The Crittenden Automotive Library

Loading Zones in Woodstock

Loading Zones in Woodstock

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
June 29, 2008

When a curb parking area is designated as a Loading Zone, did you know that parking is permitted only for 15 minutes and only while loading or unloading? Woodstock City Code Section 5.3.11 is the reference here.

This is a little-known and lesser-obeyed section of Woodstock's City Code.

Example: the designated Loading Zone at the end of Benton Street, just before the railroad tracks at Church Street, provided convenient parking for two cars on late Friday afternoon. (To view the cars more clearly and see their license plate numbers, left-click on the photo.)

This restricted-parking zone is striped as a no-parking zone but signed as a Loading Zone. It is used for deliveries, sometimes by trucks really too long to be parked in it, but that's another story. On Friday the vehicles in it were a black Acura sedan and red Infiniti Impala - probably not pizza delivery vehicles for Pirro's. And, even if they were, they can be there only while loading and unloading and then only up to 15 minutes.

When is a Loading Zone not a "legal" Loading Zone? When it is in front of the Jewel-Osco in Woodstock.

The property manager has striped the pavement and placed signs there to indicate that parking is for customer package pick-up. It was business-like and professional of the shopping center to do that. Certainly, its intention was that customers would not park there to run in and shop and that drivers would not "stand" (stop their vehicles but remain at the wheel) there while passengers went in to shop.

But that's exactly what happens, because the City of Woodstock has not entered into a Vehicular Control Agreement with the property owners/managers. All the property managers want such an Agreement. All it would take is a small amount of attention by the City to complete an Agreement. When it's in place, then the Woodstock Police Department can enforce traffic laws on the northeast corner of Route 47 and Country Club Road, commonly thought-of as the Jewel-Osco corner.

Technically, there are three property owners there: 1) Jewel-Osco; 2) the strip of stores west of Jewel-Osco; and the Golden Eagle Community Bank property.

If you are a customer of any of the businesses on that corner, stop and visit with the store's manager on your next trip. Tell the manager of the store that you are sick and tired of endangering your life just to cross the driveway from the parking lot to the store, because so many drivers run the stop signs. If enough customers tell enough managers enough times, they will band together and "persuade" the City to complete a Vehicular Control Agreement.

It's not that complicated. The Village of Algonquin uses a one-page agreement. Woodstock currently requires a four-page agreement! I guess higher legal fees result, when a four-page agreement is required.

© 2008 GUS PHILPOTT