The planned removal of resident parking space outside 16 Shelly Beach Road by Auckland Transport (AT) to make way for a 10 metre, short-term parking zone for a proposed 47-lot apartment building that doesn’t have carparks, is a bad precedent and should not have been approved.
Our Waitematā Local Board supported the decision of AT, even though there was intense opposition from residents and this association.
The decision to establish this 'parking zone' has now set a precedent for developers who build apartments or multi-unit developments without carparks.
Can they now expect to get on-street parking zones for drop-off and pickups? In time, if they become the norm, these 'drop off zones' will replace the on-street parking to which residents are entitled and for which this association has fought hard to obtain.
The most recent Auckland Unitary Plan states that new developments must provide their own on-site resident and visitor parking. AT confirms that all new developments built after September 2013 are not eligible for parking permits and that has been rigidly enforced.
In an interesting move this month, the developer of 16 Shelly Beach Road, Williams Corporation, has indicated it will withdraw their 47-lot apartment development, and revert to building only 12 apartments, all of which have carparks. At the time of writing, this decision had not been relayed to AT.
Williams Corporation Managing Director, Matthew Horncastle, said whether the parking zone was implemented or not “consequently doesn’t matter” to his company now.
So, we ask, as Williams is not going ahead with their non-carpark development, will AT review the approved zone and withdraw it, or use it as a template for the future when other developers without off-street parking for vehicles in their developments come knocking on AT’s door?
Also, why did AT give approval to the new zone when a Resource Consent application to Auckland City by Williams Corp to construct these new 47 cheap apartments without carparks had not been approved?
We have seen the parking zone approval document that was obtained from a traffic consultant working for Williams Corporation. As a result, we have formally written to Auckland Transport asking for it to relay to our association, any outcome from the Williams Corp application.
We have done this on the basis it has huge implications for the parking permit agreement in place for Shelly Beach Road and other streets in our area.
The AT document, titled a Permanent Traffic and Parking Changes report, was dated December 15, 2023, and recommended to AT’s Traffic Control Committee that any vehicle could park in the new zone between 8am and 6pm Monday to Sunday. The new zone would come into effect immediately or “once traffic control devices…are installed.”
The AT staff report on the proposal said internal consultation within the organisation revealed most teams were supportive of the new zone or raised no objections to it.
External consultation had been undertaken and there had been considerable opposition to the new 10-minute parking zone, mainly because it would block a space or spaces used by those with street parking permits.
In a recent article on this subject, HBRAI has pointed out that if all the developable properties in Herne Bay sought similar concessions from AT as the Williams request, then residents would lose 70% of their current parking.
For that reason, the association and its membership remained opposed to replacing any resident parking.
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Published: March 2024