The signs were placed on Barry Monahan's property outside his cafe, 1908, and he is now waiting for the council to come back and put them on their own land.
But the signs are only part of the issue.
A new parking plan for Portobello will see space in front of the cafe, where until now about five cars have been able to angle-park, reverting to walking space with room for two parallel parks.
There would have been three parallel parks, but the Otago Regional Council extended an existing bus stop into the third park.
"If they want to [do] us over, they are doing a real good job of it," Mr Monahan said yesterday.
He was now going to seek legal advice about the changes, which he believes will affect custom at his cafe and create exactly the issue the community board did not want, which was "convoys" of campervans parking for extended periods.
"Campervans can't even fit in here on an angle. What they've done is just create two perfect parks for them and they can stay for two hours."
No cafe customers wanted to look out at the side of a campervan while they were at a cafe.
He believed he was not properly consulted about the changes.
But Otago Peninsula Community Board chairwoman Irene Scurr said the parking changes were already in action and it was unlikely that they would change now.
Markers had been sprayed on and they were ready for someone to paint the parking lines.
She said she told Mr Monahan's partner, when she showed her the plans for parking changes, that if they had any problems to contact her, but the couple had not, so plans had gone ahead as they were.
The issue was having enough clear walking space or footpath area which could not be parked on, she said.
At the moment, about five cars could squeeze in front of the cafe in angle parks.
That would reduce to two, but she could not understand how it would make a large impact on the cafe's business, especially when there were other parking spaces across the road as well.
Portobello was becoming increasingly busy and people were parking haphazardly more often, she said.
"We are trying to say 'let's make it so it's safer and more organised and so everyone can use the space'."
