Dunedin could lose another 250 car parks in the city centre to the new Dunedin Hospital.
The news comes as the city’s parking stock is already depleted by almost 170 parks with the construction of the one-way cycleway.
But Southern Partnership Group chairman Pete Hodgson, who is overseeing the hospital build, said there might be a possibility of parking space somewhere in the area once planning was complete.
A fast-tracked hospital build announced last week means an outpatient and day surgery building is expected to be situated on the site of the Wilson Parking building on the corner of St Andrew St and Cumberland St.
Wilson Parking said this week it was yet to sell its land to the Ministry of Health.
Chief operating officer Ryan Orchard said the property was unique.
"Wilson has invested heavily in the facility, upgrading the car park to a premium parking option, and to date we have been unable to identify any substitute properties."
A count of parks in the building yesterday showed there were about 258 in the Wilson building, over two floors.
Mr Hodgson said he recognised the capacity of the Wilson car park "and the loss of that capacity to that part of the city".
"We’re mindful of that.
"It may well be that other car parking space may become available on a temporary or even permanent basis as the hospital is progressed."
However, he said those decisions must be taken "in sequence" and he was not in a position to say any more.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said it was not a given there were fewer parks in North Dunedin, as parks were being created as others were lost.
However, there were more people and more cars in the city, and the new hospital would have car parks for staff.
Because of growth in the city, "we need to be looking at models other cities bigger and busier than us use where fewer and fewer people expect to drive into the middle of town to work and park their car.
"They use other means."
The city would need to consider those options, as well as finding replacement parking.
Meanwhile, the Otago Polytechnic said it planned to relocate staff and students from the Wilson Building, where it has space.
The polytech would build on land in Anzac Ave, chief operating officer Philip Cullen said, where it was planning a major addition to its School of Art.
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"Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said it was not a given there were fewer parks in North Dunedin, as parks were being created as others were lost."
Does our mayor have a working calculator? If the Wilson parking building is going and dropping the parking by 258 spaces then the only way that there could not be fewer parks is if another parking area was opened which had at least 258 parking spaces.
How does one get to be mayor if one does not understand maths which is normally taught to children around primary level? Perhaps this logic of no fewer parking spaces goes some way towards explaining why the council makes so many daft decisions.
If the total hospital rebuild doesn't include a multi floor car park including access for patient visitors then someone has really stuffed up.
Staff and visitors need to park somewhere. A car park is a minimum requirement for such a project. And who knows, the operators may well be Wilsons or someone a bit less mercenary.
Why they didn't chose to build it on the other side of the railway line I will never know. Plenty of flat land, unused factories and warehouses. Heaps of room, with no traffic interruptions, and no doubt much cheaper than paying Mondelez a motza for the old Canterbury site.
I never understood why this rebuild has to be near Octagon (and on potentially unfit land as it turned out) while there is whole vacant Carisbrook site not so far away.