Village To Consider Towing Repeat Violators, Increasing Parking Fees

DOWNERS GROVE, IL — Downers Grove residents may face harsher consequences for parking violations, if trustees approve amendments to the village's parking ordinance. The proposed changes include increased fees and towing for drivers who are considered repeat violators.

The motion to approve the amended ordinance will have its first reading at the June 3 village council meeting.

As written, the ordinance calls for changing village code to authorize the vehicles of "chronic parking violators" to be towed. Meeting documents define a "chronic parking violator" as someone who has gotten five or more parking tickets within a period of 365 days and has not paid the parking tickets.

The chronic parking violator will be notified of their status by mail before a tow is initiated. If a vehicle is towed, it will be held until all outstanding parking tickets have been paid. They will also be responsible for paying an "administrative penalty" of $500, in addition to towing and storage fees.

Once a car is towed, vehicle owners can request a hearing if they do not think the tow was justified.

If the ordinance amendments go through, fines are set to increase for parking violations. The proposed fee schedule is as follows.

First Two Violations Downtown and Violations That Did Not Occur Downtown

Zero to 14 days unpaid: $30

15 to 104 days unpaid: $75

Unpaid after 105 days: $93.75

This reflects an increase of 20 percent or greater over the current parking fine amounts.

Three or More Violations Downtown

Zero to 14 days unpaid: $100

15 to 104 days unpaid: $145

Unpaid after 105 days: $181.25

The village also proposes partnering with the Illinois Office of the Comptroller (IOC) to initiate collections of unpaid parking fines through a Local Debt Recovery Program. This may result in fees being collected from tax refunds, state paychecks, state vendor contracts or lottery wins.

According to village documents, Downers Grove has had over 4,000 unpaid parking tickets on the books since 2020. It's estimated the uncollected debt from these tickets totals more than $300,000.