Brookline selectmen are one vote away from a sweeping reform of the town’s parking policies that would include higher meter rates, extended meter hours and special game-day rates for Red Sox fans.

Transportation officials say the new rates and meter hours are intended primarily to free up more parking for customers in Brookline’s congested commercial districts, but the changes are also expected to bring in $1 million in additional revenue for the town. If approved, the changes would go into effect April 1.

The proposal includes a controversial measure aimed at preventing Red Sox fans from taking up valuable parking spaces in front of St. Mary’s Station businesses during home games at Fenway Park. Under the proposed changes, all meters in the St. Mary’s area would be extended until 10 p.m. on game nights and a two-hour limit would be enforced at curbside spaces to discourage fans from parking there for the full length of the game.

Instead, Red Sox fans could park at spaces on the median of Beacon Street and pay special game-night rates, which would be set at $1 for the first and second hour and $10 for the third and fourth hour, for a total of $22 for the game. Transportation officials say that rate is similar to those charged in private lots around Fenway Park.

Michael Sandman, chair of Brookline’s Transportation Board, said St. Mary’s businesses have long complained that they get a rush of business before the Red Sox take the field, but struggle to attract business during the game because all nearby parking spaces are already taken up by fans at Fenway.

“The word gets out that you can’t park around there, the area is filled up by Red Sox fans,” Sandman said.

Though the proposed Red Sox parking rates have drawn the most criticism over the last two years, the proposal also includes changes that would affect nearly every metered parking space in Brookline. Under the proposal, meters at the most heavily used spaces would continue running until 8 p.m. instead of 6 p.m., and hourly rates at nearly all meters would increase from 75 cents to $1.

Sandman said the longer meter hours are meant to keep spaces open for customers in Brookline business districts and to discourage parkers from plugging the meter just before it shuts off and staying until the early morning. The meters with longer hours would be marked with a red top or nearby signage once the changes go into effect.

“We want to encourage more turnover in the evening, when we know people want to come to restaurants, to stores, to the theatre,” Sandman said. “We don’t want people who have fed the meter just before 6 o’clock to essentially have a free ride for the rest of the night.”

Officials say the new $1 rate id in line with recent increases in neighboring communities and would put Brookline below Boston, in line with Somerville and Cambridge, and above Newton in terms of meter rates.

After two years of discussion and debate, the proposed changes now seem to face little organization opposition. The business community supports the measure—the Brookline Chamber of Commerce and the Coolidge Corner Merchants Association wrote a joint letter endorsing it—and only two people showed up to voice their opposition at Tuesday’s hearing, which is likely to be the last before selectmen make their decision.

One of the opponents, social worker Caryn Mushlin, complained that the town never reached out to professionals who work in the medical office buildings near St. Mary’s Station, including her building at 1093 Beacon St. She said that she and her neighbors work late and often see patients in the evenings and could be ensnared in the high parking rates meant for Red Sox fans.

“Many of us work in the eveningss and need street parking after 8 p.m.,” she said. “Our patients and clients who come from the surrounding areas of Brookline will also suffer a hardship.”

Selectman Dick Benka asked the Transportation Board staff to look into expanding the town’s commercial parking permit program in the St. Mary’s Station area to help employees in the area find parking away from the metered spaces.

The package of parking meter changes would require the approval of both the Board of Selectmen, which has jurisdiction over meter rates, and the Transportation Board, which has say over meter hours. The Transportation Board approved many of the changes last October but has held off on implementing them until the rate changes were improved as well.

The Transportation Board has also asked selectmen to approve a $2 “rate ceiling” to give the board more flexibility toadjust rates as they see fit, but the proposal has already met resistance from some selectmen.

Selectwoman Nancy Daly said the idea of changing meter rates block by block would be a “disaster for consumers” and create confusion for potential customers in Brookline’s business districts. Selectman Ken Goldstein called the package of rate and meter hour changes a “quantum shift” in parking policy and said he felt uncomfortable delegating the selectmen’s responsibility over meter rates to the Transportation Board.

“I think it’s important, as the elected officials of the town, that we do keep a finger on what goes on here,” he said.

If approved by selectmen, the new rates and hours would go into effect April 1. Parking enforcement officers would hand out warnings instead of tickets for the first week after the changes are implemented, officials said.

“We really have to have an education process to go through here to make sure people understand what we’re doing here,” Sandman said.