The plan to upgrade Tauranga's parking machines to paperless has been postponed until July.
The upgrade was scheduled to start in April but Tauranga City Council's legal advisers warned that wording in the Traffic and Parking Bylaw needed to be updated first.
Currently, the council was empowered to collect parking fees from parking spaces that were controlled by pay and display parking meters.
The use of the phrase 'pay and display' might turn out to be too specific in a paperless parking system as there would be nothing to display.
Transport manager Martin Parkes said recent experience taught them that although the intent of a bylaw might be obvious the precise wording needed to stand up to legal scrutiny.
The words 'pay and display' would be changed in the bylaw, along with several other amendments including changing the term 'public place' to 'parking places'.
Any update to council bylaw required a formal amendment process, which included a month of public consultation followed by hearings and deliberations.
Mr Parkes said it was frustrating to go through a complete process to change a few words.
"But we need to future-proof the parking machines. The bylaw needs to be future-proofed as well so that we can move ahead with new technology."