State College Borough Council members will vote in April on a proposal designed to eventually eliminate commuter parking in residential areas that would charge a fee to park on neighborhood streets, borough officials said yesterday.

The proposed ordinance, which would create distinct parking districts for commuter and residential parking, is being developed in response to complaints by residents that they can no longer find parking on the streets outside their homes.

Commuters would be required to purchase a permit for $30 per month or $360 a year which would allow them to park on residential streets between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Neighborhood residents who live in the affected areas would pay $7 a year for a permit to park on the streets in front of their homes 24 hour a day.

Motorists and others who do not purchase a permit will be restricted to two hour parking in some areas, councilman F. Dan Winand said.

The parking districts have not yet been developed but will cover an area encompassing all streets between Hamilton and Foster Avenues and between University Drive and Atherton Street, Winand said.

The proposal has won favorable support from council members.

"I support the roll-back of the parking," Winand said, referring to a borough plan to gradually gradually eliminate all commuter parking in the neighborhoods.

Winand said the proposed ordinance would alleviate the problem of borough residents not being able to find parking in their neighborhood.

"I vigorously support it," he said.

The council did not act on a planning commission recommendation to spread the parking district to Easterly Parkway, which commission members said would ease the burden on streets close to downtown, especially Foster Avenue.

The recommendation was rejected because it would be difficult to enforce, borough Planning Director Carl Hess said.

Planning Commission Chairman Peter Everett said commuters could use alternate forms of transportation to get to downtown businesses such as the Centre Area Transportation Authority's bus service and the park and ride program.

In a previous interview, Everett said that the park and ride program -- in which commuters park in a parking lot and ride the bus to work as opposed to parking downtown -- has not been as successful as borough officials had anticipated. The proposed ordinance is hoped to increase the use of park and ride and decrease the downtown parking problem, he added.