A redesign of Merchants Way and the waterfront property in Wareham Village needs to be done and it needs to be done right, according to Selectmen.

"I think this is the only community that I know of along the Northeast corridor that hasn't used its waterfront property properly," said Selectmen Alan Slavin.

At Tuesday night's meeting, Selectmen heard from Community and Economic Development Authority Director Sal Pina and Lisa Jacobson of consultant firm Nelson Nygaard about a parking study in downtown Wareham. Included in the study's recommendations is making Merchants Way into "a secondary Main Street."

Jacobson said this would involve painting new lines to formalize it as a two-way road, changing all parking spots to make them parallel with the road, adding sidewalks and improving the lighting and signage on the street.

"I think something definitely needs to happen there," said Selectman Patrick Tropeano. "It looks like the back of a Walmart instead of waterfront property in a prime area of a beautiful town. I think it's a lot more than just parking."

Included in the study were some statistics on downtown parking. Jacobson said that there are about 1,350 parking spaces in downtown Wareham, including public parking in on and off-street spaces as well as private parking. She said that while the majority of those spaces are restricted, parking in the area is underused.

Jacobson said at peak hours, her firm measured that parking on Main Street was about 28 percent full and parking on Merchants Way behind Main Street was 50 percent full.

Pina said that the study was conducted after a plan for redefining Merchants Way that proposed a few years ago was met with concerns from businesses and the public.

"One of the primary concerns at that point was from merchants who said they didn't have enough parking. So we conducted a parking study to see if that was accurate," he said.

He also said that a parking study is one of the many elements that would go into a plan to redefine the area. The findings and initial strategies of the parking plan can be found here on the town website.

Despite the many issues that need to be dissected before a plan is put into place, Selectmen aren't letting go of the issue.

"We can committee things to death around this town," said Selectman Judith Whiteside. "Actions speak louder than words. Let's move it off the dime and get something done."