Concern suburb becoming car park

Frankton's community representative is urging transport infrastructure decision-makers not to view the suburb as the district’s car park.

Community association head Glyn Lewers said Queenstown Lakes District Council’s drive to reduce vehicles in the CBD had in turn pushed motorists to park in Frankton.

And Mr Lewers is concerned long-mooted park-and-rides for $2 buses serving the CBD could make matters worse.

"It does not make any sense to put in a park-and-ride to generate more traffic."

Mr Lewers said frustrated Frankton residents have people parking over driveways, parking on their streets for extended periods, and businesses parking vehicles on residential streets.

QLDC infrastructure general manager Peter Hansby said the authority was investigating park-and-ride options within the Wakatipu basin with NZ Transport Agency and the Otago Regional Council.

Any site chosen would "undergo a rigorous due diligence process", including impacts on the wide community, he said.

The objective of a park-and-ride would be to reduce commuter traffic coming into Frankton and the number of cars being driven  into central Queenstown each day.

"It would also go some way to reducing the amount of commuter parking in residential areas by providing an alternative space that is both safe and convenient for people to park their vehicles for the day," Mr Hansby said.

Mr Lewers, in his submission on stage two of the proposed district plan stage, said: "The park-and-rides should be established at the source of the traffic generation, e.g. Jack’s Point, Arrowtown, and Lake Hayes Estate."

He cautioned against allowing park-and-rides to be non-notified — giving the planning green light without the wider community allowed to have its say.

"We are of the opinion that establishing park-and-rides in Frankton is not the solution for Queenstown traffic issues."

Consultants Opus, at the QLDC’s request, drove around Frankton streets in September with a video camera, to study the effect of localised parking restrictions surrounding the airport.

Since February 2017, parking has been banned on State Highway 6, which had become an unofficial airport car park. The airport and council funded an airport park-and-ride as an alternative at Frankton Flats.

On-road parking has also been limited to 48 hours to the west of SH6.

The study found the impacts were "generally positive, with a few noted exceptions", including vehicles parking long-term on Copper Beech  Ave.

All this, however, was before the introduction of $2 buses in November, and the downtown parking clampdown. That has included a hike in parking charges, reduction of free parks, a verge-parking ban and removal of business contract parking on council land.

A total of 2896 tickets were issued district-wide last month — a 8% drop from 3176 in April 2017, despite the downtown crackdown.

Some Frankton and Kelvin Heights residents have taken matters into their own hands — 32 in Frankton and 40-odd on Kelvin Peninsula have modified the verges outside their homes, much of it for parking.

daisy.hudson@odt.co.nz