The District will welcome 30,000 new residents over the next 25 years with the population expected to reach 100,000.

To make sure car parking meets the needs of the centres and visitors, the Council is developing a Parking Management Plan for Rangiora and Kaiapoi town centres (plans for other District towns will be developed later).

General Manager of Strategy, Engagement, and Economic Development Simon Hart said the plan was developed after listening to ideas and feedback from the community, stakeholders and local businesses, and undertaking technical investigations.

“Now that we’ve considered the options available and have a handle on what demand will look like as we grow, we now want to hear what our community thinks of our approach for managing parking now and into the future.”

Our goal

We want to aim for a target parking occupancy of 70% to 85%. In real terms, this means that at peak times nearly one in every three (at 70% occupancy) to one in every seven or so (at 85% occupancy) parks will be available to park in.

Current

Surveys have shown both of our town centres can cope with current parking demand.

While some areas are busier than others, generally, there are enough nearby areas within a short walking distance with plenty of parking available for shoppers, visitors and all-day parkers.

Future

We've developed parking models for Rangiora and Kaiapoi town centres that show us the predicted stress on parking areas out to the year 2040.

Our model for Kaiapoi shows that by 2040, there is actually still ample parking available.

In Rangiora however, we will need up to 100 more car parks by 2035, and a further 100 after that by 2040 to stay within our desired target parking occupancy range.

The Council is looking at tools for responding to  parking demand. These generally fit into three key strategic responses:

• Optimise existing assets (e.g. make best use of what we already have)
• Manage demand (e.g. paid parking)
• Increase supply (e.g. build more carparks)

“Both town centres could see some gains made from making best use of existing parks. However, for Rangiora, this alone won’t be sufficient to keep up with growth which is why we’re looking at additional measures to manage parking and to add more supply,” says Simon.

Visit Waimakariri.govt.nz/letstalk to have your say and let us know if we are heading in the right direction. Engagement closes on 12 March.

Council is also reviewing our Parking Bylaw to ensure rules and regulations in place work for residents today and in the immediate future. We will be going out for engagement/public comment on the Parking Bylaw around mid-year.