Tom Fischl says he used to have “sleepless nights” thinking about city parking regulations that drove away patrons from retail businesses like his.
“The restaurants are about to learn what the retail world has learned,” Fischl said. “Customers don’t like tickets.”
Fischl, owner of Ofischl Sports, 1521 Sherman Ave., is one of a group of Evanston small-business owners worried about the effects of legislation approved by the Parking Committee Feb. 5. If approved by City Council, the ordinance would extend meter enforcement hours in the downtown area to last from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Meters currently must be paid from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The council opted last week not to increase fines for cars parked at expired meters, but did increase the fine from $25 to $30 for cars parked for too long at a meter or signed areas.
The meter enforcement extension had been proposed as a way to improve traffic circulation in the downtown area and raise revenue to compensate for the city’s budget deficit of almost $4 million.
But Fischl and others do not see parking meters as good money-making devices.
“Parking meters were never intended to generate revenue for a city,” Fischl said.
Dick Peach, treasurer of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, said the new regulation could force businesses to leave the downtown area. This would reduce city sales tax revenues, he said.
Though if passed the act would be up for review in a year, some businesses still might not last, Peach said.
“Unfortunately, any business that leaves between now and then we won’t get back,” he said.
Jonathan Perman, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, voted for the act in committee, and the chamber officially supported the measure. But several business representatives said the approval stemmed partly from a misunderstanding about the details of the ordinance.
“Jonathan voted for (the extension) after telling businesses that it was only until 8 (p.m.),” instead of 9 p.m., said Troy Thiel, president of the Small Business Association. Thiel was the only member of the parking committee to vote against the measure.
Peach also said the chamber had always understood the measure as extending meter enforcement only until 8 p.m.
“We don’t know when it got changed,” Peach said. “We know it got changed the night of the (Feb. 5) Parking Committee meeting for the first time.”
But Ald. Arthur Newman (1st), also a committee member, said the hours of the legislation never changed.
“I have never understood the proposal to be anything other than 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.,” Newman said. “(The 8 p.m. proposal) has never been considered by the city manager’s office.”
Thiel also said Newman had suggested at a previous meeting that the meter extension could be passed in lieu of a new food and beverage tax. Newman said he suggested the extension as an “alternative” to the tax, not as a replacement.
Restaurants will be most affected by the increased hours because they represent the bulk of businesses in the downtown area open between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., Fischl said.
Dan Kelch, owner of Lulu’s, a restaurant at 626 Davis St., said he would support the extension only if the city increased its meter violation enforcement. This would eliminate “meter feeders” who go to their cars every two hours to put more money in the meters and are able to stay in one space all day.
“There’s got to be a program that targets the problem parker and not the customers,” Kelch said.
