For the past 18 months, Westbrook has been working to solve its downtown parking problem by posting time limits on parking spaces and handing out tickets. After a meeting Friday, it seems the problem has not yet been corrected, just moved across the street.

A handful of residents, local employees and business owners voiced their concerns to the Westbrook Downtown Parking Committee, and they all had one thing in common – a frustration with the parking limits placed on the Church Street lots.

Judy Getchell, a member of the Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church and the Westbrook Woman’s Club, said the 60-member club meets at the church twice a month. Most of the members are older and stay for more than two hours, and they don’t want to have to come out and move their cars around to avoid getting tickets.

Like many people at the meeting, Getchell thought there should be more 8-hour spots in the Church Street lots.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the council will have to decide whether to permanently change the parking spaces along William Clarke Drive, which have been temporarily made into all-day spots.

Darlene Manoogian, who owns the Parker and Company Salon and Day Spa on Main Street, said people have been parking in her driveway and taking the spaces away from her customers – the opposite of what the new parking plan was supposed to accomplish for downtown business owners.

“I have a retail store,” she said. “People aren’t going to park two blocks down to pick up a bottle of shampoo.”

Terri Smith, who works on Main Street at Counseling Services Inc., said she feels as though parking in the Church Street lots has become a competition between area employees.

“It is so stressful trying to get to work,” she said. “You can’t leave at lunch time, and God forbid I come in late!”

Before the new parking designations, she said, she could come to work as late as 8 a.m. and be guaranteed a spot. Now, she said, “I have to fly in to work at 7:30.”

Everyone at the meeting agreed that the new problems that have arisen from the parking plan are not only due to less all-day spaces in the Church Street lots. Those lots are getting spill over from other downtown parking changes.

Manoogian said she has seen people using the Church Street lots as a park and ride, shuttling co-workers back and forth.

Eric Dudley, city engineer, said he believes the strict parking regulations in the Warren Block are forcing employees who used to park there to park in the municipal lot behind CVS, and those who parked in CVS are now parking on Church Street.

“Nobody’s here from the Bank of America area,” said committee member Sam Novick, noting that meant it was working for businesses in those areas, but creating difficulties for others.

“The problem has migrated from one side of the street to the other,” said Smith.

City Councilor John O’Hara said problems with the plan should be expected.

“Parking management is an extremely difficult concept to bring up, especially after 30 years of no management at all,” he said. “We didn’t think we would get it right first thing out of the gate.”

Bryant encouraged those who came to the meeting to stay in touch with the city about the problems they’re experiencing and to let others know that Westbrook wants to help.

“This is an ever-evolving process,” he said. “We’ll tweak it as we go along.”