Parking pressure on Victoria
As Inland Revenue prepares to move into its new Palmerston North office, neighbouring businesses worry there won’t be enough parking spaces for their customers amid an influx of hundreds of office workers.
The $25 million building nearing completion on Victoria Ave, between Grey St and Broadway, is owned by Horizons Regional Council through its subsidiary company, MWRC Holdings.
Inland Revenue will move its 220 Palmerston North staff into the first two floors next month, four weeks before the third floor, which will host emergency operations centres for both the Palmerston North City Council and Horizons, is finished.
Parks in the area are already at a premium, but MWRC expects to have enough parking ready for Inland Revenue staff to easer motorists’ frustrations.
The section of road already houses Horizons’ main office and City Doctors.
M Dental co-owner Manasi Kasture said the new building was a good thing for the area, but the question was how to manage the growth.
There was already a serious lack of parking and she was worried the problem would get worse when Inland Revenue moved in across the street.
Kasture said policing parking spaces was taking up too much of her staff’s time as it was.
‘‘We get a lot of people who aren’t patients parking in our car parks... even though we have big signs [saying they’re for patients only].’’
Often it’s overflow from City Doctors next door – mostly parents with a sick child or people on crutches, because they can’t find another nearby park.
Others will quickly pop in to say they’ve parked there and leave before they can be asked to move, or just park and go without even that small courtesy.
Occasionally, people would park in the staff car parks around the back or even take the disabled parking space, Kasture said.
Chiropractic HQ owner Ross Slater said parking was the hot topic among business owners in the area and his business also frequently ran out of customer parks during peak periods.
MWRC Holdings project spokesman Craig Grant said the parking problems were largely temporary due to Palmerston North City Council upgrading services under the road and the 80 tradesmen working on the Horizons building, and their vehicles.
Grant said 100 additional car parks would be available on site by the time Inland Revenue moved in.
‘‘There’s not going to be one car park per staff member. Those days are over.’’
Grant said the building was designed with plenty of bicycle parking, both indoors and outside, as well as showers and lockers so staff could freshen up after a ride to work.