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Time to plan ahead for city parking
Christchurch faces a parking crisis in the
future as population and vehicle numbers in
the city continue to increase. Demand for
parking is now being experienced across
the city – including on inner-city streets,
around shopping centres, outside
educational centres and at sports grounds. In the future, these issues
won’t resolve themselves.
Instead they will only get
worse, and most likely at the
expense of our city’s
attractiveness. Our Garden
City is in danger of becoming a
city of car parks. We don’t have to accept the
consequences that may result
from conflicting demands over
limited parking. Parking is an
issue that needs
careful planning and
management to
provide the best
possible use of resources for the
community. In a special supplement to this month’s
City Scene, we outline some of the key
issues surrounding parking, and the
proposed solutions that are detailed in the
draft parking strategy. The supplement provides a summary of a
new document called “Parking Strategy for
the Garden City: Consultation Document”,
which has just been released for public
consultation. The Council’s vision is to provide and
manage parking in Christchurch that meets
the community’s aspirations, protects the
environment, supports economic vitality and
complements the over-all
transport system. No single measure will turn
this vision into reality. Instead it
will require many measures to
be taken over a period of years.
Some of these are already in
place, and there will also be new
measures to affect the provision
and management of parking. Parking is everybody’s issue
because almost every journey
we make ends with
the need to park in
some form. You are
invited to make a
submission in writing by using a form included
in the full strategy document, or online at the
website www.ccc.govt.nz/ParkingStrategy
Submissions close on Friday, 8 November
2002. |