AUBURN -- A proposal by the city of Auburn to renovate Market Street Park is stirring up concerns over parking in the area.

Engineers, city planners and members of the public during Thursday's city council meeting discussed a $1 million plan for upgrades to the downtown park located on the Owasco River.

While proponents of the project focused on improvements to accessibility and quality of life, many of the people present said the plans will do little to improve longtime parking problems in the area and could even make them worse.

"Right now, there is not enough parking on Market Street," said Auburn resident Jeff Munn, whose wife owns Robin's Hair Care on Market.

The city council broke away from normal meeting protocol and allowed residents to speak after a presentation on the park improvements. The council will likely vote on the topic within the next few weeks.

According to the plans, which were designed by Environmental Design and Research, the park will receive new benches, tables, trash canisters and other upgrades. Half of the improvements will be funded by two state grants, while the city will cover the rest.

There will also be changes to allow visitors to see and get closer to the water and make the park more accessible to the disabled and elderly.

But the proposal will move the parking spaces on Market to the north side of the street and reduce the number of spaces by either one or two.

Currently, there are 22 spaces on the south side of Market Street. However, that number could be reduced to 21 either way to make the street's only handicapped space comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

But Munn -- along with other employees at Robin's Hair Care -- said less parking will be bad for Market Street businesses. Many of the customers at the salon already have to deal with too few spots as it is.

"Without their customers having a place to park, their customers don't come to Robin's Hair Care anymore," Munn said.

Council William Graney said during the meeting that he is opposed to putting the parking on the north side of the street. During the summer when the park hosts live music, older residents like to park and watch the performances from their cars, he said.

"I don't see where changing the parking to the other side will be beneficial," Graney said.

Not all comments were about parking, nor were they all negative. Jim Kent, chair of the Auburn Beautification Commission, told the council that the improvements to the park have been a long time coming and will raise quality of life in a major business corridor.

"This is an economic development project, please remember that," Kent said.

For the full report, read Friday's edition of The Citizen.