Ten weeks in, some Rotorua shop owners say the new parking system has cost them customers. The council calls it a starting point, and a review is under way.
Rotorua Lakes Council overhauled inner-city parking on 1 July 2026, and some CBD retailers say their trade has fallen since. Crystal McPhee has moved The Mum Collections from Hinemoa St to Lake Rd, on the edge of the city centre. “We went from making over $1000 a day to literally nothing,” she told 1News, describing the CBD as “a ghost town again.”
Rahul Sethi, who runs two Hinemoa St businesses, reports a 30 to 35% drop in trade since the changes and says “the minute I get a chance, I will just move from here.” James Kim of Korean Mart puts his fall in sales at about 20%, though he says “I can’t really blame parking for everything.”
The overhaul landed after a weak quarter for retail. National retail sales volumes fell 0.5% in the June 2026 quarter, and Bay of Plenty sales values dropped 1.1%, according to Stats NZ.
What changed
The overhaul reorganised city parking into two zones, brought in pay-by-plate meters, virtual meters and the PayStay app, and made 823 spaces permit-only. The council says prices for stays under three hours haven’t changed. Zone 1, the city centre around Tutanekai St, still gives the first hour free and charges $2 an hour for hours two and three. Zone 2 charges $2 an hour for up to three hours, as before. After three hours the rate is $5 an hour in Zone 1 and $4 in Zone 2. Drivers in Zone 1 can now pay to stay beyond the free hour, the council says, rather than having to leave after 60 minutes.
The permit spaces are on Queens Drive, Hinemaru St and Kuirau Park, on the fringe of the CBD, and were free all day before. Permits cost $12 a day, $25 a fortnight, $50 a month or $130 for three months, and apply 9am to 3pm on weekdays. RNZ’s local democracy reporter put the cost at roughly $520 to $650 a year for workers who used to park there free. The council says the permits came out of public feedback asking for dedicated, fairer parking for inner-city workers, and that they’re a cheaper option for workers who were already paying to park. Another 653 parks stay free, on Lake Rd, Whakatau St, Pukuatua St, Eruera St, Hinemoa St and Hatupatu Drive.
Parking services came back in-house the same day. In May 2025 the council decided not to renew its contract with private operator i-Park, which had run the city’s parking since 2018. The i-Park system had drawn complaints over usability, unfair fines and a lack of transparency, which the council says contributed to that decision.
Registering for the free hour
To claim the free first hour, drivers enter their licence plate within 10 minutes of arriving, at a street meter or in the PayStay app. The 10-minute grace period for quick stops, such as picking up food, remains. The council says there’s a meter about every 20 parks in both zones, and it has added more coin-operated ones for people who’d rather not use an app. It says inner-city businesses asked for fairer, more consistent enforcement of the free 60-minute parks, and the council chose plate registration, with its parking technology provider, as the way to deliver it.
Sethi says the step is still turning customers away. He told 1News one elderly customer left rather than go through the registration process, and called the system “not a solution; it is a punishment.” Kim had warned on 1 July that “if customers start going somewhere else, they won’t come back.”
Consultation and review
Council destination development manager Jean-Paul Gaston calls the feedback so far “mixed” and says the system is “a starting point.” The council consulted publicly on its parking policy, guidelines and bylaw from December 2025 to February 2026, and more than 85% of submissions supported the proposed changes. It says that feedback shaped the permits and the new meters and app. Ahead of the launch it delivered more than 1,000 booklets to businesses, and more than 900 people signed up early for permits.
McPhee told 1News, “I just feel like there wasn’t enough conversation happening around what the parking was.”
The council’s parking survey closes on 20 September and feeds into a six-month review of the new system. Rotorua Business Chamber chief executive Mel Short says “the six-month review is very important and, at that time, we will take and use feedback.”
Correction, 15 September 2026. This article has been updated following a request from Rotorua Lakes Council. An earlier version said the overhaul introduced paid zones, but prices for stays under three hours haven’t changed. It said the remaining free parks were on the city’s fringes, when it’s the new permit parks that are. It implied the free hour needed an app, left out the 10-minute grace period, and said parking came in-house before the overhaul rather than as part of it. It also left out the council’s formal consultation from December 2025 to February 2026.
Sources
- ‘Town is dead’: Rotorua businesses look to leave CBD after parking changes (2026-09-13)
- Rotorua council seeks views on parking overhaul as businesses say it hurt trade (2026-09-13)
- Rotorua Shop Owner Fears New Parking Rules Will Drive Customers Away (2026-07-01)
- What Rotorua’s new parking rules mean for workers (2026-05-27)
- Retail trade survey: June 2026 quarter (2026-08-24)
- Rotorua Council takes over parking services (2025-07-10)
- Rotorua parking backlash shows NZ’s complicated love affair with cars – Editorial (2026-07-05)