More than 60 car parks will be removed from one of Queenstown's biggest council parks at the weekend to make way for 33 camper vans.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council left leaflets on vehicles parked in the pay and display park on Monday advising of the work, which will begin on Friday night.
The car park, which costs $2.50 a day, is popular with commuters who work in the CBD.
The trial intends to free up parks throughout the town centre and improve traffic flow around the CBD.
''Camper vans create issues across the CBD due to their size and the fact that they don't fit in a standard size car park,'' the leaflet said.
''By creating a designated area for camper vans to park at the Boundary St car park, it's hoped that it will reduce congestion in the CBD and free up parks for all users throughout the day.''
Council infrastructure principal planner Tony Pickard said to date there had been ''limited, but mixed'' feedback, which was expected when making changes to a parking system which had been in place for a long time.
''These changes are being done as part of the Queenstown town centre transport strategy and, as part of this, we are aiming for a 20% mode shift away from private car, especially single occupancy, so if even just one out of every five people changed our transport habits, we would be meeting that target.''
The council has advised people who use the 171-space park their vehicles must be removed by 6.30pm on Friday to enable the surface to be sandblasted and re-marked at the weekend, removing 66 standard parks to create 33 campervan spaces.
The cost of the work was estimated to be between $30,000 and $40,000, Mr Pickard said.
Any vehicles left in the car park would be towed by the council's enforcement team.
The park will remain closed over the weekend and reopen at 6.30am on Monday.
While there were ''no firm dates'' for the trial, Mr Pickard said if it became clear any of the changes were not fulfilling the desired outcomes, or had created an ''unintended side effect'', they could be reversed.
To ensure there were ''enough parks to go around'', the council had made 60 parks in the underground parking building on Church St available - the cost to park there was between $5 and $10 per day.
The change to the Boundary St car park is the latest in a raft of measures introduced, and planned, by the council under its strategy.
This month, it began a 12-month trial extending evening enforcement hours from 6pm to 9pm in the CBD, with other measures including a ''no return within one hour'' restriction in 10 areas within the CBD, preventing drivers from parking within the same zone for an hour after their first parking period has expired.
Meanwhile, a planned park and ride trial to encourage commuters to take alternative transport to and from work was shelved last week, during the final council meeting for the term.
A media statement issued after the public-excluded discussion said the trial had been ''set aside'' in favour of a subsidised transport service for the Wakatipu due to insurmountable compliance issues with park and ride.
