New policy removes 2 hour parking limit; increases and reduces city parking fees

A new parking policy for Rotorua comes into effect at the end of the month (Monday 31 October) aimed at ensuring adequate levels of parking for commercial and retail customers in the busiest central city locations.

The new policy was adopted by the Rotorua District Council (RDC) in June this year following public consultation with the council’s 2011/12 draft annual plan.

RDC works manager Peter Dine said the most significant features of the new policy were an end to existing two hour maximum parking time limits and a new parking fee regime. New fees would see a reduction in the cost of parking in less utilised areas of the city and increased parking fees in the busiest central locations.

Mr Dine said removal of the current two hour maximum parking limit would mean that price remained the key influencer of parking use patterns, as was the case in many cities.

“From next month Rotorua people will be able to stop in a parking space longer than two hours if they choose, but in very high demand areas such as central Tutanekai Street it will cost more to do so.

“The rationale behind this comes from parking studies elsewhere that show price controls resulting in higher space turnover make parking easier to find for customers of city stores and other businesses.”

Mr Dine said the increased parking fees would encourage people to spend less time parked in the most sought after central CBD parking spaces.

“Parts of Tutanekai Street and a few central sectors of Eruera, Hinemoa and Pukuatua streets will become $2 per hour zones. Other CBD parking outside of this central strip will remain $1 per hour zones, as will the council’s parking building on Pukuatua Street. The parking building will also offer $5 all-day parking on the top floor of the building.

“Parking fees for other low volume areas in the city will remain free as at present or will reduce to just $2 for eight hours - equal to 25 cents per hour. The CBD includes more than 2500 free parking spaces.

“So the further out from the central core of Tutanekai St that people park, the less they will pay in parking fees. On the other hand parking spaces right in central high volume areas will turn over more frequently making parking more readily available in those locations than at present.

Peter Dine said the new demand based parking principles had been well tried in other cities and had proven very successful. In part this is a practical response to the many requests we’ve had from central city businesses to make parking spaces more readily available for their paying customers.

He said the adjusted parking fees were in line with or cheaper than the cost of CBD parking in many other comparable cities in New Zealand. In Tauranga, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Napier and Hamilton for example it also cost $2 per hour to park in the CBD, while in Auckland and Wellington the figure was at least $4 for central city parking.

Mr Dine said Rotorua’s new fee regime was expected to be neutral in terms of overall revenue for the city. He said money collected from parking fees would continue to be allocated to programmes for maintaining and improving the CBD.

The number and location of spaces allocated specifically for disabled parking would remain as at present, as would existing loading zone provisions.

Meanwhile work to recalibrate all parking meters and ‘pay & display’ units, and to affix new fee schedule stickers, would commence on Monday 31 October and was expected to take three to four days to complete.

Rotorua District Council would be putting in place a programme to constantly monitor and analyse parking patterns and trends throughout the city and would consider making adjustments to fees in the future as and where required, and in line with the new policy.

The policy aims to achieve 70% to 90% occupancy for parking spaces during the working week, meaning an average of one in every seven spaces would be available at most times. If occupancy figures dropped constantly below this threshold then the council would consider reducing parking fees, and if they were constantly above 90%, parking fees could be increased.

Click here to view Rotorua parking zones and fees from 31 October 2011 (indicative only)