A central-city car park with a conscience
Sick of chaotic, choka-block city car parks? A social initiative is attempting to change the way people park in town.
Gap Filler opened Good Spot on Tuesday – 67 car parks at the corner of Manchester and Lichfield streets. All proceeds will go towards central-Christchurch projects.
‘‘Everyone has a complaint about parking in one of the Wilson [car parks], getting blocked in and in a hurry to leave,’’ Gap Filler codirector Ryan Reynolds said.
The car park aligns with average Christchurch parking rates – $5.50 per day or $2 per hour– but 100 per cent of the proceeds will help fund community projects in the east frame.
Over the next decade, Fletcher Living are building 900 east frame dwellings, as well as numerous public spaces. To stop the area becoming a barren wasteland, it is spending $1 million on transitional activities. It approached Gap Filler about 18 months ago to help.
‘‘Somewhere along the way we said, ‘well, if it’s about getting good community outcomes, why don’t you let the community run the car parks and that money can top up the money that we have to go into the communities’,’’ Reynolds said.
Much of central Christchurch remains flat ground following the 2011 earthquakes. To earn revenue, many land owners lease to Wilson Parking, or a similar car parking company. Wilson is a Singapore-based business with global operations Hong Kong, Australia, South Korea, China and other countries.
‘‘[Wilson] puts zero dollars into making the sites look nice, and then none of the money stays here locally. So many people complain about just what an ugly blight [car parks] have been, so we tried to think through ways we can address that issue,’’ he said.
Work would be done to ‘‘spruce it up a little’’ and Gap Filler had also demarcated parking bays and remediated land that pooled water during heavy rain.
Reynolds estimated about $300 could be collected from the car park each day. Gap Filler was contracted for another two years, which meant more than $210,000 could be raised.
Reynolds said Gap Filler was contractually obliged to spend funds raised in the east frame, but it was too early to say where. A new pavilion could be built, similar to the group’s Pallet Pavilion at the former Crowne Plaza site.
Development by Fletcher Living was not due on the site for at least four years, Reynolds said. He hoped the car park could remain in space until then.
"[Wilsons] puts zero dollars into making the sites look nice, and then none of the money stays here locally so that's a pretty big principle to me."
Ryan Reynolds, Gap Filler codirector