Council to consult on central city parking
26 July 2015
Rotorua Lakes Council will consult with businesses and the wider community following further analysis of the free inner city parking trial.
Council has been trialling free time-limited parking to help stimulate activity in the inner city and is now looking to finalise a longer term parking policy. At this week's Operations & Monitoring Committee meeting councillors received a report from the transport operations team, approving consultation and a further report, to be presented to the Strategy, Policy & Finance Committee.
Having received the technical data, we now need to analyse other information available to us, understand what businesses and retailers feel has been achieved and get the community's views before any final decision is made on a long-term solution, council's Group Manager, Strategy and Partnerships, Jean-Paul Gaston, says.
Further analysis will be done by the council's strategy team and central city businesses and the community will be consulted before longer term decisions are made, Mr Gaston said.
This was a trial - the purpose being to try something new and measure various, specific outcomes.
The Parking arrangement and policy framework for the inner city has one overarching objective - to aid the economic activity of the inner city.
Parking plays three very important roles in the performance of the CBD:
1 - Business environment confidence
The parking framework is designed to create an environment whereby those who visit the CBD feel that finding parking space it is effortless and easily understood.
It's also aimed at the business sector (all business activities) feeling that the parking framework is enabling their customers to access their business easily and conveniently.
Indicators of success: NRB resident satisfaction with parking indicates improvement of satisfaction by 15% during the trial; Business sector reports through the inner city steering group are that the parking framework has helped improve general business activity.
2 - Access and convenience
Users find empty and available spaces close to their destination easily.
The regulatory framework allows the appropriate time for parking, as required to meet user need.
The framework caters for varied requirements (short stays and long stays)
The cost to using parking is not prohibitive.
Indicators of success: Occupancy rates low (finding spaces easy); time limits cater to most needs. 85% of users stay less than 60 minutes; Available options for those who wish to stay longer; Parking cost (nil for 85% of users and low for others).
3 - Traffic management
The parking framework should ensure low congestion levels through effective parking space availability and frequent turnover.
Visitors should not be subjected to stressful congestion of roads and be able to find parking near their destination so they don't have to circulate in the CBD looking for parking spaces.
Indicators of success: Vehicle turnover, occupancy, traffic volumes
The overall intention of the trial was to improve and optimise these success factors, Mr Gaston says.
In making the decision to go ahead with the trial the council was making an investment to support inner city revitalisation and encourage economic benefits for inner city businesses, he says.
The Council made a conscious decision to forfeit an existing revenue stream from paid parking to test if free parking could achieve improved retail outcomes.
With the introduction of the parking sensors, which was a new system for Rotorua, it was assumed that more accurate information would increase revenue from enforcement. This did not eventuate because Council opted to focus on encouraging visits to the CBD rather than discourage them through more efficient regulations enforcement.
In implementing the trial council considered a range of factors including some independent advice.
As part of the trial council installed sensors that are able to provide live data. It was assumed that there would be an increase in revenue from enforcement due to more accurate data being available and the fact infringement fees were increased. One of the outcomes of the trial was that about 85% of users stayed for significantly less time than the set time limits.
It is only because we have the sensors that this type of information is now known, Mr Gaston says.
This sensor information has provided important data regarding the utilisation of parking in the central city. In some areas there is fine-tuning to be done and that's why we propose to seek community and stakeholder input to achieve that.