Drivers on the University of Illinois campus may have a tough time finding parking, but those who park in a space reserved for someone else, particularly in the city of Champaign, might not find their cars when they return. Ignoring or failing to notice a “No Parking” sign in permit areas can cost you a $95 tow fee.
Champaign residents like Amy Langendorf, who said she paid the city “close to $600” to reserve a space near her sorority house on campus this school year, have the right to call the city and ask to have others towed.
Langendorf reserved a space on the city website this summer before returning to campus for her sophomore year. “I heard that the spots were filling up and I wanted to get a spot as close to my house as I could,” Langendorf said.
Since the school year started, Langendorf said she has had to call the city four times to have non-permit holders towed from her space. “Usually I try to wait a little bit, because it’s a pain for everybody to be towed,” Langendorf said. “I don’t know if they don’t know that there’s absolutely no free parking on campus.”
The city of Champaign provides a map of permit parking on its website, which includes the residential area west of Wright Street and south of University Avenue.
According to Shirl Johnson, Parking Operations Supervisor for the city of Champaign, Langendorf’s call would be transferred to an answering service that forwards the request to one of five different towing companies contracted with the city of Champaign. Four out of the five companies are located in Urbana.
Hannan said that the public works department couldn’t provide numbers on how often rogue parkers have been towed, although the police department does keep towing records. “It would be quite some time for [the police] to compile the records related just to tows from permit areas, since they are not computerized and, therefore, not easily retrievable.”
Langendorf said new signs were put up on her street after she complained to the city, but that hasn’t deterred drivers from taking her spot. “I think the signs need to be more visible,” Langendorf said, “something that’s really bright to show that these are permit spots.” Langendorf said she’s hoping to get a parking spot provided by the sorority house next year, and that leasing a space from the city would be her “last resort.”
Johnson said that there are still permit spaces available on campus. “If somebody wants a permit, they can go online and see what’s available,” Johnson said. “They can also call in and see if that space is available, because sometimes people turn in their permits.” Permit rates for the academic year range from $360 to $675.
Hannan acknowledged that there may not be enough spaces to accommodate everyone at the University, but said, “According to a campus-area transportation study, we really don’t want to encourage more cars coming on campus. There’s a lot of logic to that because you do have a lot of bikes and pedestrians down there. Every so often there’s a bad accident.”