Plan to fix Oval parking woes tabled

MILFORD – After weeks of talking about downtown parking problems, selectmen have decided to table a proposed ordinance that would have limited parking in the Oval area to two and four hours.

On Monday night, board members said they would probably consider it again next spring.

Most of them agreed they could not justify spending the estimated $15,000 in enforcement costs in the current economy.

“We haven’t put enough time into getting answers,” said Selectman Nate Carmen, even though “it seems like we talked it to death.”

The problem is believed to be caused by tenants in the apartments above the stores, as well as some merchants, parking for long periods of time, especially on the south side of the Oval. Kevin Stevens, owner of the Union Street Grill, talked to the board in June about the difficulty of keeping parking spaces open for his customers.

Town Administrator Guy Scaife said he would visit apartment owners and meet with engineers to plan a new parking lot on town-owned land behind the Community House. “We need a multipronged approach” to the parking problems, said selectmen’s Chairman Tim Finan. “It’s not the right time.”

The vote to table was 4-1, with Gary Daniels dissenting.