Village Board Approves Tweaked Parking Rule

Shorewood police will start enforcing a new parking rule Oct. 3 in a portion of the village, after officials fine-tuned it to accommodate local business owners and apartment managers.

Back in February, village officials approved a two-hour parking limit in the area stretching west from North Lake Drive to North Oakland Avenue and south from East Capitol Drive to East Edgewood Avenue from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

But Tuesday, the Village Board approved a . Police will start enforcing two-hour parking, but designate specific streets for local business employees to park. After three months, Banaszynski will report back to the board on whether the plan is working.

"There are a bunch of charts here in which the chief has made some assumptions (about parking), and we are asking that once he has this implemented, he come back with some facts or some results," Trustee Don Ford said.

However, Shorewood could alter the the plan earlier, if needed.

"I see this as a work in progress," Trustee Michael Maher said. "This is a start. We'd like the chief to come back and report on a regular basis."

Village officials originally pushed across the restrictions after fielding complaints from residents about University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students and staff parking on Shorewood streets all day. Signs went up in July, but police didn’t hand out tickets to those violating the two-hour parking restrictions.

That was partly because they wanted to give residents time to purchase $5 yearly permits allowing them to park longer than two hours, but also because of .

Under the adjusted plan, business employees would buy the same permit as residents, allowing them to park on specific north-south locations.

A third of each business' employees will be allowed to park in the 3900 block of the five avenues running from North Frederick east to North Stowell. Another third would be required to park one block south of Capitol Drive on East Shorewood Boulevard, between Frederick and Downer Avenue and the final third of employees would park north of Capitol Drive, which doesn't have parking restrictions.

"What the chief is tring to do is spread the parking out with the business employees," Ford said.

Parking permits for employees will be color-coded depending where they are to park.

Even with a permit, residents won’t be allowed to park on Capitol Drive longer than two hours, as it will be designated for customer parking.

Officials say seeing how this plan works during the winter months is key to understanding its effectiveness.