BYRON – Officials in Byron are looking into complaints from business owners downtown regarding parking on West Second Street. At the Community Services Committee Meeting Wednesday night, City Administrator Patricia Diduch said she hoped that there could be a compromise reached regarding the parking conflicts without adding a layer of municipal rules. Currently, Second Street between Walnut and Union has diagonal parking on both sides of the road. Around 60 parking stalls are currently available, but there have been previous proposed solutions including making Second Street a one way street with perpendicular parking. Alderman Ron Boyer stated he spoke with a number of people who work and park downtown, who said they were uncomfortable parking off-street or behind the buildings due to not wanting to walk through a dark alley to get to and from their employers. It was claimed that as many as eight of the parking spots on Second Street were occupied most weekdays by workers downtown.
“We want successful businesses. We want successful property owners,” Diduch said. “We want the people who live downtown to be able to have nearby accessible parking. But there’s certainly gonna have to be some give in terms of everyone kind of balancing what their most primary concerns are. So we can make this work the best for all the stakeholders involved.”
