Empty Metra lots have south and southwest suburbs looking at cost-cutting options
With Metra commuter lots largely empty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some suburbs are looking at ways to offset the drop in parking fee revenue.
While not a substantial income source for communities compared with property or sales taxes, a drop in parking fees represent a budget hit when every dollar coming into a municipality’s coffers is sacred.
Suburbs along Metra lines maintain the parking lots and take on the costs of maintenance such as paving and keeping them clear of snow. Parking fees they collect pay for those expenses.
Metra has seen significant drops in ridership during the pandemic, which has meant communities are seeing a drop in parking fee revenue.
For November, the most recent data available, Metra reported estimated passenger trips on all of its rail lines were down 24% from October and off almost 92% compared with November 2019.
Along the Rock Island Line, which serves suburbs including Oak Forest, Tinley Park and Mokena, estimated ridership in November was 59,000 compared with nearly 600,000 in Novem
ber 2019, according to Metra.
On the Electric Line, which has stops in Harvey, Matteson, Park Forest and University Park among others, November ridership was estimated at 66,000 compared with 605,000 for a year earlier.
Along the SouthWest Service Line, which includes Oak Lawn and Orland Park, November ridership was estimated at 12,000 passengers compared with 194,000 for November 2019, according to Metra.
Tinley Park recently closed the north lot at its 80th Avenue Metra station along with some of the lots that bookend the north and south sides of the downtown Oak Park Avenue station on Metra’s Rock Island line.
The temporary closures are the result of fewer commuters and meant to save costs by not having to plow snow, according to the village.
Going into the current budget year, which began May 1, Tinley Park estimated revenue from its commuter lots would be $734,000, up from $680,000 in fiscal year 2020.
Early on, in the initial months of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, Tinley Park waived daily parking fees, which cut into revenue.
For the first four months of the fiscal year, fee revenue was $5,300 compared with nearly $116,000 for the same period in fiscal 2020, the village said.
For its fiscal year 2021 budget, which started July 1, Mokena expects parking fees from its several commuter lots, including Hickory Creek near Interstate 80, to be just under $86,000.
For fiscal 2020, which ended June 30 and reflected the initial months of the state shutdown, revenue was budgeted to be $328,000 before the budget year began and estimated to have come in at $247,000. The village did start the current budget year with an opening balance in the commuter lot fund of $250,000.
“It’s not going to be a great year for the parking lot fund,” said John Tomasoski, Mokena’s village administrator. “Fortunately we were not in the middle of any big capital projects (related to the lots).”
He said the village is working through potential options to save on maintenance costs as a result of decreased revenue.
Oak Lawn typically receives $325,000 to $350,000 in parking lot fees, including at the village’s parking garage next to Patriot Station on 95th Street, and last year took in about $75,000, according to Brian Towne, assistant village manager.
He said the village completed a rehabilitation project that cost $540,000 at the garage in 2018, which should last another few years before more work is needed.
Orland Park hasn’t made any changes to how it maintains its lots along the SouthWest Service Line at 143rd, 153rd and 179th streets, according to a village spokeswoman.
For the just-ended budget year, the village calculated parking fee revenue to be $352,000, higher than the $304,000 estimated before the fiscal 2020 budget year began.
Revenue for the 2021 fiscal year, which started Jan. 1, is projected to be $389,000.