The Westport Board of Selectwomen will consider a proposal Wednesday morning to change the limits on the parking on some of the busiest downtown streets from three hours down to two.

The proposal is based on a recommendation from the town's Downtown Plan Implementation Committee, which tells News 12 that an outside consulting firm specializing in downtown planning and traffic, which was brought in to help clear up the town’s issue with overcrowded parking, said the key is to increase turnover.

"They were looking for more stringent…parking limits to reflect other towns in the region who do the same thing, and we opted for somewhere in the middle," said Randy Herbertson, the chair of the Westport Downtown Plan Implementation Committee.

Under the new plan, which was also developed with the help of a local survey, parking lots would stay at three hours, while the street parking on Main, Elm and Bay streets, along with Church Lane and Jessup Road would get knocked down to two.

Some businesses argue that they want people spending as much time downtown as possible - going out to eat, then exploring the stores.

"You don't want to rush them out, you don't want to have customers complain 'we were at your restaurant, we left, we got a ticket because we spent more than two hours.' We want to keep our customer here in town," said Patrick Jean, the co-founder and owner of Nômade restaurant.

"You can't shop and eat in two hours’ time," agreed Sal Liccione, a member of the Westport Representative Town Meeting.

Jean says the worry with other businesses he has talked to is that if some of the most convenient, prime spots are capped at two hours, some people might choose to spend their day in a different town.

"Don't fix something that's not broken," Jean said. "All the merchants agree, we need those three hours for our customers."

Herbertson says he believes those concerns are overblown, since "the vast majority of the spots will be three hours or longer throughout downtown, most have already recognized and said in their survey, most do not come for three hours, they come for less."

If this passes, the town says it will continue to study the parking situation. If there is still not enough turnover, they say they would have to consider stricter plans, like adding meters, and as a last resort, building a parking garage, which would be expensive and potentially an eyesore.