Main Street businesses and property owners on Monday sounded off about parking and logistical concerns at a hearing about a potential redesign of Merchants Way.

The hearing was one of four involving stakeholders -- from town officials to, this coming Saturday, the general public -- regarding what might be done to enhance Merchants Way, which runs behind Main Street, adjacent to the Agawam River.

There are no plans drawn. Rather, ideas that officials are considering -- from making Main Street, Merchants Way, or both one-way to traffic, to adding greenery, to creating a transportation center at the train station.

"As painful as some of these changes appear to be or may feel, we've got to make them," Community and Economic Development Authority Director Salvador Pina told the crowd, noting that officials are "trying to find the right mix of businesses, trying to beautify the area... and [trying to] figure out ways to draw people" to downtown.

The goal, explained Christine Scypinski of the Winchester-based Waterfield Design Group, is to find a balance between vehicle traffic, buses, trains, bikes, and pedestrians to "create a more vibrant Wareham Village through improvements to Merchants Way."

"Right now, Merchants Way is like a parking lot back there," she said. "We want to make it a waterfront."

The Community and Economic Development Authority's projects are funded by a mixture of state and federal grants.

Scypinski described the possibilities: A small cafe in the train depot with outdoor seating, benches, and bike racks; improved parking, generous sidewalks, better signage, a boardwalk along the river; art in the alleyways, space for festivals, farmer's markets, and vendors; green infrastructure with storm water infiltration to minimize the runoff of pollutants into the river; a separate, multi-use walking/bike trail.

Any plan will allow easier access to the waterfront and enhance views.

"We want to make sure, whatever we do here, we enhance those [water] views," she said. "We make them part of the plan."

Business owners were given a diagram of Merchants Way that depicted many of the potential improvements. Then, they split into groups and marked the diagrams with comments and suggestions. They had much to say -- especially about parking.

"I know that parking out back is my lifeline," explained Traci Medeiros, owner of Gallery Consignment Shoppe.

Medeiros wondered if perhaps some money could be earmarked to change the bump-out curbing installed in the first phase of the Main Street "Streetscape" beautification project, which has been a sore spot for business owners, who say customers have difficulty parking and finding parking.

"If we doubled the spaces out front, that would help out back," she said.

Property owner William Decas concurred.

"As a generalization, most of these businesses depend on parking," he said. "In order to have pedestrians down there, they need to feel relaxed and be able to go down and find a place to park..."

Scypinski noted that some of the troubles with parking may actually be an issue with "way-finding," that is, the fact that there isn't enough signage to show people where to park.

"There's a very strong perceived lack of parking, and some of it may be due to a lack of way-finding," she said.

Scypinski also assured the business owners: "There's a lot of creative things you can do with parking," including satellite parking and shuttle services.

Also at issue is how to enhance the back of the buildings if pedestrians would be encouraged to walk Merchants Way. Scypinski noted that the town would need help from the business owners with improving the facades of the backs of the buildings.

"The town's really going to want to work with all of you guys," she said. "There's incentives out there. There's grants, loans."

Rick England of Legacy Insurance worried about that.

"You have a lot of old buildings here that would need a ton of work to be done on them," he said. "I can't see owners spending thousands of dollars that they're not going to recoup on rent."

Though there will be disagreements and challenges, both Pina and Scypinski assured the business owners that they are involved in the very beginning of the process, and nothing is set in stone.

"We want this to be a win-win for everybody," Scypinski said. "We want to do what works for your business, but also what works for all the other people" who are using the area.

Want to weigh in on the Merchants Way redesign project? A public hearing for the general public will be held this Saturday, May 18, from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at the Town Hall auditorium, 54 Marion Road.