A better approach to managing parking

Feedback on the draft Parking Strategy closed on Sunday 28 January 2024.

Townships in the Queenstown Lakes District should be easy for everyone to get around, whether by foot, bike, car, or public transport. And when heading into town in a vehicle, parking should be easy to find and stress free. This means having enough parking in the right places for a variety of needs.

To achieve this, we need a better approach to managing parking.

Queenstown Lakes District Council has created a draft Parking Strategy to provide the direction and framework for making consistent and transparent decisions about parking, and to establish objectives and principles that will guide how parking is managed and prioritised in the district to achieve the future we all want.

Read on for more details about what we’re proposing as part of the draft Parking Strategy, and don’t forget to share your thoughts on parking too!

Why do we need a Parking Strategy?

Simply put, parking is a space used to store a vehicle that offers convenient access to a destination. And with our main town centres experiencing growing demands from a range of users with different parking needs, a change needs to happen now on how we manage and prioritise the use of public spaces. The need for these changes is being driven by:

• Population and visitor growth
• Emissions reduction
• Mode share
• Car dependency
• Congestion
• Quality of urban environments
• Removal of minimum parking requirements
• Parking pressure in residential areas
• Transport equity

The parking piece of the puzzle

We get it - parking is just one piece of the puzzle! Delivering parking solutions will help to resolve some issues in the district, but managing parking is just one of many ways to influence how we get around. There also needs to be practical transport alternatives and ways to achieve broader social, environmental, and economic outcomes for the Queenstown Lakes.

We continue to work with our local transport planning partners, Otago Regional Council and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, to improve transport networks across the district and implement travel demand management initiatives, such as integrated transport and land use planning, shared mobility, and behaviour change initiatives. These aim to encourage the use of other modes of travel, or reduce the need to travel at all, which will reduce the overall demand for parking.

Get informed on what’s proposed

Parking Strategy Objectives

Our draft Parking Strategy includes five objectives that outline the key outcomes we want to achieve through managing parking in the Queenstown Lakes District.

• Prioritise access according to user needs
• Encourage mode shift and reduce emissions
• Support a prosperous local economy
• Support a safe and efficient transport network
• Contribute to quality, people-focused urban environments

Principles

Our draft Parking Strategy also includes a set of principles to provide a framework for making decisions on how streets will be used and inform how parking spaces will be allocated and prioritised.

• Optimising what we have
• Proactively managing demand
• Providing quality information
• Adopting a tailored approach
• Being responsive to change
• Implementation of actions
• Prioritising the use of our public space
• Supporting the transition to low carbon modes

Strategy documents and supporting information

• QLDC Draft Parking Strategy
• Summary of the Draft Parking Strategy
• Strategy on a single page
• How the strategy works with other plans
• Stats New Zealand census data
• Emissions Reduction Roadmap 2020
• ORC Public and Active Transport Committee Meeting Agenda (August 2023)
• Demand Projections Summary

Have your say

Feedback closed on Sunday 28 January 2024.

Click here to read all online submissions received.

Click here to read all email submissions received.

What’s next?

Feedback on the draft Parking Strategy will help to set out why we need a better approach to managing parking. We’ll then create parking guidelines to identify how parking will be managed and prioritised. During this time, we'll also be working to develop tailored parking management plans for each of our town centres and other key destinations.

All of these steps will have opportunities to get involved, share feedback, and help shape the guidance documents and plans.