BRUNSWICK

The Brunswick Town Council will hold a hearing tonight on banning parking between 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. on Page Street between Maine and Union streets, except for those with parking placards.

Town Councilor Jane Millett on Friday said she hoped to get the necessary votes to enact the restriction.

This may be the second such restriction on a street in the Bowdoin College area enacted by the council in recent months. The action may mirror restrictions created that limited overnight parking to Longfellow Avenue residents with placards and their guests.

Some on the council had warned then that such action could lead to more and more neighborhoods requesting restrictions and placards.

“That may be the case, but safety has to come first,” said Millett. “That was my concern.”

Parking problems on Page Street escalated when the first snow fell around Thanksgiving. Residents complained to the council that plows were unable to get to the curb because cars are parked there for days at a time, sometimes blocking residents’ drive- ways, she said.

Millett had blamed the problem on out-of-state vehicles with “Bowdoin College stickers.”

“We take it as a given that our street is pretty much a Bowdoin parking lot,” Page Street resident Emily Swan told the town council in January, adding that Bowdoin students were parking on her street “for days on end.”

Town Manager John Eldridge has noted that the issue arose after Bowdoin College changed rules about parking behind some of its buildings.

Starting this academic year, former student parking at five college house lots on Maine Street were changed to accommodate faculty, staff and visitor parking in proximity to campus during the day Monday through Friday.

Also this year, the town began limiting parking along areas of Park Row to two hours, and banning overnight parking in some sections.

The college has made efforts to stop students and staff from parking on Page Street, although they had been legally allowed to do so.

Since the council took up the issue, and at the suggestion of the council, police have temporarily banned parking on Page Street.

Millett said a couple of vehicles have been towed as a result.

“The problem got fixed very quickly, and just in the nick of time,” Millett said, referencing the series of snowstorms that have pummeled Maine in recent days that has resulted in mountains of snow accumulated along Brunswick roads. “Thank goodness we moved when we did on Page Street. It would have been just a nightmare.”

Since the council discussion, Millett said meetings have been held with representatives of Bowdoin College.

“They feel as if the problem is resolved,” Millett said on Friday.

Meanwhile, Millett called for the town to conduct on a broader study over the course of the year.

“I think we need to do a better job with uniformity,” Millett said.

Not the first time

THIS MAY BE THE second such restriction on a street in the Bowdoin College area enacted by the Brunswick Town Council in recent months. The action may mirror restrictions created that limited overnight parking to Longfellow Avenue residents with placards and their guests.