AMHERST — Adjusting parking regulations in downtown Amherst to encourage regular turnover of spaces and to make it easier for visitors to find parking will not be enacted until later this summer.

A divided Select Board Monday postponed decisions on a series of recommendations from the Downtown Parking Group, with some of the 13 proposals leading to considerable discussion. Among those were extending the enforcement time from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at all spaces and hiring a consultant with expertise in parking matters.

Board member Alisa Brewer expressed concern that the working group didn’t do the outreach necessary or vetting required before coming forward with the recommendations.

“I just don’t think it’s been enough,” Brewer said.

Brewer said she didn’t find a compelling reason to extend enforcement by two hours each evening. She was joined in this concern by board member Andy Steinberg. Both cited the need to examine potential impacts on businesses, as well as municipal meetings, many of which are scheduled to begin after 6 p.m. so people have the option for free parking.

Hiring another paid consultant — the working group is already using a report from a Boston firm to make its recommendations — for implementing future parking changes is another idea Brewer said she couldn’t support.

Select Board member Connie Kruger, who leads the working group, said the changes are trying to get to the “sweet spot” of having 85 percent occupancy of spaces, which ensures enough spots are available when people are searching for them.

The proposals also include using so-called demand-based pricing that would charge higher rates for spaces in the parking core and less for those on the periphery, so that at peak times it will be easier to find parking.

The board will likely take up the most controversial proposals at its meeting Aug. 28, giving the public more time to weigh in.

Brewer said it is clear there will be split votes, and all five members should be present.

“There’s enough things we have mixed feelings about that it would be preferable to have us all here,” Brewer said.

Many of the proposals, though, appeared to generate consensus, such as making all parking spaces, except those in the town-owned lot near CVS Pharmacy, be up to four hours. Parking times currently vary from as little as two hours to as many as nine hours.

Other ideas that have support include installing 12 new parking kiosks, allowing a mobile payment option for all metered spaces and increasing the price of tickets from $10 to $15.

The board also supported having core parking spaces downtown that would be $1 per hour, though there is differing opinion over what spaces will be included. A proposed a map shows 600 spaces in the core, with the remaining 175 on the outskirts where the fee would stay at 50 cents per hour.

An earlier recommendation to increase the fee for parking permits from $25 to $200 was withdrawn.

John Kuhn, of Chestnut Street, said most recommendations appeared to be low-hanging fruit that would help the town better manage downtown parking.

“From my perspective, they seem very reasonable,” said Kuhn, senior principal at Kuhn Riddle Architects on Amity Street.

But he said it remains imperative that town officials begin a study for a new parking garage, arguing that most merchants feel there is a need for additional public parking. Kuhn called the Boltwood parking garage, which opened in the early 2000s, a “miserable failure” for having just 186 spots, adding just 90 spaces to what was previously there.

Richard Roznoy, chairman of the Transportation Advisory Committee, told the board that the sense of limited availability is an important thing for people in town, as well as visitors.

“Perception in that case becomes reality,” Roznoy said.

Many people, he said, have a belief that a parking garage should be at the forefront of discussions, even though a report from consultants Nelson\Nygaard of Boston, which is guiding the working group, said that it should not be a priority.

The lone resident to critique the proposal at the meeting was Mary Wentworth, of Lessey Street, who urged the board to vote against the package.

“I don’t see how any of these changes are encouraging people to come to Amherst,” Wentworth said.

She elaborated that the ideas are a way to support further mixed-use developments in downtown.

“What I see in the recommendations is it’s oriented toward assisting student tenants at Kendrick Place, at the fast-rising One East Pleasant Street place, to really use the permit-parking system because they are hard up for parking spots,” Wentworth said.

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