Raglan boaties v business
Parking pressure has created friction between boaties and business at a Waikato wharf.
Eateries, apartment-dwellers, pleasure boaties, charter captions and retailers share Raglan’s Wallis Street Wharf, but boat trailers quickly fill the nine designated parks and spill into general ones. And they stay for hours.
The boat ramp is one of the most popular in the Waikato District, a council report says, and the only Raglan one to provide safe, all-tide harbour access.
The district council is looking at a two-hour parking limit on more parking spaces by the boardwalk area to ensure there are spots for those who pop down for a bite to eat or to go shopping.
However, those who use the wharf have their own suggested solutions – including reclaiming land for parking and setting up a shuttle.
‘‘It’s just bedlam [parking at the wharf],’’ said Greg Whyte, who lives in nearby Te Uku and has fished from Raglan Wharf for about 15 years.
A two-hour parking limit hardly leaves time to get out and drop the anchor, Whyte said.
The answer is to create more parking and land nearby could be reclaimed for it, he said.
While the district council has mentioned the possibility, a statement said there were no plans in place. The fishing fraternity wasn’t against the wharf’s businesses, Whyte said, but would be ‘‘a little bit upset if they take away from boaties and charter operators something that they have always had’’.
He said no extra parking was created when council leased wharf buildings to businesses, and wondered what what would happen when the Rangitahi Peninsula development brought hundreds more houses.
The Raglan Sportfishing Club has opposed time limits.
It’s tricky to balance boatramp trailer parking and business parking, a Waikato District Council statement said. ‘‘Council is trying to manage this by putting in place restrictions to enable a turnover of parking spaces for the businesses while not removing any of the allocated 48-hour boat trailer parking.’’
Seaside parking struggles aren’t unique to Raglan: Hahei, the gateway to Cathedral Cove, might soon get council-owned car parks on the edge of town to stop beachgoers from clogging residential streets.
In Raglan, it has been going on for years, Raglan Community Board chairman Bob MacLeod said.
‘‘It’s a friction between the recreational fishers, charter fishermen and the businesses, and equally The Silos [apartments],’’ he said.
‘‘If we continue with the status quo, we’re going to have chaos again at Christmas.’’
A tractor and trailer might take up three car parks and be there from 6am to 6pm – and the person who comes down for fish and chips can’t find a park.
The time limit’s the fastest solution, he said, and the board might also consider concession parking for boaties.
The boaties could also set up a park and ride with the nearby rugby club, or use a local shuttle business.
The Wharf Kitchen and Bar owner Helen Rowling is looking into her own shuttle system.
‘‘I see the thing running around at The Base. It can’t be that hard,’’ she said.
Parking affects her business, she said, as sometimes locals will drive off after five loops.
Wharf users should put pressure on council to find a solution, she said, as increasing tourist numbers were making it more feasible to live and work in Raglan.
‘‘It would be great if everybody could get access [to the wharf],’’
she said, ‘‘kick a few stones around, and eat a couple of ice creams.’’
Parking at the wharf is already a mess, said Darron Thornton of Raglan Fishing Charters.
A 120-minute limit would make things worse – his company is one of three charter operators, and even a half-day charter lasts six hours.
‘‘Where do I park myself to even get on the boat?’’ he said.
‘‘We’re . . . bringing in 3000 or 4000 people a year, who stay [in Raglan], who shop here, who eat here.’’
Raglan Fish manager Stanley Grime is sure he’s losing customers because boat trailers are filling parks.
That said, the shop had 500 orders on a recent Saturday.
However, at 8am on a Saturday, the car parks may already be full – ‘‘and yet there are no customers’’.
The parking time limit would have its problems – such as for staff parking or at busy times when there’s an hour wait on chips.
The November Raglan Community Board meeting will include a report on parking time limits.
The Raglan Wharf seems to have something for everyone – except a parking space.
Good weather in the Waikato town sends fishermen, diners and shoppers alike down to enjoy the tourist attraction.
Word is that, at peak times, parked cars line the streets for about a kilometre from the Wallis Street Wharf back nearly to central Raglan.
And while everyone agrees the congestion is a problem, they have different ideas on how to ease it: a shuttle service, parking time limits, reclaiming land for more car parks.
A shuttle to minimise traffic at the wharf is the idea of The Wharf Kitchen and Bar owner Helen Rowling. There was some opposition but many naysayers weren’t offering solutions, so she was trying to make it happen.
‘‘I’ve just been watching the model at The Base, which is their park-and-ride. I’ve got access to an electric passenger hop-on, hopoff vehicle. What I’m envisaging is that will work in an anti-clockwise fashion.’’
Boat-trailer parking could be improvised at the nearby rugby club, she suggested, and the shuttle service could get sponsorship.
‘‘We want the [wharf] experience for everybody to be unanimous: It was fantastic. We got access, we got to see and feel the heartbeat of Raglan.’’
Increasing numbers of boaties and tourists were keen to get to the wharf, she said, and it would be hard for businesses to trade if a boat trailer took up four car parks all day. She’s frustrated that Waikato District Council hasn’t acted faster and said the problem wasn’t unique to Raglan. The shuttle would be a stop-gap measure, she said, before a longer-term fix, such as creating more parking.
Two-hour time limits on more parks was Waikato District Council’s suggestion to manage the pressure.
‘‘Council reports have identified that there is limited parking in Raglan during the summer period and in this area, in particular, it is difficult to accommodate for both the boat-ramp trailer parking and business parking.’’
Time limits would allow a faster turnover for businesses but the nine allocated boat-trailer parks would stay, the council added.
‘‘We needed to come up with a solution for this Christmas,’’ Raglan Community Board chairman Bob MacLeod said.
The council would look into concession parking for boaties but that required changing a bylaw so would take longer.
He agreed a shuttle could be a solution.
Local fisherman Greg Whyte wasn’t a fan of the time limit, nor was he convinced by the shuttle idea. ‘‘No shuttle’s going to start at five o’clock in the morning and work until nine at night,’’ he said, explaining that these were the hours boaties were out.
‘‘If the problem is that there’s a shortage of parking, the answer is create more parking.’’
Nothing had ever come of a past push to reclaim land on the west side of the wharf and create a car park, he said.
And he reckoned there was also space by the hill on the boat ramp side ‘‘that supports virtually no sealife whatsoever’’.
‘‘If the problem is that there’s a shortage of parking, the answer is create more parking.’’ Fisherman Greg Whyte