Auckland Mayor Len Brown supports a $1 hourly fee rise for central city parking, which he wants his council's transport arm to line up against a region-wide parking strategy.
He has alarmed the Heart of the City business association by saying he supports in principle an increase proposed by Auckland Transport, and has referred the matter to the council's infrastructure committee, which meets today.
"I am asking that Auckland Transport present a much fuller report on proposed fee changes, alignment with the [region-wide] parking strategy, and a communications plan to the infrastructure committee before any changes are implemented," he said in a budget paper to the council last month.
A $1 rise would increase street parking in inner Auckland to $5 for each of the first two hours, and to $9 for each subsequent hour. Two other downtown zones, in which parking is now $3 and $2 an hour respectively, could also be hit by the $1 rise. Fees in three council-owned parking buildings would rise to $4 an hour, although transport officials decided against pushing for a $2 increase which they initially considered for "early-bird" parking which now costs $13 a day.
Auckland Transport included the plan in a budget request to the council, aimed at raising $5.5 million against a $15.6 million shortfall for its operations funding, although parking enforcement manager Trevor Starr is now indicating a potential backdown. The request followed lower than expected revenue from car parking and public transport patronage, but is muddying the waters of a wider regional parking management strategy on which the council body is seeking public submissions through this month.
