A new proposal would give business owners in a congested commercial stretch of Montrose more flexibility in dealing with one of the area's most persistent problems: parking.

The Montrose Management District, which promotes economic development in the eclectic neighborhood southwest of downtown, asked the city Planning Commission on Thursday to consider waiving some minimum-parking requirements for business owners by allowing them to share parking spaces that might be a bit farther away.

"We have a parking problem," Tony Allender, who works with the Management District, told commissioners.

Creating a "special parking area" along Westheimer from Mandell to Taft and along Montrose Boulevard from Hyde Park to Harold would make it easier to attract new businesses, Allender said. In that zone, businesses would not only share spaces that are used at different times of day but also could claim spaces more than 250 feet away, the current limit under city rules.

He said that would maximize available parking and make it easier for businesses to get a permit.

The zone would be unique in Houston, although downtown, Washington Avenue and the area around the Menil Collection have other types of exceptions to parking rules.

In the proposed Montrose zone, residents have raised concerns about overflow parking near their homes. They have sent letters to the commission opposing the plan.

Several business owners outside the proposed district also spoke out during Thursday's meeting, claiming they would suffer by not being included.

Allender said he hopes to eventually expand the special parking area, but that it would be "unwieldy" to include the entire Montrose area initially.

Others objected to more rules and said the proposal was not clear about what it would do.

That group included Commissioner Shaﬁk Rifaat, who also owns a business in Montrose. He grilled Allender over what the proposal would mean for all concerned.

Commissioner Fernando Brave told Allender the Montrose Management District should come back with a solution that a majority of residents and business owners could endorse.

The management district collects assessments from commercial property owners to use toward economic development projects. It also supports "walkability" and the use of bicycles and public transit in the neighborhood.

Kyle Shelton, a Rice University Kinder Institute researcher who conducted a parking study for the Rice Village last year, said he was surprised the management district did not propose lowering the number of required parking spaces altogether, rather than simply reorganizing how they are allocated.

"Thinking of ways to create relationships and shared parking is an interesting approach," Shelton said. "My argument would be that the more desirable the area, the more leeway there should be to install parking ideas that encourage people to walk, share parking and take transit."