Parking Policy and Development in Japan

Was interested to read in NZ Herald last week about the debate in Auckland Council over provision of car parking buildings in CBD areas - notably Auckland CBD and Manukau CBD. Liked the comment from Cllr Mike Lee that he supported car parking that supported public transport, but not parking that competed with public transport. Good line. But what does it mean? These are a few slides from a presentation about parking in Japan.

Parking policy interested me when I was in Japan a few weeks ago, and I blogged about it upon my return: Japan approach to TOD and POD thinking... and Travel demand management: Malaysia Vs Japan. I liked this presentation from a Japan-based look at parking. Useful approach....

The presentation appears to be about an investigation into Japan's downtown parking policies. Interesting to see the upfront "disconnect" between parking management and downtown revitalisation. In my experience this "connect" between downtown economic activity, and the provision of car-parking in New Zealand towns and cities is unquestioned and unchallenged....

These two slides outline the present policy in Japan - which the writer would like to see changed. (He wants to see more public provision of car-parking). Car-parking is NOT provided by the public sector in Japan. It is almost all private. You MUST HAVE your own off street park at home, and elsewhere it MUST be provided by the shop you visit or presumably the place where you work.

And this is where it gets very interesting. Public provision of information about the availability of parking does occur, and private businesses are not discouraged from providing parking for shoppers to its businesses. But I emphasise here the fact that streets are NOT for parking... This last point (7) is of consdierable interest and relevance for Auckland...

It appears that from 2000 there was an "environmental assessment law" introduced for the location of large scale retail stores in "local suburban and rural areas" (read: Albany, Westgate, etc). Which "resulted in a severe economic and cultural decline in downtown". Interesting. Then in 2006 this law was amended prohibiting location of stores of >10,000 square metres in non-commercial districts and in rural areas. I appreciate that the zoning of Albany and suchlike permitted the location of large scale retail stores there. Pack and Save in Wairau Valley is interesting. We are good at permitting large scale retail away from our more mature and developed centres across Auckland Region. And we know - anecdotally - that it rips the guts out of existing centres. Cultural decline. Wonder what the RMA would say about that effect?