Joliet City Council ready to vote on free downtown parking plan

Joliet is on the verge of opening downtown city streets for free parking for the first time in public memory.

The City Council votes Tuesday on the free-parking plan, which is expected to go into effect on Sept. 1 after signs are installed.

Council members appeared ready to get started when they discussed the plan at a Monday workshop meeting.

“I’m willing to do something,” Councilman Joe Clement said. “That’s what I hear from business owners and people who come downtown.”

Downtown business people for decades have lamented the challenge of drawing customers who have to pay for parking.

Parking won’t be completely free.

The city parking deck and commuter lots will continue to charge for visitors who need spaces for all day or most of the day.

But parking will be free for two hours on city streets in three zones in the core of downtown, on the north end, and in an area around Slammers’ Stadium.

The two-hour limit is typical of cities that allow for free downtown parking and prevents visitors from using up spaces all day, said Public Works Director Greg Ruddy said.

Noting the presence of the Will County Courthouse and various businesses downtown, Ruddy said the city wants to make sure street parking spaces are not occupied by cars used by people who are downtown all day.

“The concern is if you make it free all day long, some people who are going to the courthouse or doing business would park all day long,” he said. “If you are here for a brief visit, you will not pay.”

Signs are being designed to make the parking zones clear to people without being too wordy, Ruddy said.

“We’ll put as much information as we can without making it a novel,” he said.

The zones are designed to allow people to move from one area of downtown to another without overstaying the two-hour limit, he said.

Mayor Terry D’Arcy said he considered free street parking part of the progress planned for the downtown area.

“I think this is part of the overall big picture of what we plan for Joliet,” D’Arcy said. “I really see this as a step forward for all of us.”