LEWISTON – It’s a classic conundrum. The city doesn’t want drunk and rowdy mobs rattling the elderly night after night. But they also don’t want to discourage business by slapping restrictions on a chunk of the downtown.

The conclusion: keeping peace near the end of Park Street is ultimately a job for police.

The Planning Board on Wednesday night voted to not recommend zoning changes to prohibit bars and nightclubs from setting up in the Oak Park neighborhood.

They also voted to advise the City Council to explore an effort that would make bars and club owners responsible for paying for a police presence.

And not just police presence but a total crackdown on the ugliness that has spilled from clubs near the Main Street end of Park Street.

“It’s not just a matter of enforcement,” said board Vice Chairman Ron Chartier. “It has to be enforcement with a lower tolerance.”

The board made its decision in front of more than two dozen people who came to hear discussion of the issue. Most of them were elderly residents of Oak Park Apartments.

Phyllis Plourde has enjoyed the past year, she told the board. A resident of Oak Park Apartments, she has been able to sleep with her windows open at night and get some air. She has been able to step outside after dark and keep plants hanging without concern that they would be destroyed by drunken revelers.

Better still, she has not heard cussing and brawling and other rowdiness in the wee hours.

“There’s no fighting, there’s nobody out there urinating in the street,” Plourde said Wednesday night. “There are no more men trying to take women on the hoods of cars like there was before.”

Things are better because in March 2007, the city slapped a moratorium on businesses that sell liquor as a primary means of profit in the Oak Park neighborhood. The moratorium has been extended twice, and Oak Park residents report it has resulted in a period of peace.

“I love it the way it is now,” said Theresa Green, who lives there as well.

But the ban ends Aug. 28. The Planning Board will make its recommendations to the City Council for review next month in hopes of getting a resolution before the moratorium expires.

Most of those in attendance Wednesday night had hoped the board would simply vote to recommend a zoning change to keep drinking establishments out of the area. The moratorium has helped, but they would like to see it permanent.

“Since it has stopped, it is a nice, peaceful residential neighborhood,” said Ralph Plourde, Phyllis’ husband. “It is not in Lewiston’s best interest to have a drunken, brawling downtown.”

The ordinance change would have affected businesses in a rough square area encompassing sections of Park, Main, Ash and Bates streets. Two local businessmen expressed concerns that the change would discourage future entrepreneurs from seeking out property in that area.

Board members tended to agree, saying rezoning in one area could result in a snowball effect as other neighborhoods sought to make similar changes.

“It seems like spot zoning to me,” said board member Lucy Bisson.

Board members want to see to it that business owners who operate drinking establishments in the Oak Park area pay to keep the peace. If they fail to do so, punishment should be swift.

“The bartender should be punished, the management should be punished, the two guys who were fighting should go to jail,” said board Chairman Stephen Morgan. “I still think that it’s an enforcement issue.”

At one time, city leaders in Portland imposed a so-called seat tax on bar owners in the Old Port, requiring them to help pay for additional police enforcement. The board in Lewiston will recommend exploring a similar solution for the Oak Park neighborhood here.

At the end of the meeting, most Oak Park residents remained wary. Previous police efforts to combat rowdiness in the Park Street area had not eliminated their problems.

“The police were there constantly,” Phyllis Plourde said. “You’d have to have two police officers sitting right there all the time.”

The City Council should begin to examine the matter May 6 or May 20. That’s three months before the current moratorium on drinking establishments is lifted.

“We’ll have a resolution to this before the moratorium expires if there’s anything I can do about it,” Chartier said.