Plans for a downtown grocery store at 11th and Massachusetts streets will have to overcome some public opposition, but city commissioners on Tuesday agreed to start working on a plan to find a compromise on the proposed project.

Commissioners unanimously directed staff to begin working on a process to bring together developers, business owners, neighborhood residents and other key stakeholders to talk about a possible change in public parking to accommodate a plan by Lawrence-based Checkers to build a grocery store at the corner.

“I just want to encourage everyone to come to the table with an open mind,” City Commissioner Jeremy Farmer said.

Checkers officials are asking the city to allow 18 public parking spaces on Massachusetts Street to be used exclusively by the new grocery store, which would be part of a larger seven-story building that would include apartments and offices. The development also wants to use 16 public spaces along Massachusetts Street that would be built as part of the project. The project would be on the northeast corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets on the Allen Press property. Part of the site would include a parking garage, but grocery officials have said they’ll need all the parking they can get to make the project feasible.

“It is a puzzle, and it is going to take a community effort to solve it,” J.R. Lewis with Checkers told commissioners. “One of the big pieces is the parking.”

But the idea allowing one business exclusive use of 18 spaces on Massachusetts Street has struck a nerve with other business owners.

“They are asking for about 60 percent of the parking on that side of the street,” said Brad Ziegler, who owns Louise’s bar, 1009 Massachusetts St. “I just don’t see how that is going to work.”

The Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods also said it had serious concerns with the proposal. Downtown Lawrence Inc. said in a letter to commissioners that it was enthusiastic about the grocery project but had concerns the parking request would affect other businesses in the block and may create a precedent for future development requests.

Several other residents told commissioners they wished Checkers would move ahead with a previously discussed plan to locate in the former Borders bookstore building at Seventh and New Hampshire streets.

But Lewis told commissioners that their efforts to get an adequate proposal from the Michigan-based ownership group of the building had been unsuccessful. He said Checkers was more comfortable working with the local development at 11th and Massachusetts, which is led by Lawrence businessmen Doug Compton, Rand Allen and Mike Treanor.

Commissioners said they wanted all businesses and neighbors to rest assured that they would have plenty of opportunities to discuss the project. But Mayor Mike Amyx said he thought it was appropriate to try to tackle the parking issue early on in the process because it likely would be a key determinant in whether the grocery store project could proceed.

“But we’re extremely early in the process,” Amyx said. “Believe me, we are going to include everybody in that area in the process going forward.”