Pay to park to play?

Great uncle Henry from Winnetka might have to pay to park in order to see Junior in a hockey tournament at Robert Crown Center.

Grandma Sally from Oak Park might also have deal with paid parking, to join her friends in a workout class at the Levy Senior Center.

Our imaginary Henry and Sally, and anybody else who is not an Evanston resident, might soon have to fork out some cash (or use a link on an app) to pay for parking at the Robert Crown Center, the Levy Center, James Park, and Lovelace Park.

Evanston City Council is about to consider such a non-resident parking fee of from 50-cents to as much as $3 per hour at those facilities, according to Parks and Recreation Director Audrey Thompson.

The pay-possibility was discussed Tuesday night at the Second Ward meeting, held, most approprately, at Robert Crown.

And the reaction was not positive.

Non-residents already pay 30% higher fees for Evanston recreation activities, and that’s before any potential parking expenses.

Thompson, whose department oversees the facilities in question, was not enthused about the paid parking potentiality.

“I fear we’ll have fewer people” coming to Evanston to use the rec centers and parks,” Thompson said.

The Parks and Recreation Director said she believes the city’s pay-parking motive is raising revenue, not necessarily regulating parking.

But she added, “I don’t want Evanston to be the community where you have to … [pay] out the wazoo in order to cross Howard Street,” she added.

Ald. Krissie Harris (2nd) also had her doubts.

“I don’t think it’s just about the money,” Harris said, “but it’s the optics about hospitality. I want you here but you can’t park here” without paying.

Hockey and figure skating tournaments often draw large, out-of-town crowds to Robert Crown.

Thompson said that organizers and families might say “ice is $500 an hour, and now I have to pay to park?”

A 2nd ward resident added, “I would be devastated if I was paying for the ice and had no place to park” without coming up with more money.

One problem, particularly at Crown for ice events, is that there are not always enough places to park anyway, so people put their cars on neighboring streets.

As you might imagine, residents are not particularly thrilled to, say, go to church on Sunday morning, only to come home and find no parking spots in front of their own houses.

In fact, concerns over neighborhood streets filling with cars is part of what led to the city looking into non-resident parking fees.

In addition, two years ago the city started charging non-residents for on-street parking at the lakefront as an alternative to charging for beach tokens.

And that program was expanded to more lakefront locations last year, despite the opposition of council members from the three lakefront wards.

Last fall, Ald. Devon Reid (8th) called for expanding the non-resident parking fee program to city recreation facilities like the Crown and Levy centers as a way to raise more revenue.

But Thompson said, “I fear if this goes through,” people will simply avoid the fee by “parking in your neighborhoods.”

Thompson said it’s possible that “the parking lots will be less full, but your neighborhood streets will be more full.”

Pay-to-park-to-play, Thompson told Evanston Now, “could backfire.”

One neighborhood solution, however the paid parking issue turns out, is to have street parking permits for residents only.

But that requires a majority of neighbors on the block to sign a petition and pay a small yearly fee.

And, said one citizen, “not everyone wants to pay.”

For now, at least, neighbors of the facilities in question should be getting notified of upcoming large events, so they can plan their own parking accordingly.

Thompson said she is informing alders of what’s taking place, so those alders can put updates in ward newsletters or emails.

Because right now, she noted, when Crown fills up with hockey players or figure skaters, it also fills up with parents, and siblings, and friends …. and cars.

“It’s a free-for-all,” she added, to find a place to park.

The question now … will a non-resident fee make things better or worse?