfield Avenue in front of village hall, as well as along Burlington Avenue near the Congress Park train station, will cost $4, up from the current price of $2.
Staff had proposed increasing the price of those spots to just $3.50 in December, but the board agreed to $4 at the suggestion of Trustee Kyle Whitehead.
“I think if a commuter is paying a daily rate to park there all day long, they would be open to paying $4 or even $5,” he said. “$3.50 seems very low for occupying that space all day.”
Trustees reached consensus to have differing rates for residents of Brookfield compared to non-residents for monthly and quarterly parking permits, but they agreed to charge everyone the same for daily commuter spots. Rife said police officials felt enforcing the rate difference upon daily parkers would be too burdensome for the department.
Residents will pay $45 for a monthly parking permit at the downtown train station and $55 at the Congress Park and Hollywood station. Non-residents would pay $55 downtown and $65 at the other two stations.
For quarterly parking permits, residents would pay $130 downtown and $160 at Congress Park and Hollywood while non-residents would pay $160 downtown and $190 at the other stations.
Due to the different rates for residents and non-residents, Rife said people looking to purchase monthly or quarterly parking permits should expect a delay of one business day once the changes are implemented, as village employees will need to manually approve applications and verify proof of residency for the lower rates. Daily parking spots will be available immediately upon purchase, since staff will not need to review applications.
Purchases for all commuter parking spots will be made through Passport, which Brookfield already uses for daily commuter parking downtown and at Congress Park.
The board also OK’d changes to where different kinds of parking spots are located near the three train stations.
At the Congress Park station, parking along the north side of Burlington Avenue — from the 9200 block to the 9400 block — will become daily spots where they currently exist as monthly/quarterly spots. B-permit parking, which is reserved for residents who live nearby, will become daily commuter parking along Burlington as well as the 4000 block of Dubois Boulevard, Rife said.
He attributed the large increase for daily commuter parking in the area to the planned upcoming development of several village-owned parcels near the Congress Park station.
Around downtown and the Brookfield train station, monthly and quarterly permit holders will find themselves east of Kiwanis Park along Brookfield Avenue, immediately west of the Brookfield Avenue bridge, or west of Prairie Avenue along Burlington Avenue.
The existing parking directly in front of village hall will be reserved for daily commuters rather than those with monthly or quarterly permits.
A stretch of parking that is now reserved for village employees and permit parking near the triangle property at Fairview Avenue and Brookfield Avenue will be rezoned as three-hour parking for people to access downtown.
Finally, near the Hollywood train station, existing “business decal” street parking next to Zubar and the Urban Mutt will become two-hour parking for visitors to businesses along that corridor of Brookfield Avenue.
