Could carparking be greener on the other side of the hill?  It’s no secret that Tauranga CBD has gone through a lot of parking changes over the past year, with the reintroduction of paid parking in the city’s “core area” last December.

It’s also no secret that this caused a fuss among some city folk with less free carparks on hand.

With more paid parking spaces set to radiate out in the city as part of council’s Parking Management Plan in coming months, let’s take a step back, look beyond our own carparks and see what a nearby sister city is doing for their community in the parking realm.

The Sun reached out to Hamilton City Council to hear what their CBD’s parking offers.

For context, Tauranga is NZ’s fifth largest city with an estimated population of 158,300. 

Hamilton is NZ’s fourth largest city with an estimated population of 179,900. Both the Bay of Plenty and Waikato – including Otago – grew faster than the NZ average by the end of June 2023, according to Stats NZ.

Parking in ‘The Tron’

In Hamilton CBD there is a mix of free, time-limited and metered on and off-street parking available seven days a week. For the past six years, Hamilton City Council has included free two-hour parking options daily in their CBD.

“[In 2017] Two-hour free parking was introduced to encourage the turnover of on-street parking to support businesses and get more people to spend time in the central city,” says HCC executive director of infrastructure operations Eeva-Liisa Wright.

“Two hours was identified as providing enough time for most people to do their business and shopping in the central city.”

Back over in our city, free time-limited parking during weekdays has been removed from the CBD since last year.

More paid parking changes are set for Tauranga City come February. Photo: supplied.

“Paid parking in the city centre was reintroduced in December 2022 to support retailers and customers who were concerned on-street parking spaces were being occupied by workers who were parking there all day,” says TCC director of transport Brendan Bisley.

“Since reintroduction of paid parking, we’ve seen a noticeable increase in the number of carparks that are available for people visiting the city centre for a short amount of time during the day. In terms of parking transactions, we are seeing a higher turnover of carparks in the city centre on a daily basis and foot traffic has remained steady.”

February rollout

Further removal of Tauranga CBD’s free timed parking spaces in city fringe areas was set for staggered rollout in November, but last week council decided to delay this until after summer.

The next phase of the paid parking rollout will now take place February 2024 and be effective from Third Ave up to Arundel St, and from McLean St up to Monmouth St.

With Hamilton’s mix of free timed and paid parking options throughout the week, The Sun asked HCC the benefits of this.

Tauranga City’s ‘core areas’ switched to paid parking last December. Photo: SunLive. 

“Parking options in the central city are continuing to be updated to suit the market such as the introduction of all-day paid parking for commuters,” says Eeva-Liisa.

“A mix of parking options suits the variety of people who come into the central city with two-hours’ free parking for those wanting to visit businesses to shop or eat.”

It begs the question – would TCC consider bringing back free timed parking options to the CBD in the working week? 

“Since the introduction of paid parking in the city centre data is tracking positively in terms of parking turnover, and foot traffic, so we are not planning to revert back to free parking in the city centre during the working week,” says Brendan.