There’s no need to add more downtown parking at Nichols Library in Naperville — for now, city officials say.
For more than a decade and a half, the idea of a new parking garage being built on the library’s Jefferson Avenue lot has circulated again and again, most recently coming up early last year.
But city staff say data shows residents are, for the most part, satisfied with downtown parking, prompting them to return the parking deck idea to the backburner.
“It’s not dead in the water,” said Bill Novack, Naperville’s director of transportation, engineering and development. “But it’s definitely tabled and then we’ll observe what’s going on (with parking demand) going forward.”
Plans for expanded parking at Nichols Library have been in the works since 2007, when city officials suggested constructing a garage with more than 500 spaces to replace the library’s existing 130-space surface lot.
But then the recession hit. Plans became financially impossible and were ultimately abandoned. The idea, however, never faded away.
“It’s always been on our books as one of our potential future decks,” Novack said.
It stayed that way until a few years ago. In early 2020, former Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico resurrected the proposal once again as a way to address what had become a chronic parking concern at Nichols Library.
The problem centered on non-library visitors using the facility’s lot while they were downtown, leaving library patrons with nowhere to park.
Chirico designated a task force to look into the issue. The group, however, never met because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two years later, the matter was back in question and the city delved into some early stage research. Chirico was still pushing for its revival as of February last year, three months before his term ended and he was succeeded by Mayor Scott Wehrli.
Behind the scenes, staff have been gauging parking demand.
As part of a community-wide survey conducted last summer, residents were asked to rate the ease of downtown parking. Results were across the board: 15% responded excellent, 39% said good, 30% fair and 16% poor.
Mixed, but primarily up to par, Novack said.
“With only 16% (responding poor), the demand isn’t there yet,” he said.
Another delaying factor is the city hasn’t seen parking deck use return to pre-COVID numbers, he said. In 2022, weekday demand at the city’s Van Buren, Central and Water Street parking facilities were all below 70% target use and below pre-pandemic use, city data shows. Peak times were about even, Novack said.
“Based on that data … also (knowing) we’ve not had urging from any of our elected officials,” they opted not to move forward with the idea, Novack said.
Instead, the city’s focus is on other downtown improvements, including ongoing streetscape projects and water main replacements, he said.
The previous estimated cost for building a parking deck at Nichols Library was about $25 million. How much it would cost today is “really hard to say,” Novack said, because “construction costs are so volatile right now.”
Dave Della Terza, executive director of the Naperville Public Library, said he’d still be open to exploring additional parking options at Nichols — but only if there’s a desire from the city.
“I would love to see more parking potentially … (but) it’s not just about the people coming to the library,” he said. “It’s about the whole downtown area, and we’re just a piece of that.”
Insufficient parking at Nichols isn’t a new problem, Della Terza said. Over his nearly 18-year tenure with the library district, patrons have repeatedly told library staff that they want more parking at the downtown branch, he said.
“This has been going on for a long, long time,” he said. “We would definitely be open to talking about it if there’s any interest (by the city) in exploring that.”
