YORBA LINDA

Main Street shoppers will soon be able take their eyes off their watches and spend more time looking over the merchandise at local stores.

The Traffic Commission recently struck a compromise with the Main Street Merchants Assn. to temporarily increase the parking restriction on four of seven 15-minute spaces to two hours. Most of the merchants wanted to see all restricted parking eliminated to give customers more time to browse in their shops.

Two-hour parking is allowed along most of Main Street. In the mid-1980s, the city established seven 15-minute spaces to cater to the short-term parking needs of Main Street, said Bernie Dennis, city’s traffic engineer.

The six-month arrangement will determine whether more long-term parking is needed.