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All Over Again: Fix To N.J. Town's Downtown Project Means More Money, Headaches

MILLBURN, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Driving down Millburn Avenue, people may notice it looks like cars are parking on the sidewalk.

The raised spaces were put in as "flexible parking," awkwardly leaving some cars with one tire half on the curb, half on the street.

"The raised sidewalk bad idea," said Sonia Lenahan, a store employee. "I like idea of parking, raised sidewalk that's where problem came in. People have issues parking on that thing."

There have been so many complaints about the raised spots, reports CBS2's Meg Baker.

The town council voted to remove them, but such a decision could cost taxpayers another $450,000.

"We took a town-wide opinion survey to guide the council to making judgement all on what to do," said Deputy Mayor Jodi Rosenberg. "Reviewing opinions, talking to store owners, we decided to go out to bid to see how much it would cost to remove."

The original project was part of a statewide initiative for traffic calming and safety.

"It did seem like great multitasking scheme," she said. "Use sidewalks for parking, and if you had an event or sidewalk cafe or sale, moving bollards unscrewed out to block traffic."

Now the sidewalk parking would have to be dug up, removed and repaved with asphalt at road surface level to put the old parallel parking spaces back.

"I thought it was over, and you're telling me they re going to rip it out again?" said Jhanna, a jewelry store owner. "It's not good, its going to disturb the town again."

Jhanna has owned her jewelry store here for 33 years. She says the small business owners depend on the success of the downtown, and another construction project on the main artery could be devastating.

"Of course it will effect everyone across the board," she warned.

Ramone Abraham owns Avalon Salon across the street.

"In the beginning, when they started, we lost a lot of business," said Abraham, noting it was "annoying for people to come downtown, so people stopped coming."

The removal could take four to six weeks, with expectations it would be completed by the end of summer.

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