BAR HARBOR – The Town Council cobbled together a new parking plan Tuesday that would eliminate 3-hour spaces in the downtown and create permit-only parking for employees on one side of West Street.

The proposal approved on a 5-2 vote also would convert the all-day Grant’s Park lot into three- and one-hour zones for visitor and resident parking.

In exchange for that space, downtown employees who park at Grant’s can get permits to park all day on the south side of West Street.

The free permits will be issued to anyone who can prove they live or work in Bar Harbor.

Other parts of the new plan include:

. Asking the Bar Harbor School Committee for permission to use 45 spaces at the Conners Emerson Elementary School, a five-minute walk to the downtown, during the busy tourism season. The spaces would be open free of charge to anyone.

. Create five 15-minute parking spaces near the post office on Cottage Street. Four would line the street in front of the building and a fifth would be on Federal Street. The two existing 15-minute spots across from the post office would be converted to two-hour spaces.

. Maintain the town’s $10 parking fine, but double it if not paid within seven days. The fine for illegal permit parking would be $20 per violation.

. Lengthen the parking enforcement season from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and enforce the laws from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. Holidays are exempt.

The new proposal is the third in two weeks as the council and its Transportation Task Force struggle to find solutions to the festering parking problems downtown.

Officials have studied various options for seven years and hoped to finally have a plan that would address two key populations: downtown employees who need a place to park and the throngs of visitors to Maine’s premier tourism destination who often can’t find a spot once they get there.

The task force submitted its recommendations to the council this spring, asking for aggressive enforcement, elimination of 3-hour parking on downtown streets and a doubling of the fines to $20 per violation.

A divided council voted 3-2 earlier this month to take the first proposal to a public hearing in May, but the task force voted last week to ask councilors to disregard the entire proposal for this year.

The task force wanted the full backing of the council and the community to launch the first phase of the parking plan and decided they wouldn’t get it without more public comment and education.

But on Tuesday when the council met with a majority of the task force to discuss its sudden reversal, the two boards ended up hashing over a new proposal submitted by Councilors David Bowden and Joseph Cough.

Bowden and Cough didn’t like the task force’s plan to increase enforcement and fines without giving downtown workers an alternative to getting a $20 parking ticket every day.

They did, however, want to start making parking changes that would show residents the council is serious about finally addressing the problem while still providing space for employee parking.

The task force endorsed the plan, which the council will take up next Tuesday after the annual town meeting and is expected to schedule a public hearing.

Councilors Matt Horton and Kenneth Smith voted against the new plan Tuesday. They also voted against the old plan.