Earlier this year the net of city fringe residential parking zones was widened to include Ponsonby, where many properties have no off-street parking.
Residential parking zones in Ponsonby have had a domino effect on Grey Lynn, with many streets now clogged up with commuter parking and residents struggling to find a car park.
Auckland Transport is now proposing residential parking zones in Grey Lynn and Arch Hill, and would like your feedback.
The residential parking zones replace free on-street parking with 120-minute parking zones for everyone except permit-holding residents, who can continue to park all day long.
We at Grey Lynn Residents Association are strongly in favour and urge you to review the information on AT’s website here and give feedback here.
BACKGROUND
Since the introduction of the residential parking zones in Ponsonby, many Grey Lynn residents have experienced a dramatic increase in the number of cars parked in their street. The commuters who find fringe suburbs convenient places to park their cars before embarking on a short walk or bus ride to work have simply moved from Ponsonby to Grey Lynn.
We now face significant problems with overcrowded parking, mainly from commuters who park all day. This makes it difficult for local residents, visitors and business customers to find parking.
A Herald article by Bernard Orsman reported people “arriving at 6 in the morning and having breakfast in their cars to park all day for free.”
The introduction of residential parking zones in Grey Lynn and Arch Hill will restore order on the streets.
THE ZONES
Roads in the proposed Grey Lynn residential parking zone are:
Allen Road, Ariki Street, Arnold Street, Baildon Road, Beaconsfield Street, Browning Street, Chamberlain Street, Cockburn Street, Coleridge Street, Crummer Road, Dickens Street, Dryden Street, Edwards Road, Elgin Street, Farrar Street, Firth Road, Grosvenor Street, Hakanoa Street (part of), Jessel Street, Julian Street, Leighton Street, Millais Street, Murdoch Road (part of), Northland Street, Prime Road, Richmond Road (part of), Rose Road (part of), Sackville Street, Scanlan Street (part of), Schofield Street, Selbourne Street, Surrey Crescent (part of), Sussex Street, Turakina Street, Tutanekai Street (part of), Westmoreland Street East, Williamson Avenue (part of).
Roads in the proposed Arch Hill residential parking zone are:
Bond Street (part of), Brisbane Street (part of), Commercial Road, Cooper Street, Dean Street, Home Street, Keppell Street, King Street (part of), Kirk Street (part of), Monmouth Street (part of), Niger Street, Potatau Street (part of), Seddon Street, Waima Street (part of).
If your street is just outside the proposed zone, you can request the zone be extended to include your street. We believe it would be wise for you to support such an extension.
If your street is just outside the proposed residential parking zone and you are tempted to oppose extending it to include your street because you don’t currently have a problem, I have news for you… you will almost certainly have a problem once the domino effect kicks in again and moves the problem further out.
HOW RESIDENTIAL PARKING ZONES WORK
The residential parking zones prioritise daytime parking for local residents, businesses and visitors. Within the proposed zones a parking time limit of 120 minutes (P120) applies Monday to Friday, from 8am to 6pm.
This gives visitors to local businesses plenty of time to park for free. For employees of businesses within the area, you effectively only have to worry about the hours of 10am to 4pm. If you work from 9-5, simply move your car at 11am, 1pm and 3 pm to avoid being ticketed. You should have no problem finding a park because all the commuters will have moved out to the next closest area with no residential parking zone.
Inside the residential parking zone, residents can apply for permits and daily coupons to exempt them from the time restrictions. Businesses within the proposed zone will also be able to apply for one parking permit.
Daily coupons give local residents, businesses and their visitors the ability to stay longer than the P120 time restriction. Residents get 50 free visitor coupons per year. Additional one-day coupons, if required, are $5 each. Permits are $70 per year.
INFORMATION SESSIONS
Auckland Transport will hold two information sessions for you to come and talk to the project team about the proposal…
Wednesday 22 November: 4:00pm – 6:30pm at Grey Lynn Community Centre
Thursday 30 November: 4:30pm – 6:30pm at Grey Lynn Library
CALL TO ACTION
We urge you to have a look at what is being proposed and have your say. The information sessions give you the opportunity to talk to the project team about the proposal and any concerns you might have.
For more information, please visit the project page.
To have your say, leave online feedback here.
The consultation closes on Wednesday 13 December, 2017.
I support a resident parking zone in the wider Grey Lynn area. It is very difficult to find a park and the 120m for non-residents will work well for them too.
Amanda Martin
Baildon Road
Thanks Amanda. I agree that 120 minutes is ample for people wanting to visit a local business or home-based business. If they’re going to be longer than that, it’s quite easy to move the car. It’s commuters who will be affected, which of course is the whole point of the exercise.
I just don’t see the need for this at the moment in the Selbourne Street area.
The street is not clogged up with parkers as far as I can tell. Nor are the neighbouring streets. If parking gets worse it’s because AT have removed parks on Richmond Rd so it’s a knock on effect of their making. This proposal will be implemented over my dead body. I have nightmares about AT which is destroying our community.
I would caution against extrapolating the present to predict the future. If the zone is introduced in other streets but not Selbourne Street, you will have a big parking problem in 3 nanoseconds.
The same domino effect happened in St Marys Bay where one street thought they didn’t have a current problem so campaigned against the RPZ. When it was introduced in other streets, their street was overrun with commuter parking and they had to go cap-in-hand to AT and ask for their street to be added in. It naturally took some time and they had a torrid time of it in the meantime, but once introduced it totally cleared up the problem and residents could once again find a park outside their house.
I fear you’ll have a similar negative outcome if your street is excluded from the RPZ.
Why should I have to pay to park outside my own house? I don’t understand, it’s just another tax.
I agree with you on that one Jan. Bloody annoying. However, it is an expensive thing to set up and introduce, and we just have to accept it as part of the price of city-fringe living if we want to retain parking outside our houses.
AT’s view is that parking outside our own houses is a privilege, not a right. It’s a public road and anyone is allowed to park there. If we want to be able to guarantee a park outside our own house, then we must pay for that privilege. I think it’s the lesser of two evils.
Does the $70/year cover everything for residents? How did meetings in go?
I’m not sure what you mean by “everything” but here’s what AT’s website says…
Source: https://at.govt.nz/driving-parking/parking-permits/resident-parking-permits/residential-parking-zones/
whats the grace period after you’ve parked 2hrs before getting ticketed?
We have lived in Grey Lynn for over 50yrs. this is our homestead for 9 siblings and now all our children and grandchildren. Our families use this home as their home when they are homeless. It is the home to all our relatives from overseas. It is where we have held our family gatherings for over 50 years. having to have parking permits for each of our cars is expensive and extended family have received tickets also very expensive. Family have stopped coming around and this has been partly due to not having parking permits available or the 2hr parking does not meet with how we have lived here. I have received parking tickets for parking on the road a few minutes after the 2hrs. We try and have our cars off the road during the parking time zones, but this is not always possible. We have young ones at school, so we are having to organise different ones to pick up and drop off, usually asking them to stay – they have received parking infringements also. This parking permit does not work for us. The difficulty to find parking here is after 6pm. It has never been a problem during the day – so why are we having to pay to park outside our homes.