Napier's parking woes: Council mulls turning free 120-minute parks into paid commuter parks

One option being consider is changing free P120 spots to paid all day parking. Photo / Paul Taylor

Napier City Council is considering solving the city's parking woes by charging commuters to use 120-minute parks on the fringe of the CBD which are currently free.

The strategy and infrastructure committee will consider a new Napier parking strategy at a meeting on Tuesday, looking at priorities for the city's parking in the CBD and Taradale.

The paper being presented to the committee states while Taradale's parking supply is stable, the CBD is currently under pressure and the situation is forecast to become even worse.

Currently, the city is short an estimated 45 car parks, and this is expected to get worse if the Munroe St gravel-pit car park closes, which will result in the city losing at least another 140 parks.

The strategy has a list of five priorities, the first being to use NCC's council-owned car parks more efficiently.

"The strategy looks to find ways to manage the needs of regular commuters who work in the CBD in balance with the casual parkers who are in town for the day or short periods of time," the paper states.

"The central tenet of the strategy is to find more car parking for commuters on the fringe of the CBD, which will by default free up the centre for casual parking."

This may include changing the current 120-minute free parking spots found around the fringes of the city into paid all-day parking.

The recommendation is to trial this and, if successful, to slowly roll it out across the city.

The initial fee will be $1/hr, and reduced if uptake is poor.

The other four priorities, in order, are using the privately-owned Ocean Boulevard car park more efficiently, constructing more ground level parking throughout the CBD, adding another level to the Tiffen car park, and building a new car parking building.

Parking in Napier is designed to "radiate out" from the city centre, with the middle of city saved for short stay parking, moving out to 120 minute parking for shoppers and business errands, to non-discounted all day parking, to discounted and leased all day parking, to unmetered parking.

The CBD and Taradale are the only areas of Napier where council has to provide parking for retail purposes.