From today shoppers will be able to park all day in Devonport Road or Grey Street without receiving a parking ticket – but they will pay $3 an hour for the privilege.
Further away from the downtown core parking will be $2 an hour, with the outer fringes of Hamilton Street and Second Ave at $1 an hour.
City parking will now be under a zone coded system.
The charges are part of Tauranga City Council's new parking regime for the central city, which comes into force today.
The 10 minute grace period will still apply so people parking for less than 10 minutes will not need to pay.
The requirement to move out of an area when the time limit is been reached no longer applies. As long as a valid pay and display ticket is displayed, the meter can be topped up.
A feature of the new system is the option to use the same pay and display ticket anywhere within the same coloured parking zone. A pay and display ticket with time remaining, from the top shelf blue zone can be used in the green and yellow zones, but a $1 an hour yellow zone ticket can't be used in the $2 an hour green zone – or the $3 an hour blue zone.
Three small areas of time restricted parking remain within the new city centre parking zones. These are the P15 parks outside Paper Plus/Kiwibank and the ANZ Bank on Grey Street; and on Devonport Road outside the AA as well as a few P30 parks on 1st Avenue outside Animates.
The other parking change being introduced from today is the return of parking charges on Saturdays for on-street parking. Parking buildings and off-street parking will remain free on Saturdays.
The changes are the result of 18 months of workshops, meetings and focus groups with elected members, city centre retailers and business owners, Tauranga's Mainstreet organisation, and people who regularly visit the city centre.
'We are giving people the opportunity to stay in town longer and enjoy what the city centre has to offer.
'The longer people stay, the more vibrant the city centre will become which has to be good news for the future of the city centre,” says Mayor Stuart Crosby.
City transportation manager Martin Parkes says council is responsible for managing parking so that everyone who wants to find a car park can have a fair chance of doing so, when and where they want.
'There are two ways to do this. The first is using price and the second is using time restrictions.
'We were getting a very clear message it was the time restrictions that were causing the most concern for people so we have removed them.”
For people wishing to park for long periods of time in the city centre the parking buildings on Spring Street and Elizabeth Street remain the best option, says Martin.
'Parking in the parking buildings is more flexible and often cheaper than parking on the street. They are very conveniently located right in the heart of the CBD and of course you don't run the risk of getting a parking ticket.”
12 comments
Posted on 01-07-2013 09:21 | By whatsinaname
discusting. talk about driving people away from the cbd. keep going TCC your succeeding in making tga CBD a ghost town.
Worst option for me.
Posted on 01-07-2013 11:22 | By jed
On the odd occasion I visit town, it is usually for around an hour. So, for me , visiting the city is now more expensive so I will visit less. Just my perspective, it will suit others such as workers who can now park all day for $3.
dont think so
Posted on 01-07-2013 12:25 | By thebrad
wow another parking change for the city, crosby cant even sort out the parking issues in this town how is he running it, hes been in for nine years and the city is still in idle, i think its time to go mate, tighten your seat belt fella its going to be a bumpy ride on your way out......
Easy now
Posted on 01-07-2013 13:09 | By NZgirl
1, 2, 3....Bayfair it's free parking
Overit
Posted on 01-07-2013 13:27 | By overit
I dont park in the CBD. I pay huge rates and I refuse to give any more money than necessary to this Council. I park out a bit and walk. Sometimes I will pay 10c for a quick pick-up or drop-off. If they want people back in the city then drop these ludicrous charges.
Posted on 01-07-2013 17:18 | By annon
This does NOTHING to bring me and my family to the CBD, we go to places like fraser cove and bayfair where we can shop, eat, enjoy ourselves and NOT worry about an additional ever-changing expense of parking. good try council but you just lost this family going into the CBD on saturdays now too.
Parking
Posted on 01-07-2013 19:46 | By sangrae
It is obvious that Mr Crosby is out of touch with the C.B.D and its retailers as is Mr Parkes.Oh for the upcoming elections.
Free Parking
Posted on 02-07-2013 08:32 | By Gee9000
Free Parking, Never going to happen !!! The council admitted last week that's it's a revenue gathering exercise. They admitted that due to the amount they receive that if it did not come from parking tickets that it would have to go onto rates. Shame that it's only Tauranga city parker's that have to pay it. What about meters in other areas ???
