Feedback sought on parking strategy
A multistorey car park building for central Richmond has been shelved under a Tasman District Council proposal now out for public consultation.
The draft Richmond and Motueka Town Centre Parking Strategy opened for submissions on Monday with the submission period due to close on February 23.
It aims to manage an expected increased demand over the next 10 years through greater enforcement of time-restricted parking, changing long-stay parks nearest the town centres to timerestricted parking over time and changing the layout of existing public car parks for maximum efficiency.
There is also the suggestion of seasonal parking controls for peak times and the option of introducing charges for some high-demand locations in the next five to 10 years.
However, a multistorey parking building for Richmond does not feature in the proposals for the next 10 years, despite it forming part of the discussions leading up to the creation of the draft strategy.
Council activity planning manager Dwayne Fletcher said a reasonable parking building could cost ‘‘upwards of $7 million’’ and it was believed it was better to ‘‘use what we have available first’’.
The draft strategy deliberately broad.
‘‘For the first five years, all the actions are making best use of what we’ve got at the moment.’’
Those actions included proposals to make some of the 740 council all-day parks in Richmond and 500 all-day spaces in was Motueka time-restricted.
That would likely mean more people parking all day in residential streets around the centres and the need to consider the provision of some time restrictions in those streets.
‘‘To enable people who want to visit residents to find some parking,’’ Fletcher said. ‘‘Is that what you [residents] want? We want to take the wide pulse of the community.’’
Fletcher added that there would be further consultation before the introduction of any big changes such as parking charges.
The Regional Land Transport Plan is also open for consultation until February 23.
Reviewed every three years, it takes into account the needs in Tasman district as well as the regional plans of Nelson and Marlborough.
Several changes to the 2015 transport plan have been identified, including new projects to improve the Champion-Salisbury Rd roundabout at Richmond along with widening Hutchinson’s Bridge, near Murchison, to two lanes.