Glencoe tightens parking regulations near beach — and there may be more to come

The Glencoe Village Board has passed three ordinances aimed at addressing parking concerns around Glencoe Beach after hearing resident concerns about beach visitors last summer.

A couple of residents said on Thursday, though, that more needs to be done.

During the Village Board’s regular meeting on Thursday, April 16, trustees unanimously approved the following measures:

• Expanding an existing ordinance that requires parking in between striped lines to cover the entire village;
• Giving public safety officers the ability to issue citations for specific violations; and
• Increasing fines for parking violations in “high-demand” parking areas.

Monica Sarna, the Village’s director of public works, said a listening session was held at Village Hall on Feb. 9 in response to several complaints from residents living near Glencoe Beach and Lakefront Park regarding beachgoer behavior throughout the 2025 season.

Following that listening session, Sarna said the most frequent complaints included “overcrowding, vehicles blocking crosswalks, vehicles blocking driveway access, parking illegally and also some hazardous driving that we saw as beachgoers are circling the area looking for parking.”

Working with the Glencoe Park District, Sarna said some administrative changes were made, including adding new pavement markings to create designated parallel parking spaces, and increasing communication to direct motorists to commuter lots.

But since some of the proposed changes involved Village Code amendments, they needed to come before the Village Board.

Glencoe Public Safety Director Sean Loughran explained each of the proposed amendments to the trustees.

He said the Village already requires that vehicles must be parked within the striped lines, but the policy needed depth.

“But that ordinance was only specific to the uptown (business district),” Loughran said. “It did not have the authority across (Glencoe), so that’s what we’re seeking to amend” in order to be more consistent across the Village.

For issuing citations for specific violations, Loughran said public safety officers had previously issued a generic citation and would explain the infraction on the ticket.

With the new ordinance, each citation will now be for a specific violation, “to enforce specifically for sidewalks, intersections, crosswalks, bridges, railroad tracks, near fire hydrants, in front of driveways and any other location where signage restricts, and that’s directly in response to citizen complaints to what we were hearing,” he said.

Loughran added that the public safety officers have seen success in recent months with increasing the fine for parking violations, which led to the new ordinance increasing fines in “high-demand” parking areas from $50 to $100.

The increased fines are in effect from May 1 to Oct. 31, which he said is “peak beachgoing season.”

The ordinance defines “high-demand” areas to include Sheridan Road between specific streets; Beach Road from Sheridan Road to the end of the street; Park Avenue from Sheridan Road to the end of the street; and Lakefront Park and Glencoe Beach.

“Our goal is not to issue as many citations as possible,” Loughran said. “Our goal is compliance. The ultimate goal is zero offenses and zero citations, but this is important for us and this gives us not only a better tool, but a better data-tracking tool to make sure that we are focusing in the right area.”

At multiple points during the meeting, staff and trustees said the new measures are just the first steps of addressing the concerns of neighbors, and that it’s always possible that more changes will come.

Neighbors ask for collaboration

Two neighbors, both of whom also attended the Feb. 9 listening session, shared during the meeting their concerns about how the process for adopting new ordinances has proceeded.

Jeff Shapack said that, since that meeting, there has been “no meaningful follow-up or continued dialogue with residents” until this past week when the Village mailed letters to neighbors, but he said many of them still haven’t gotten those notices.

He also said he believes the ordinances do not do enough to address the problems.

“The issue is not just illegal parking,” he said. “The issue is that our residential streets have effectively become overflow parking lots for nonresidents going to the beach. That brings traffic, congestion, speeding and safety risks for families and children that live there. Enforcement after the fact does not fix that. We need to address the source of the problem, which is unrestricted nonresident access to parking in and around Lakefront Park and Glencoe Beach.”

Shapack provided examples of neighboring communities and how they regulate nonresidents utilizing their beaches and asked that the Village look to those communities for what to do.

“We’re not asking for anything unreasonable,” he said. “We’re asking for a solution that already exists and works and protects Glencoe residents.”

Another neighbor, Zach Spellman, said he does not let his children leave their driveway because of the traffic issues in the area.

He encouraged Village officials to work with the beach neighbors.

“We want to see change,” Spellman added, “and we’re going to be very proactive to make sure that we can get something that works for everyone.”

Next steps

Village President Howard Roin apologized for the delay in mailing the letters to neighbors and assured the speakers that “the Village is not ignoring you.”

“We’re going to continue to look at this,” he said. “Village staff is already looking at what our neighbors are doing so that we can compare their situations to our situation and we’re going to continue to do that.”

Trustee Joe Halwax thanked the neighbors for speaking up and said he’s seen firsthand, as a beachgoer, what happens overnight.

“The beach closes at 7 (p.m.) and then it’s utterly mobbed at 7:01, and on Sunday mornings the beach is destroyed,” he said. “Unless you’re down there when I’m down there with a lot of Glencoe residents playing volleyball at 7:30, 8, you don’t get to see how destroyed the beach is.”

He encouraged the neighbors to keep speaking up and working with the Village.

“I’ve experienced what you’re experiencing, and would support finding some other ways to try and control more against the safety aspect that’s there because right now, it’s not great,” he said.

Village Manager Phil Kiraly said he will present a report at the board’s next meeting on May 21 that tracks the progress of the new ordinances.

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