AUBURN – Downtown merchants and business owners would love to see Main Street become one way between Mechanics Row and Court Street, they said Thursday.

That’s something worth considering, according to Public Services Director Eric Labelle.

“But we need to really look at it before we do anything,” Labelle said.

Labelle and about 20 Main Street business owners discussed a summertime plan to repave and reshape the downtown road between Court and Elm streets Thursday night at Gritty McDuff’s.

The plan calls for narrowing Main Street between Elm and Drummond streets from 45 feet to 38 feet wide. The sides would get a grassy esplanade, dividing the sidewalk from the road.

“The idea is to make it more pedestrian-friendly and bring the downtown feeling from Festival Plaza down closer to New Auburn,” Labelle said. The city also hopes to install new traffic lights south along the street.

“The idea is to extend the feeling of downtown farther south,” he said.

The biggest change would come at the intersection with Mechanics Row. Traffic coming south now stops at Main Street, yielding to northbound Main Street traffic.

Southbound Mechanics Row traffic won’t stop after the project is finished. Traffic coming south along Main Street would detour up to Mechanics Row, before turning left and continuing south. Northbound Main Street traffic would continue up as well.

Work on the project was scheduled to begin in August 2007, but was delayed when neighbors balked. John Cleveland, who operates his business, Community Dynamics, at 201 Main St., said he’s still not convinced about the Mechanics Row intersection.

“The state says they think it will slow down traffic coming downtown,” he said. “I don’t think it will. But they’ve heard our concerns, and they’ve promised to look into them if there are continuing problems.”

But Cleveland and other neighbors suggested changing Main Street entirely, making it northbound only between Mechanics Row and Court Street. Any southbound traffic would detour around Mechanics Row.

Gritty McDuff’s owner Richard Pfeffer said that would leave room for diagonal parking in front of his business and would make the area more relaxed.

“Once we do this work, we’re not going to be able to revisit it again for 10 years,” Pfeffer said. “We should make sure we do it right the first time.”

Labelle told the merchants he’d ask traffic engineers to study the change, but he was worried it would cause more stress on the Turner/Court Street/Mechanics Row intersection.

“That’s already a difficult intersection, and we want to be sure about what we’re doing won’t make it worse,” he said.

The city is paying for 15 percent of the project, with the Maine Department of Transportation picking up the remainder. Labelle estimated the project will cost about $700,000 and should go out to bid in April. He estimated work would begin in June and would last about four months.