In 2012 St Mary’s Bay became the trial suburb for a special parking zone designed to deter commuters who had been using our streets as a free parking lot – either to park and catch the Link bus, or to park and walk through the Reserve into the growing business hub in Wynyard Quarter. In brief, the trial involved 120-minute parking restrictions from 10am to 4pm plus annual residents’ permits and visitor permits.
Residents had been unable to park near their homes and fire and service vehicles were having difficulties negotiating the car-filled streets. St Mary’s Bay has limited off-street parking because many of the heritage homes were built without garages – in the days of the horse and cart, not the car.
In September 2016 the trial was adopted permanently, with the inclusion of five additional streets: Hackett St, Swift Ave, Ring Tce, Amiria St and Percival Parade.
The success of the St Mary’s Bay parking trial became a cornerstone of the Auckland Transport Parking Strategy consultation in 2015. As a result Freeman’s Bay, Mt Eden and many streets off Ponsonby Rd have or are about to adopt similar two-hour parking restrictions with resident permits and visitor coupons.
Parking is now monitored electronically by licence plate recognition technology. This uses cameras mounted on cars to record number plates and the plates details are checked for eligibility for exemption or whether a vehicle has overstayed the 120-minute limit. Notices of infringement will also be issued electronically and then posted to the owner of the vehicle, rather than left on car windscreens.
Residents may apply for annual residents’ permits and also 50 free daily visitor coupons. Additional daily coupons are available for $5 per day. Permits are issued to residents in order of priority until the permit cap of 85% of all parking spaces is reached. The permits are digital, so no physical permit is displayed on the windscreen.
Businesses are also eligible for permits, but must pay the $5 daily rate for all visitor coupons.
Permits are issued in order of priority to:
- House on a single title without off-street parking, or an apartment building built before 1944 without off-street parking.
- House on a single title with one off-street space.
- All other houses or townhouses.
- Businesses located within the parking zone.
Note: Properties built after the notification of the Unitary Plan (30 September 2013) are not eligible for permits.
Auckland Transport has agreed to liaise with the St Mary’s Bay Association over monitoring of results relating to the new electronically managed zone, for example, figures on the 85% cap on residential usage.
For full information on Residential Parking Zone rules, see the Auckland Transport website