At a hearings committee meeting yesterday, Crs Jim O’Malley (chairman), Cherry Lucas and Mandy Mayhem agreed to support parking changes Forbury Rd, the Esplanade and Second Beach Rd.
In general, all-day parking spaces in the area are earmarked to become either two-hour or four-hour time-restricted spaces along with several five-minute spots and two variable spaces. The carparks are proposed to remain free.
Speaking to the committee, Surfing New Zealand South Island director Jimi Higgins said the changes were broadly supported by the surfing community and would promote turnover of carparks.
"I’d say there’d be less than 20 surfers who surf for all of those [proposed] limits, but most of the surfers who would do that actually live around the area and I don’t see why they couldn’t walk."
He said surfers were concerned about safety as there were informal arrangements for people watching over young or inexperienced surfers to sit in cars on the Esplanade.
Restricted parking could also be detrimental during events when surfers and officials were at the beach all day, although council staff said the parking rules might be suspended on a case-by-case basis.
Daniel Fitzpatrick spoke in support of the changes and said public parking could not continue to be used like private property.
"A single person occupying a beach-front park for six, eight, or 10 hours means that other people miss out, and that’s not a fair use of public space."
Several speakers asked the council investigate developing the Esplanade Reserve into a carpark.
Of 177 submissions on the proposed changes in St Clair, 83 (47%) were in support and 94 (53%) opposed.
The committee also recommended parking changes linked to Bath St upgrades project go ahead, including replacing a George St coach-stop with a variable parking zone.
"The variable zone supports coach/bus parking when there is tourism demand and allows the space to be designated as parking for other purposes, including short-medium stay general parking," a report to the committee said.
Proposed changes to Bath St include a reduction in five-minute parking in favour of one-hour paid parking and the introduction of an authorised vehicle only space for deliveries.
On Ravenswood Rd, broken yellow lines had been considered to make a 22m-long passing space. However the committee chose not to recommended this and directed staff to reassess the road.
Parking changes were approved at 22 other sites across the city.
The recommendations would be considered at a council meeting and if approved, it was expected they would be in place before the summer.
