FAQs
Why does the proposal include paying for parking seven days a week?
Ōrewa is a popular destination for shoppers and visitors seven days a week, and there are problems with being able to find spaces every day, which is why the proposals cover the seven days.
Why don’t you just reduce the free time limit from P120?
The average length of stay in the town centre is around 1 hour 45 minutes. Reducing current time limits could mean many visitors do not have enough time to complete their visit.
Managing parking through a mix of time limits and pricing is more effective at supporting both short and longer visits, while improving parking availability.
How will this proposal affect businesses?
With both proposals, customers will still have a choice of using a paid parking space or a free parking space, with time limits, on every street.
People will still be able to make a quick stop, visit multiple stores, and will also be able to use the paid parking space for appointments and meetings that may take longer.
Anyone is able to use any on-street paid parking space for 10 minutes for free.
Around 20% of parking in the town centre is currently used by staff. When spaces have a two-hour limit, some staff stay all day by moving their car from one space to another. If one person does this five times in a day, they end up using five different spaces instead of just one. Multiply this across many staff doing the same thing, and you can see why there is a problem.
Is paid parking simply a way of raising money for council?
No. The intention behind this is to help people be mindful of how long they park for. Occupancy is high in the town centre.
While some money is raised, paying for parking encourages people to only park for the time they need, which then frees up the parking spot for the next person.
Money paid for parking goes to the council and is used for road maintenance, footpath repairs, pedestrian crossings and the likes, reducing the impact on rates.
The low cost helps balance visitors’ needs and considers the current cost of living.
Are there any other changes in the proposal?
As part of this change, 16 parking spaces with P120 time limits on Moana Avenue close to Centreway Road will be removed from the town centre parking zone. This means parking would be free all day, with no time limits.
The existing P90 parking spaces in the McDonalds car park off Florence Avenue will be included in the Town Centre zone, closer to businesses. These 14 spaces would be either P120 or paid parking depending on the option decided.
No changes are proposed to loading zones or mobility parking spaces as these are currently working well.
What about parking for people who work in the Ōrewa Town Centre?
If you need to drive and park in the town centre for work, there are areas on the edges of the town centre where you can still park for free and stay as long as you like.
We understand that some businesses that rely on customers for their livelihood prefer staff to park further away to help keep nearby parking spaces for customers.
Several businesses have leased spaces for their staff in either the private carpark in Moana Ave or the adjacent Catholic Church.
Another option is to use one of the three regular bus services. Businesses may also consider Fareshare(External link), where employers can subsidise their staff’s public transport costs when they travel to and from work using AT services.
Employers can choose to subsidise 25%, 50% or 75% of AT travel from either Monday to Friday or Monday to Sunday.
Staff that need to park for longer than two hours can use the paid parking spaces. If spaces start to fill up the price for longer stays can be adjusted.
How many parking spaces are there in the town centre?
There are more than 400 public parking spaces in the zone plus approximately 800 parking spaces provided by businesses. There are an additional 300 parking spaces by the beach, which are outside the zone. Altogether, there are approximately 1,500 parking spaces in the town centre and by the beach.