AUBURN – Plans to install parking meters downtown will get a public review Wednesday.

“We want feedback so we can tell councilors that this idea is overwhelmingly seen as beneficial, or that businesses are opposed,” Auburn police Chief Phil Crowell said.

Crowell presented a plan to councilors last month to put meters on 216 parking spaces in downtown lots and along some streets. Parking in those spaces would cost 25 cents per half hour.

Crowell’s plan would put meters along Main Street south of Court Street, along Turner Street in front of the Androscoggin County Courthouse, on Court Street between Pleasant Street and Mechanics Row and in the Main Street parking lot.

In the parking lot, the city would use parking kiosks. A single kiosk would serve several spaces.

Councilors said they would consider the idea.

“But what was missing from that meeting was community input,” Crowell said. “That’s why we want this meeting, to bring in all the businesses downtown and open it to the public to let everyone make a comment.”

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday in Auburn Hall.

Crowell estimated the cost to install 216 meters would be $90,000. Additional salaries for parking enforcement officers would cost $45,500, a vehicle would cost $16,000 and annual maintenance and repairs would cost $6,000. In all, the program would cost $216,000 for the first year, $66,000 for the second year and $75,600 per year after that.

He estimated the meters would generate $129,000 per year in revenue when the program gets going, after at least a year. He estimated the meters would pay for themselves beginning in the third year.

The city does not have parking meters, but does have time limits on some lots. Those limits range from a half-hour to two hours.