The rollout of paid parking to more Tauranga city centre streets will cause “huge problems”, say critics, and one business owner is “gutted”.

From August 4, on-street parking in the city centre fringe between the eastern end of Fourth Ave and Park St, north of the CBD, will cost $1 an hour for the first two hours and $2 for every hour after, to a maximum of $10.

Two-hour parking limits would also apply to some sections of Cliff Rd, Brown St, Arundel St, Fourth Ave, Fifth Ave, Sixth Ave, Seventh Ave, Eighth Ave, Sheath St and Edgecumbe Rd.

Parks on those streets currently have no time limit and are often used by people working in the city who park all day.

Fines for parking over the time limit start at $20, increasing incrementally and capped at $97.

Councillors approved the parking costs and time limits at a Tauranga City Council meeting last Monday, having approved the Tauranga Parking Management Plan in April.

Excelso Coffee owner Carrie Evans said she didn’t know what it would mean for her business and whether she would lose customers at her Third Ave cafe and coffee roaster.

“I’m just so gutted that they didn’t come up with alternatives before they put paid parking in place.”

Excelso Coffee owner Carrie Evans says she is "gutted" for her staff. Photo/Andrew Warner

Evans said she hoped there would be a grace period for people popping in quickly, ideally up to 30 minutes.

Some other cities had the first hour of parking free, she said.

“I don’t know what they [the council] think will happen except that businesses will close their doors.

“If I had a place, I would move tomorrow, but it’s really costly to move all my equipment and to get all the consents.”

Evans was also worried for her staff, who couldn’t afford $50 a week to park nearby. For some, it was 10% of their weekly pay, she said.

Her staff started a petition against the charges and were getting signatures from other businesses.

“I’m gutted for my staff who are so upset and don’t know how they’re going to come up with the money to pay for parking.”

Evans questioned whether it was “revenue gathering” by the council or an attempt to get more people using buses.

Vetro owner Liz Cerdeira says paid parking outside her store will impact business. Photos / George Novak / John Borren

Vetro Mediterranean Food owner Liz Cerdeira also wanted a grace period for customers at her Third Ave store.

She was worried if people were fined they wouldn’t come back.

“I believe that if customers start getting pinged because they’ve popped in here for 10 minutes, they will stop coming.

“I’m going to start losing business.”

The paid parking felt “like another attack on businesses”, Cerdeira said.

It was going to cause “huge problems” for businesses and their staff, she said.

A lot of staff parked on the outer streets but wouldn’t be able to with the new time limits unless she allowed them to leave and move their car every 90 minutes, Cerdeira said.

“They [the council] are forcing everyone to pay for parking.

“They are just looking to make money because there seems to be no other reason.”

A map showing the new paid parking and time-limited areas in Tauranga. Image / Tauranga City Council

The council had not consulted with businesses about what would work best for them, she said.

“Council really needed to have walked the streets and talked to the businesses and said, how can we help?”

Tauranga Auto Electric owner Gavin Vanyard said the move would create problems for its customers who dropped their car off in the morning and wanted to pick it up at the end of the day.

His business didn’t have enough space to keep all the cars on-site and it would use on-street parking, but wouldn’t be able to when required to pay.

Customers would need to collect their cars as soon as they were ready, he said.

He said this was not the fault of the council because most businesses didn’t have enough parking.

Vanyard said he would be happy to pay for two or three parks if they were always available for his business.

Paid parking was probably inevitable, he said.

“They need to do something with the parking, it’s just whether this is the right way about it or not, I’m not sure, only time will tell.”

The new time limits on streets are designed to encourage all-day parkers to use parking buildings and off-street carparks. Photo / Alex Cairns

Council parking strategy manager Reece Wilkinson said parking enforcement staff applied a 10-minute grace period to avoid impacting people doing a quick drop-off or pick-up.

The council continuously monitored parking demand and habits in the city, to make data-informed decisions, respond to change and consider the needs of everyone – residents, workers, customers and visitors, he said.

“We understand that changes to parking can be challenging, especially when it means a change of routine.”

The council’s goal was to improve access to short-stay parking and encourage parking turnover for customers and short-term visitors, Wilkinson said.

“We’ve consistently heard that customer parking is often taken up by all-day commuter vehicles, limiting access for those wanting to support local businesses.

“We’ve also seen increased pressure on surrounding residential streets.”

The new paid and time-restricted zones were designed to encourage all-day parkers to use parking buildings and off-street carparks, he said.

This would free up more convenient on-street spaces for short, city centre visits, Wilkinson said.

Businesses and residents in the affected areas would shortly receive letters about the changes, he said.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.