NIU engineering students might have to pay $5 tomorrow to park where the parking is free today.

The Sycamore City Council will discuss tonight the proposal to change sections of North Cross Street in Sycamore into a no-parking zone to edge NIU students’ vehicles off the streets and into the university’s designated parking lot near the school of engineering.

The Streets and Walks Committee, which has been conducting a study on the issue for the past two weeks, will disclose its opinion on the parking situation at tonight’s regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Committee Chairman Robert Binder said students still will be able to park in the street if the committee does not find any problems with the situation.

Sycamore Mayor Redd Johnson said about 20 NIU students have been parking along two blocks of North Cross Street on weekdays for the past eight weeks. Johnson said that the students have a “nice parking lot” and that the city wants them to park in it.

Sycamore 2nd Ward Alderman Jeff Clapsaddle said emergency vehicles would have a difficult time passing parked cars on North Cross because some sections of the street are “quite narrow.” Parked cars also would make snow removal difficult, he said.

NIU Parking Committee Chairman Bob Bornhuetter said the students might be parking in the street because they are not full-time students and do not want to purchase a $30 parking permit to park in the lot. He also said students might not want to park in the lot because parts of the lot are unpaved and in poor condition.