Trustees question value of redoing Shorewood parking study; staff recommends targeted data pulls before full update

Trustees at a Community & Business Relations Committee meeting reviewed a 2019 parking and transportation analysis and debated whether to commission a full update.

Bart, the staff presenter, said the original data collection took place in 2019 and that while the study noted a general surplus across the village, “there are areas within the commercial business district that experience high levels of demand that strain local parking supply.” He told trustees an updated comprehensive study would likely cost about $75,000 and take roughly a year to complete.

Trustee McGovern and others questioned whether the full expense is warranted. McGovern suggested first pulling readily available administrative data — such as DMV snapshots tied to the wheel tax and recent on‑street permit sales — to determine whether vehicle registrations and parking patterns have changed materially since 2019. “It might save us $75,000 just to be able to pull that data and look at what our number of cars we have now,” a trustee said during discussion.

Trustees asked staff to provide: a clearer breakdown of the exhibit maps (on‑street vs. off‑street counts), recent permit‑sales data from the police department, and DMV/wheel‑tax registration snapshots to compare 2019 to current conditions. Bart agreed to locate the appendices or contact the original consultant and to circulate notes. No committee motion to commission a new paid study was made at the meeting.

Next steps: staff will assemble the requested datasets and documentation for trustees; the board may consider whether a narrowly scoped update or a full study is warranted after reviewing those materials.