Addison is looking to crack down on overnight semi-truck parking in shopping malls and commercial areas.

The village’s Public Health, Safety and Judicial Committee approved an ordinance June 23 allowing police to begin issuing parking tickets to trucks that are parked and left unattended. The ordinance could be approved by the Addison Village Board later this month.

Police Chief Bill Hayden said the ordinance would update the village code to allow officers to issue parking tickets for trucks left unattended for several hours on private property when a business does not have a truck parking permit. This would not cover trucks that are unloading or loading, but vehicles that are parked and left unattended for a specific amount of time, such as overnight or long-term parking.

Under the current code, police cannot ticket trucks parked in privately owned commercial areas such as shopping center parking lots along Lake Street, Hayden said. While it doesn’t happen all the time, officials said the village has received complaints about overnight parking in some of those lots.

“Up until now, our officers have been diligent in getting owners to move these trucks,” Hayden said. “But some are not cooperating. This ordinance will allow us to ticket them.”

While the village does have ordinances regulating parking in residential areas and in public right-of-ways, they do not have a law on the books to enforce truck or trailer parking in nonresidential private property areas, officials said. An ordinance is required for police to issue tickets, Hayden said.
Parking ticket fines for trucks range from $85 to $160, according to the village code.

Village Trustee and committee Chairman Tom Hundley said the village had an issue with this a couple of years ago, when trucks were parking in lots on the far west side of town near Swift Road. At the time, police could do very little, because it was a private property issue.

“This will give us authority to go into places like this and get those trucks out of where they don’t belong,” he said.

The ordinance would not cover towing vehicles from private property, which Hayden said would need to be done by the property owners.