Tauranga City Council free parking trial to end on December 1

On-street parking in Tauranga's CBD will cost from December 1. Photo / Sun Media

Two years of free on-street parking in Tauranga's city centre will end in December in a bid to encourage a higher turnover of car parks.

At a Tauranga City Council meeting today, the commissioners unanimously voted to remove free on-street parking in the city centre "core area" from December 1.

Parking will change from two hours of free parking to $1 per hour for the first two hours, then $5 per hour after that from 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday (variable on-street charges).

From February next year, the charge will double to $2 per hour for the first two hours.
The core area encompasses the land between Harington St and Second Ave from Cameron to The Strand and Tauranga waterfront.

The council's director of transport, Brendan Bisley, told the meeting the plan aimed to change the on-street parking to "high turnover customer-based" car parking.

The free parking trial was established by the previous council in mid-2020 in response to Covid-19 disruptions.

The council's director of transport Brendan Bisley. Photo / NZME

The council wants to discourage workers from parking free all day instead of in long-stay carparks, and to try to get people to use other modes of transport.

Parking fees in the council-owned parking areas range from $6 for a day at the Cliff Rd carpark to $17 per day in the parking buildings on Elizabeth and Spring/Durham St.

The trial resulted in workers using the car parks for extended periods and created the situation where few car parks were available for customers of stores and businesses in the city centre, according to the report prepared by Bisley and council service transformation manager Paul Dunphy.

On-street time limits are enforced through a licence-plate recognition system with fines sent to the registered vehicle owner via the post.

An infringement for overstaying a time restriction varies between $12 and $57 depending on the length of the overstay.

The average infringement value issued in the city centre is $15 due to the time period the parking restriction applies, according to the report.

"Some motorists are happy to pay this cost as it was lower than the parking building charge," said the report.

The hope is all-day parking charges and the $40 fine for failing to pay for parking would "act as a deterrent to stop workers using the car parks for all-day use".

Bisley said the move toward user pays was to create "cost-neutral" parking and pay down debt.

"We're not looking to make a profit."

He said running the trial resulted in the council losing around $1 million a year because supplying car parking "does cost".

Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley said the idea of a vibrant CBD was to have "constant turnover" in parking, which is what they were "trying to get back to" with the implementation of parking charges.

Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley. Photo / NZME

She said her worry was $1 "is pretty cheap" and suggested changing this to $2 per hour after the Christmas period, from February 1.

"We have to get back to being neutral, that parking pays for itself."

Bisley said the $1 per hour was "recognition" of moving from a free parking model to paid, and transitioning to $2 per hour was "sensible".

Commissioner Bill Wasley agreed with the increase to $2 an hour.

According to the report, the forecast budget for the 2022/23 financial year was a loss of $981,567.

This includes $1.2m in forecast revenue created with the implementation of variable on-street parking, based on the $1 an hour model.

The forecast is also based on an average four-hour stay, assuming 50 per cent occupancy, Monday to Saturday charging and a 10 per cent uptake of the Elizabeth St carpark building use for workers.

The forecast loss, if the free trial were to continue, was almost $2m.

As part of the plan, no parking behind the berms will be implemented, for the entire city centre from Marsh Street to 11th Avenue from December 1.

Wasley supported this extension and said sometimes the city looks like an "utter shambles" with cars parked behind the berms.

The plan will also see two hour parking restrictions across the city centre fringe and wider areas in the Te Papa peninsula up to 11th Ave, including Memorial Park from November 2023.

Paid parking will also be introduced from November next year in the city centre fringe, which includes the area between Park St and Harington St, Cameron Rd and State Highway 2 and between Second Ave and Arundel St.