Ongoing parking issues in Mount Maunganui – including being completely full at peak times – had led Tauranga City Council to try to find out-of-the-box solutions.

The Bay of Plenty community is a national and international seaside resort for everyone from surfers to cruise ship visitors.

Even on an overcast winter’s morning The Mount was humming, cars circling to get a park as close to the beach, cafes, and mountain as possible.

This might be part of the parking problem, said Tauranga City Council Deputy Mayor and local ward councillor Jen Scoular.

“If you go to seaside resorts – which The Mount certainly is at quite a lot of the year – would you ever, outside New Zealand, expect to get a park right outside a cafe? No.”

Scoular arrived at The Mount on her bike to talk to RNZ, and says a willingness to walk for a few minutes is needed, as much as new parking solutions.

Tauranga City Council Deputy Mayor and local ward councillor Jen Scoular doubts paid parking will solve The Mount’s congestion and worries it may deter visitors. Photo / RNZ

Tauranga City Council parking strategy manager Reece Wilkinson said while parking at The Mount had been discussed before, it was time to start fresh.

“We want to know what’s working well, what’s not, and what ideas you’ve got to make it work better. Whether it’s tried and tested solutions or out-of-the-box ideas, nothing is off limits.

“We’re open to suggestions, from time limits to yellow line markings in tight streets, and anything else that springs to mind, as long as it’s realistic,” he said.

There was one suggestion locals RNZ spoke to clearly did not want though, and that was paid parking.

Scoular said she was not personally a fan of that either.

“When we say ‘paid parking’, are we actually making money out of it, because that means we have to employ more people to manage paid parking, and to me that doesn’t make sense.”

She said the council did not want parking to turn people off visiting – either because they could not find a park, or because they had to pay.

She also said there probably was not going to be any solution that would solve the problem from December 20 to January 20 when visitors were at their peak.

“If we can fix 11 months, let’s not make that very, very prime time influence the rest of the time, because that might lead to things that stop people coming.”

Along the beachfront walkway, people gave RNZ several solutions, including building a parking building, time-limited parking, local ferries, and even pulling out grass and parks to turn them into parking spaces.

A block over from the beach on the main shopping street, the Mount Business Association business improvement manager, Harris Williams, said any solution needed to be specific to The Mount.

“If you said, ‘well the CBD has paid parking so therefore by extension The Mount should be’, I think that’s probably not a wise approach. The Mount has unique challenges and benefits and is a completely different place.”

Mount Business Association’s Harris Williams says The Mount needs its own tailored parking solution, not a copy of the CBD’s approach. Photo / RNZ

But he saw it as a great step that the council was talking to the community first, noting the businesses would have a range of opinions depending on their clientele and industry.

Mike Clark, the owner of dessert bar Polar, was another voice against paid parking.

“I think the issue is the turnover, I don’t think the solution is paid parking, but we need more [parking].”

He had some ideas on how to get more parking on the main street.

“I think there are some small wins that they can do off the bat, and immediately it’s turning all of the parallel parking into angled parking, you could easily get another 50 to 70 parks on the main street,” he said.

Robertson’s Menswear is the oldest store on the main street, having been there for 47 years.

Owner Jamie Robertson also had some ideas for the council.

“Put a road through the back of Coronation Park to open it up and put carparking through the back of there because it’s just a big open area, and you could put the buses and everything through the back there for the cruise ships.”

The council said it wanted to make sure everyone who wants to “chill at the beach or make the most of the Mount vibes” could do so year-round, and a parking management plan would help achieve that goal.

Feedback on parking in Mount Maunganui was welcome until July 25.

RNZ