Proposal to extend one-hour free parking offer

Since the one-hour free parking initiative began, we have provided more than 22,500 hours of free parking in the Lichfield Street Car Park and the Art Gallery Car Park buildings. More than 12,500 drivers have also received free parking at the Worcester Street, New Regent Street, Rolleston Avenue and former Aldersgate car parks.

The cost of the initiative over the first three months of the trial was approximately $90,000, which is one-third of the revenue that would have been received from those car parks during that period.

Parking supply and demand in the central city is surveyed quarterly.  The December 2017 survey, taken during the period of the one-hour free parking trial initiative, showed that the supply of parking in the central city exceeded the demand (9,800 of the 14,400 parking spaces were being utilised).  During December, the Lichfield Street Car Park Building’s occupancy was around 60%.

It has been difficult for us to determine whether the free parking trial has successfully attracted people in to the city as none of the car parking buildings in the central city have been operating near, or at, capacity, and occupancy rates in our facilities surveyed in September and December 2017 remained consistent. 

However, we do know that people are still getting used to coming in to the central city. The one-hour free parking trial, and the marketing that we did to promote it, has been useful in terms of promoting the central city as a destination for retail and hospitality. 

When the one-hour free trial was first suggested, Council staff did some initial research with key stakeholders to determine their views.

• Members of the retail business community were generally supportive of the idea of providing free parking.

• Views of individuals visiting the central city varied, with most people appreciating that it was common to pay for parking in the central city and that private car park owners and operators do need to achieve a return on investment. Many people were more concerned about the rate per hour for parking than the fact that it was a requirement to pay. There was also concern that providing any free parking would contribute to the difficulty in gaining general acceptance that parking spaces cost money to provide and are something that need to be user-pays.

Private car park owners and operators were concerned that this initiative would undermine the confidence of the private sector in investing in city parking facilities.

Council considered subsidising all off-street private parking but this was not progressed due to the complexity of determining which sites and operators would qualify for Council subsidies, and how the funds would be distributed.

Council also considered one-hour, two-hour free parking options as well as the free parking only applying on weekends.  Applying the free parking to some or all of Council operated central city off-street parking was also considered.

The one-hour free parking option in the Lichfield Street and Art Gallery car parks was preferred as it was generally consistent with the trial conditions and continues to support the retail precinct.

Based on the costs of the trial (approximately $90,000), extending the initiative from 1 July 2018 would reduce Council’s revenue by approximately $400,000 per year.  The estimated cost is conservative and assumes that there will be no increase in average occupancy rates during the year. However, if occupancy rates increase then the loss of revenue would also increase.

We haven’t currently budgeted for this reduction in revenue in the Long Term Plan, so we would need to include it in the finalised Plan going to Council in June 2018. It equates to a 0.1% rate increase.