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Forest Park to draft parking-amnesty proposal and reinstate boot ordinance to recover unpaid citations
Summary
Village leaders said a parking-amnesty program and reinstatement of a vehicle-boot ordinance are being drafted to address about $1.6 million in uncollected citations over 18 months; staff will bring a formal proposal to council.
Forest Park officials told the council they will draft a formal parking-amnesty program and consider reinstating a vehicle-boot ordinance to collect long-outstanding parking citations.
Chair (speaker 1) presented collection figures, saying the village recorded about $1,200,000 in uncollected parking citations in 2024 and another $220,000 in outstanding local citations, and that overall collection was below 30 percent. He proposed a limited-time amnesty that could reduce balances (one example previously discussed was a 50 percent reduction) and said the village could re-enable a boot program suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Gross (speaker 3) described staffing constraints for enforcement and noted prior experience with booting; he said safety protocols include having an officer present when boots are applied. Council members emphasized offering payment plans or other support to avoid causing undue hardship while addressing chronic nonpayment.
The council directed the chief and chair to work on a formal proposal and present it at a future meeting, and agreed in principle to pursue both an amnesty window and reinstatement of the boot ordinance.
