A report from the council's planning manager, Richard Munneke, prepared for last week's meeting, said having staff feed the meters "for a variety of reasons isn't practical" but the parking team were keen to support the idea and "would relish the opportunity to have an ambassadorial role for a day and let people know that parking was free and thank them for supporting the CBD".
Council staff raised concerns with Napier Inner City Marketing that if parking was free on Saturday, prime spots would simply be taken up by shop workers and store owners parking outside their businesses.
"We are aware that this happens currently on Sunday when parking is free in Emerson Street for example," Mr Munneke's report said.
But Napier Inner City Marketing's marketing manager, Zoe Barnes, told the council she would continue making a concerted effort to tell retailers "how ridiculously bad for business it is if they do that".
Mr Munneke's report said if this weekend's free parking day proved successful "we can then roll out more weekends later in the year with a full perspective of the consequences".
A "very rudimentary calculation" suggested the council would lose $4200 in parking revenue by waiving charges on Saturday.
"However, it needs to be said that parking is about circulation of vehicles in the CBD and not about gathering revenue," the report said.