Why bother
Posted on 02-07-2013 09:06 | By Poseidon
Why does council continue to dither and fiddle about with the simple stuff. Simple answer to the whole parking issue is drop trying to make money from it, I think if there was a proper analysis done of the financial benefits of charging for parking you'd find there is a significant cost to ratepayers. Lets just stop charging for parking, if the control freaks want control restrict them to issuing WOF and Rego tickets but I suspect you'll find there's nothing to be gained from this either. Elections soon, time we had a sort out!!!!!.
Wake Up CBD
Posted on 02-07-2013 10:40 | By luke
I guess there are 2 issues here; why do we have to pay and, what is the CBD? Well, we have to pay because there is no such thing as free parking. Somebody has to pay. There is a cost for the land and the space it takes up. At bayfair and fraser cove the retailers pay for the parking through their rents. FACT. In Tauranga CBD, the council expects users to pay and, in return, the Council sites its HQ in the CBD (and 500 staff) along with free broadbannd, nice street furniture, hanging baskets, an art gallery, an economic development agency that promotes the CBD (and attracts new businesses like Trustpower with their 450 staff), a new destination kids park, cycle lanes, relaxed developer car parking conditions (to make development cheaper), a bus service bringing in over 3000 per day, a library, support for mainstreet, events, the promotion of a new hotel, a jazz festival, etc etc. So for all that, people have to pay to access the very centre of the CBD in their car. That seems fair to me. Why should the Council have to do all that and then offer free parking? It just doesn't make sense. If there is a cost to provide parking (which there is) then by retailers asking for free parking, they are in fact asking all of us to subsidise their businesses. Now that doesn't sound fair at all. Does it? Secondly, what is the CBD? It might upset some to read this but the world has changed. Sorry, i said it. The days where lots of people are willing and able to drive into a CBD to buy a NZ fridge magnet or tea towel are gone. The future of the CBD is commerce. It's all about getting business to locate in the CBD, and those people that visit the business, or work there, spend time and money in the neighbouring shops. I think they call it ancillary trade but I'm no expert. That's how cities work. The shops and business that are provide ancillary services to the commerce (mens and womens attire. coffee, cafes, bookstores, card shops) will usually do well. As soon as the vocal minority of CBD retailers realise that, stop moaning, and do something to attact the 1000s of workers that are on their doorstep every morning, lunchtime and afternoon then the sooner they can either make a business model or move on. If they do move on it will be a shame but that's just how things work I'm afraid. Towns and cities change. So do people. Finally, congratulations to the staff and councillors who ignored the pessimists, removed the always empty car park and built the waterfront playground. It was packed on the weekend with happy kids and parents drinking coffee.
@ jed
Posted on 02-07-2013 10:53 | By RawPrawn
Read the story through again, carefully. The blue zone fee is $3 an HOUR, not all day. No use to workers at all
Luke
Posted on 04-07-2013 21:12 | By Accountable
You are definitely not an expert going by your comments. I believe that our friend Luke is a ratepayer funded member of the following.Either a councilor or a member of Priority One,Chamber of Commerce or a council employee.Some of the information this person has disclosed is not common knowledge.This person is happy to subsidise every council owned parking area in the city but insists that the CBD is a special case.It appears to be the tall poppy syndrome.Councilor Molloys web site tells us the Council has recently spent $8000,000 on the Greerton redevelopment.The Mount has had twice that amount spent on it in the last 10 years.Why should the CBD subsidise these areas? Please revert the Waterfront back to a car park as it is far more valuable to us as such than it is at present.The Mount and Greerton also have Mainstreet organisations so whats so different? The thousands of workers on our doorstep are working from 8am to 6pm with maybe an hour for lunch and then home.Time to spend the amount of money to make the CBD viable is very limited as they actually do work very hard all day and don't have time to roam. CBDs originated because of retail. The so called ancillary businesses set up because there was a customer base already supplied to them by the retailers. The Waterfront playground is an accident about to happen.The two biggest attractions to kids are the trains and the water.The parents will certainly not be able to relax and we all know how fast little ones can move when one is distracted by something else.To top all this off you still expect these poor parents to pay $3.00 per hour to park for the use of the playground.Sorry Luke but if you are a genuine member of the public get your head out of the sand and start thinking logically and for your self and don't listen to others who have ulterior motives.
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