A 20-minute free grace period has been approved for all council-operated parking in the city centre and fringe paid zones.
The resolution, passed at Tuesday’s Tauranga City Council meeting, is now in effect and applies to all on-street and off-street carparks in the city centre, including the Elizabeth St and Spring St parking buildings, the council said in a statement today.
“The decision follows the council’s ongoing commitment to bring more people into the city centre.
“The council has heard that parking is one of the barriers, and this will help take away a barrier for short-term stays.”
Te Papa ward councillor Rod Taylor acknowledged that some hospitality and retail businesses in the city centre were doing it tough.
“The grace period means people can now quickly drop by the city centre for up to 20 minutes without paying – which is helpful if they’re there to grab a coffee, collect takeaways, or pop into the pharmacy," he said.
Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale said there was no silver bullet to the issues some businesses were facing.
“We’re listening to people’s concerns and will continue to consider viable and targeted parking options to support the retail and hospitality sector in the city centre and encourage more visitors into the area.”
The council said it would also work with businesses and the accessibility community to identify where additional P5 and mobility parks should be located.
City centre loading zones can be used by anyone for quick stops of up to five minutes, helping ensure space is available for high-turnover activities.
17 comments
Too Late
Posted on 22-09-2025 07:43 | By Thats Nice
"Bring people to the city centre" For what exactly??? Theres nothing left in the cbd for goodness sake. It's too late!!!
NOT actually 20 minutes 'free parking'
Posted on 22-09-2025 08:52 | By Murray.Guy
The council are required, understandably, to provide a period that enables a parking meter or payment process to be carried out having arrived at the park. Previously grace period to enable payment locking your car etcetera was 10 minutes. This period has now been extended by 10 minutes to a total of 20 minutes.
if you are the holder of and display a mobility card your entitlement is increased from 20 minutes to 40 minutes.
Its dead Jim
Posted on 22-09-2025 09:50 | By an_alias
Yep you have killed it and not learned a single thing in the process.
Lots dick around and make more single lanes and destroy Cameron Rd with more hardly used cycle ways. Oh and lets keep the empty buses going.
AGREE AGREE
Posted on 22-09-2025 11:33 | By steve b
Empty buses and cycle lanes. Traffic has now moved from Cameron to Devonport and Fraser Street. What a mess
Seriously
Posted on 22-09-2025 11:53 | By Angel74
20 minutes why even bother plenty of other places to go get a coffee food or go to the pharmacy with free parking i say too little too late city council !!
The Master
Posted on 22-09-2025 12:16 | By Ian Stevenson
"Not life as we know it Jim"
Is an understatement, its somewhere in the twilight zone between lie and death...
Providing 20 minutes "free" is hardly going to help the businesses in town to trade and survive. In fact it is at best a complete joke/nonsense in that the 20 minute window can not do anything (ZERO !!!) for restaurants and so on.
Where have these Councilors been, have they never been let out before?
The Master
Posted on 22-09-2025 12:21 | By Ian Stevenson
There are a number of problems in the CBD, including: -
1 TCC of course, its the ring-leader and menace to anything of use/benefit etc
2 TCC "planning" (not the usual meaning or intent... actually in TCC's case it means creating intentionally disasters...)
3 TCC staff residing in a glass box and clueless as to what resides outside of it
4 The cost of parking
5 No parking required for any developments so less and less over time
6 No payments to TCC for no parking as part of developments, means parking is paid for by ratepayers at a huge loss
7 TCC "planning" (intentionally) to remove carparks from the CBD
That is a start anyways....
The Master
Posted on 22-09-2025 12:33 | By Ian Stevenson
But then TCC staff will, in their wisdom and brilliance say...
1 Take a bus to the CBD, but most bus times are crazy and hopeless as TCC/RBOP (two councils medaling in anything ensures worse not better), again the "planning" and "thinking" issues at TCC kicks in there to
2 Walk or bike... yeah that works, mega-millions on all that crazy stuff and of course you can not spot either that much. Yet another waste of monies again.
Well Hallelujah…..
Posted on 22-09-2025 14:44 | By Shadow1
…. the immovable council, eyes firmly fixed on Knighthoods and streets teeming with sophisticates and art experts has finally noticed that there are no people other than their own employees and business owners in the CBD. What can I say? Well nothing really other than “ well done guys, this may be a small gesture but it is a start!”.
I can have a haircut in that time. I could buy some sushi or a takeout coffee. If I want to have lunch I’ll still have to park in the parking building but that’s always been the case.
Just saying.
Shadow1.
The Master
Posted on 22-09-2025 15:53 | By Ian Stevenson
@ steve b
Most traffic does not even bother with the CBD now, the sensible thing to do is head in the opposite direction, the Malls in the suburbs.
The less carparks in the CBD, the less available for people to go there. That sounds really simple and obvious, right?
Well clearly that is vastly to complicated for anyone at TCC to even possibly contemplate in this lifetime.
Tumbleweeds
Posted on 22-09-2025 17:03 | By Fernhill22
If there isn't anywhere free to park, people aren't going to come- it's as simple as that.
If you were providing 2 hours of free parking then that makes a huge difference, but 20 minutes is going to do nothing to improve things.
TCC are paying an extortionate amount of money for a Civic Precinct that no one is going to be able to visit because there is nowhere to park.
Tauranga CBD is turning into one of those old western movies with the tumbleweeds blowing across a deserted town. It's such a shame that local businesses are being put out of business because of such poor decisioning. Rather than go after revenue from parking, cut back on staffing, leased buildings & vanity projects, and make better decisioning on where ratepayers money is spent.
Mayor Mahé
Posted on 22-09-2025 21:17 | By Yadick
I suggest you read the comment above from Fernhill22 because they're spot on the money.
A decision..but a poor one
Posted on 22-09-2025 21:41 | By patvr
An extra 10 minutes on top the the 10 already in place? You have got to be joking. Again, is this the best TCC can do? It's really childish.
PATHETIC COUNCIL!
Posted on 23-09-2025 12:04 | By Ben Dover
The sooner this pathetic council is voted out the better. What difference do they think 20 minutes will make?. By the time people have negotiated the payment process they will have about 10 ,minutes left. Big deal! A minimum of 1 free hour would have been the sensible option, but there again, no one in the council has any sense.
@ Yadick.......
Posted on 23-09-2025 19:44 | By groutby
...indeed...bang on the money....however for 'easy money people'..staffing, leased buildings and vanity projects are a bit more difficult if you aren't as committed to the ratepayer as your job description actually says...
Free parking
Posted on 24-09-2025 13:10 | By Bascy
To ease the pain being experienced by retailers and try and bring some life in to downtown free parking should be up to 11am every day then people will have a clear understanding of the free time.
It's obvious...
Posted on 25-09-2025 14:15 | By morepork
(Axiomatic = observably self-evident, and so not requiring formal proof.)
It is axiomatic that this Council don't understand the relationship between cars and the life of the city.
Instead, they are committed to Mahuta's dogma (cars bad; ban cars), and simply continue the same philosophy that was implemented by the Commission. Connect the dots:
1. Anti-car measures deplete both vehicular AND foot traffic.
2. Foot traffic (even in the age of Internet), is the lifeblood of commerce.
CBD?
It used to be a pleasure to go there. Browse Devonport Road and the Strand, shop in the "infrastructure" streets.
Large Parking buildings for employees all-day parking, and free kerbside on shopping fronts. (These regulate themselves as people come and go...)
Sadly, TCC is SO pressed for money (yet they can still afford unnecessary projects...) that they HAVE to charge for parking.
RIP CBD.
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