The Wardrobe owner Michelle Johnson said her shop had lost an ''unbelievable amount'' of foot traffic since the beautification of King Edward St was completed.''
When people drive down the main street they see no parks and they keep driving on to another suburb or town, even though it will cost them more, because they know they will get a park there,'' she said.
Before the beautification, Dunedin City Council (DCC) staff held a meeting during which they told business owners they would be gaining more parks than they were losing because free two-hour parking would be set up in Glasgow St behind King Edward St. This had happened but a lack of signs meant people were not using the parks because they did not know of them, Miss Johnson said.
Mobility Scooters Otago owner Tony McCarthy estimated about eight car parks near his shop had been lost during the beautification. Many of his customers were elderly and needed parks close to the shop, he said. Elios Gun Shop owner Lawrence Chiminello said half the people who came into his shop complained about how hard it was to get a park.''
It [the beautification] looks good but I think the car parks would have been `been better to be fair,'' he said.
South Dunedin Business Association president Jane Orbell said parking had been a problem in South Dunedin even before beautification.
The original vision of the beautification that business owners had been banking on was that people would use 120-minute car parks in Glasgow St and walk through to the shops on King Edward St, she said.
This had happened but unfortunately some people were parking all day in these parks. Time limits needed to be enforced, she said.
The association would invite
the council to a meeting to discuss parking, she said.
The DCC said a parking study done before the urban renewal work revealed the average occupancy of parking at the King Edward St shops was 60% to 79% on the harbour side of the street and 40% to 59% on the other side. The urban renewal work in 2012 resulted in the loss of 11 car parks. A follow-up survey in 2014 showed occupancy on King Edward St was 61%, or 24 spaces available, Lorne St car park was 67%, or 12 spaces available, and Glasgow St was 91%, or four spaces available.
The DCC said it usually did not consider changes to improve parking availability until parking occupancy was greater than 85% at peak times.
