Revenue from street parking across the region - including Newmarket, Remuera, Manukau, Papakura and Henderson as well as the CBD - runs to $13 million a year.
A report from Auckland Transport chief executive David Warburton listed six projects which had squeezed out 293 spaces since his organisation was formed 16 months ago.
These were the Jellicoe St upgrade in Wynyard Quarter, "street scape" projects in Fort, Darby and Elliott Sts, the introduction of more bus stops, and the $121 million Auckland Art Gallery revamp.
Heart of the City business association chief executive Alex Swney is relaxed about the lost spaces, considering them a necessary price for improving central Auckland's urban environment.
"For too long New Zealand has designed its urban spaces based on the needs of traffic.
"In Auckland we have to adopt this new view that transport is a servant of place-building, putting more emphasis on the need to build a better place.
"We are building shared spaces which are more than symbolic - they're saying that people have as many rights here as vehicles."
Mr Swney welcomed word from Auckland Transport of a 26 per cent increase in patronage on key central bus routes, such as the inner and outer link services, since these were re-designed last winter. "We are about 26 per cent up on bus passengers and have a 20 per cent reduction in parking - that's the way modern cities are developing."
He said it remained important to retain access for cars, which last year brought about 34,500 people into central Auckland each morning compared with 36,500 who arrived on buses, trains, ferries, bicycles or by walking.
But he said Auckland should follow Perth's example in Western Australia by developing parking buildings on the outskirts of the CBD and then bringing commuters the rest of the way on free buses.
Conversely, Auckland Transport should remove "early-bird" incentives for commuters to use city-owned parking buildings at cut rates.
Automobile Association spokesman Simon Lambourne said his organisation had given strong support for a "pedestrian-first" CBD in consultations over Auckland's city-centre masterplan, provided more parking opportunities were on the periphery.
"Even their very best public transport growth projections still have many, many thousands of people coming into the city every day using private vehicles.
"You simply can't just close your eyes and pretend there's not an issue to deal with."
Although a new parking building with 1230 spaces was opened last year by Britomart develop Cooper and Company, many of those are reserved for long-term lease-holders.
KERBSIDE IMPACT
* 843 spaces: Lost since 2007.
Reasons for losses since Nov 2010
* 135 spaces: Wynyard Quarter (Jellicoe St upgrade).
* 113 spaces: Fort, Darby and Elliott Sts "shared space" projects.
* 30 spaces: More bus stops.
* 14 spaces: Art Gallery revamp.
Impending losses (next three years)
* 202 spaces: O'Connell, Wellesley, Fort and Pitt Sts.
