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Auckland Transport (AT) says its recent survey of car park use in Ōrewa town centre supports the introduction of paid parking.
AT parking designer David Martin presented the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board with the draft Ōrewa Town Centre Parking review at a workshop on June 18.
The review is looking at parking demand, issues and management options for the town centre.
Reviews are held in town centres to ensure that parking availability is meeting demand and introduce new management techniques if needed.
So far the work in Ōrewa has included talking with business association Destination Ōrewa Beach (DOB), a survey of local businesses and a study of parking occupancy.
The study focused on public parking spaces, however the report identified that there are more than 800 privately owned parks (not including underground or covered spaces) in Ōrewa, including the large supermarket carparks.
There are around 408 spaces in the current P120 parking zone, which are currently at 87 percent average occupancy at peak times, and it is in that zone that AT told the board it considers paid parking could be appropriate.
Martin said current time limits were not working.
“The high occupancy needs to be addressed and existing restrictions lack flexibility,” he said. “Each business has different needs for their customers, and paid parking gives flexibility.”
“Paid parking has no time limits. This ensures that customers are able to park as long as they need to whilst a reasonable level of availability is maintained on-street. A graduated tariff can be applied which encourages short stays and the price of parking can be based on demand responsive pricing principles (this means the price can go up or down, depending on demand – occupancy is reviewed regularly and prices adjusted to achieve 85 percent occupancy).”
Martin said while the business association was initially supportive of paid parking, that changed after discussions with its members because of a number of concerns.
Issues raised by DOB included the need for increased enforcement, as otherwise meters may do little to help the parking situation, and the risk of people ‘boycotting’ Ōrewa in favour of places where parking is free.
DOB also wants some spaces to have restrictions removed – such as on Moana Ave between Keith Morris Lane and Centreway Rd, as most of those spaces are often empty.
The report states that around 20 percent of all parking spaces in the P120 zone are taken up by staff of local businesses and Martin noted DOB’s efforts to discourage workers from using carparks meant for customers.
He said that “new methods of enforcement”, including number plate recognition, could assist with this, should paid parking come in. The system recognises how long vehicles have been parked to ensure higher priced tariffs for longer stays are used.
DOB asked AT to defer proceeding with the programme to provide time to educate employees around parking outside the CBD area.
Martin said that paid parking incentivises the use of public transport, as it becomes cheaper to use the bus than park in the town centre.
“Some people need to drive, but they can lease a park, or park outside the town centre,” he said.
AT is suggesting there is potential to make the whole of the two-hour (P120) zone paid parking, effective Mon to Friday 8am-6pm. Weekends could be included at lower cost.
Martin said pricing is key.
“If $2 per hour didn’t affect availability, it could be reassessed and tweaked.”
Once local board members have provided their feedback, AT will finalise the report and share it with DOB. Its recommendations will be put forward as a proposal to be consulted on publicly. No date has yet been set for that consultation but, if changes are introduced, they will not happen until 2026.
DOB did not wish to comment further until the public consultation stage.
