More than 20 residents expressed interest in joining the Downtown Parking Advocacy Committee, or DPAC, as of Thursday morning, according to a city official.

Economic Development Specialist Kelsey Scott said the committee of about 28 members consists of downtown property and business owners, residents and city staff.

“We’re really excited to kick this off,” she said.

DPAC will address some of the 50 proposed changes of the implementation matrix that came out of downtown parking study earlier this year. The city has identified that some of the proposed changes will require substantial amount of input from the downtown community. The changes the advocacy group is expected to address are:

• Reassign 10-hour public lot and on-street meters to three hours or less in the downtown core. Remove 10-hour meters at Winter and Franklin Street lots but possibly on outlying streets.

• Relocation of employee parking to the periphery of downtown, outside the core by establishing agreements with property owners whose lots may be regularly available. A public outreach effort will be needed to keep employees informed.

• Implement an update employee permit parking system that correlates with the relocation.

• Study the opportunity to implement three-hour parking along Sandusky Street with a higher rate for the third hour to encourage turnover.

• Negotiate shared public/private parking agreements with property owners who control lots adjacent to public lots.

Scott said the period to accept registrations for DPAC from residents is unofficially closed. But residents can become part of an online focus group that will participate in surveys if the city wants further feedback on a particular change.

Interested residents can sign up at the bottom of www.delawareohio.net/the-future-of-downtown-parking.