Hundreds more parking spaces will be brought to downtown Berwyn when a new parking deck rises in about a year.

The Berwyn City Council voted unanimously Tuesday, Sept. 23, to help advance a plan more than five years in the making to build a downtown parking garage.

The Berwyn Development Corp. wants to build a multi-level parking deck over the existing municipal parking lot at the corner of Grove Avenue and 34th Street. The agency sought authorization from the council to go to bid for general contractor services on this project.

Sara Bratcher, an urban planner for the BDC, said the garage would feature five levels of parking, with about 390 spaces. The existing municipal lot, which it will replace, has 86 spaces, she said.

“As we develop and grow as a community, it helps with our parking needs,” she said. “It shows we are a growing community.”

Bratcher declined to release a cost estimate for the work, saying they have $2.4 million in grant money from the Illinois Department of Transportation and $435,000 from Metra set aside to help cover the costs.

“We will make 300 spaces in the deck for commuters,” she said. “They’re going to move 80 spaces from the depot area (to the deck).”

No one appeared at the 5:45 p.m. public hearing Tuesday, Sept. 23, to comment or ask questions about the parking deck. BDC Executive Director Tony Griffin said neither the city clerk nor BDC staff had received comments before the meeting about the project.

BDC staff plan to release the bid documents Sunday, Oct. 7, and are anticipating to begin construction by December. The project may take 10 to 12 months to complete.

“No one will see anything go vertical on it ’til spring,” Bratcher said.