Will County Gazette

The Joliet City Council continues to deal with the parking situation on one of their city streets.

“I don't know what the answer is to this. This is just a mess. And we're trying to come to some solutions. And we haven't been able to come up with anything except the no parking because, you know, the residents have been there first. So we need to tend to them, but we also need to help the business, but also the customers need to be considerate as well,” councilmember Jan Quillman said.

The council uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the city’s YouTube channel.

Residents from the 800 block of Cora Street in Joliet have been coming to the city council for several months now, asking the city to do something about the parking and traffic situation near their homes. Residents are upset with the increased traffic flow from the Carnitas Don Jose y Supermercado located on Ruby Street at the end of the block. The store has been around for four years now, and a ban on non-residential parking on Cora Street has been proposed, which would leave the store scrambling for alternative parking for their customers. The store was put in without any additional parking spaces being put in or planned for, and now residents up the street complain that the one-side-only parking rule is completely filled with store traffic that also starts lining up the other side of the street illegally, causing major congestion and an inability of residents to park anywhere on their block.

At the council’s March 21 meeting, they again discussed this issue, this time voting on an ordinance that would create a residential parking only rule for the 800 block of Cora Street that would require residents to display parking passes on their car and ticket anyone who parks there without one. They initially gave the business owner some time to try and figure out additional parking for his customers, however, none have been identified so far. While they understand that this will push much of the grocery store business parking to other areas further out, they are still very happy with the business and its success. The current situation, however, cannot continue as it is. Several councilmembers made comments saying they felt that this new rule would change anything as people already disrespect the parking rules in the area.

Residents attended this meeting, begging council members to create and enforce these rules as they are tired of struggling with this problem and the increased danger from traffic on their street. The council members discussed this, saying that since residents had asked them to do this for them, they would go ahead and try the ordinance. They were willing to revisit and change the rule if it did not make the desired improvements or new parking areas for customers didn’t arise.

The council will meet again at 6:30 p.m. on April 4 at City Hall at 150 West Jackson St.