VILLA PARK : City Cracks Down on Door-to-Door Sales

Signs soon will go up at entrances to the city to remind solicitors they must register with City Hall before knocking on doors.

City Manager Fred Maley said the new signs will be installed in about two weeks.

“We’ll have the signs at nine different locations, on streets leading into the city,” Maley said.

The warning signs are part of the City Council’s crackdown on soliciting. This year the council passed an ordinance that in effect allows homeowners to declare their property “off limits” to door-to-door sellers and solicitors.

The new ordinance allows homeowners to put their street addresses on a “no solicitors registry” maintained at City Hall.

When solicitors apply for a city-required permit at City Hall, they are given a listing of all addresses that have opted not to be disturbed.

Solicitors who violate the city law by calling on homes listed in the “no solicitors registry” can have their permit revoked.

They also can be cited for a misdemeanor, punishable with up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Maley said the city’s new anti-solicitor ordinance was beefed up at the council’s last meeting when the council amended the measure with a penalty clause.

City Atty. Leonard Hampel said that in most cases people violating the new law would simply lose the right to solicit within the city.

But he said the law does provide for the sterner action of jail, a fine, or both.

Maley noted that the new law stemmed from requests by residents, some of whom had asked council members to restrict door-to-door solicitations after dark.

He added that legal research determined that constitutional law limits what cities can do to restrict solicitors, including any limitation on hours.

Villa Park’s new ordinance is a distillation of laws successfully used by other cities and upheld by the courts, according to Hampel.