Infrastructure and service delivery general manager Richard Roberts, who becomes chief executive in March, said he led a project which included the no-parking signs on a patch of land in Miller Rd, at the end of Airport Rd.
The land was previously regularly used by travellers apparently wanting to avoid paying airport parking fees.
Mr Roberts said the airport bought the petrol station in Miller Rd last year and was beautifying the section of road from the service station to Airport Rd, which was already planted with established rhododenrons.
''We just want this avenue of beautiful colour all the way from the garage.''
Colourful shrubbery had been planted and flower baskets hung at the station.
However, thrifty travellers continued to park in Miller Rd either side of the intersection, which was regulated by the NZ Transport Agency and further up Miller Rd, regulated by the Dunedin City Council, some beyond the 100kmh zone sign.
''I can't do anything about that, but that plot on the corner - we have a beautiful journey coming in with all this rhodies [rhododendrons] in colour - and on that corner, it was a bloody sparse car park.''
The airport owned some of that land and the DCC the rest.
The council had given the airport a ''licence to occupy'' the land so it could beautify it.
''We are going to plant that out with some ground cover and colour in keeping with the rest of the journey all the way to the airport.''
The airport had no plan to ask for the other two areas where people continued to park in Miller Rd, to be made into no-parking zones.
''I can't tell them to do anything.
''If I went down there and said put yellow lines in, why would I do that?
''I'd be doing it for commercial gain - I'm not in that space.''
Senior Constable Bruce Cunningham, of Dunedin, said he was stationed at the airport and there had been no problems with cars parking further up Miller Rd, in the 100kmh zone.
The new no-parking zone had been a safe place to park and he believed the area should have remained open for parking up until the planting began.
''There is no problem with the way it is was before.''
The gardeners should carefully consider the landscaping so mature plantings did not hinder the visibility of motorists at the intersection, Snr Const Cunningham said.
NZTA spokesman Andy Knackstedt said the agency was unaware of dangerous or illegal parking in this area of the Momona village.
''We don't have any plans to change the current situation.''
