Aug 18, 2009 12:28 pm US/Central
City Council Wants Answers On Lakefront Parking
Park District Plans To Raise Fees In Lakefront Lots
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Parking meter boxes like this one in the 2800 block of North Clark Street may also soon be coming to lakefront parking lots run by the Chicago Park District.
CBS
The City Council is raising major questions about a plan by the Chicago Park District to raise parking fees at the lakefront.
Park District officials hope to raise more than $1 million by raising parking fees in their lakefront lots.
The City Council Parks Committee summoned Park District Supt. Tim Mitchell to address their concerns on Tuesday.
After the plan was announced a couple of months ago, some aldermen went to battle with the Park District on it immediately. Rules Committee Chairman Richard Mell (33rd) and Transportation Committee Chairman Tom Allen (38th) demanded that the Park District cancel its plans
"The slogan is, 'Come out and play' —not 'come out and pay.' We want to revisit this. People own the lakefront. People own the beach. In this economy, that's the only vacation people can afford," Allen said.
But also in late June, Mitchell's spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner noted that the Park District has held the line on property taxes for four years.
"The way we view it here is adding a small fee that will impact those actually using the service — in this case, about $1-an-hour to park at the beach — is better than having a property tax increase," she said.
Maxey-Faulkner noted that a copy of Mitchell's Nov. 5 budget address proposing the lakefront parking increase and including a rationale for it was delivered to all 50 aldermen. Nobody said a word until the city's own parking meter fiasco.
The meters are supposed to go in this fall.
The STNG Wire contributed to this report.
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