Wheaton council adopts downtown "Blue Dot" parking rules; approves equipment purchases, appointment and generator engineering contract

At its Feb. 18 meeting the Wheaton City Council approved a set of ordinances, resolutions and appointments affecting downtown parking, public safety equipment and the police department's backup power.

The council unanimously adopted an ordinance amending the city's Code of Ordinances (Chapter 70, Article 4) to establish a three-hour customer parking restriction downtown and to create a "Blue Dot" program to allow employees to park past certain time limits in designated areas. Mr. Dugan, city staff, told the council the proposal responds to a months-long analysis of downtown parking and staff will "be very aggressive with communicating the changes with the downtown community, in particular the business community" and will monitor the program after implementation. Staff said the Blue Dot program would be effective July…