WELLINGTON multi-car families considering moving closer to town might have to think twice after a city council committee meeting this week.

Changes to the city’s residential and coupon parking policies will be decided by the Strategy and Policy Committee, which will consider a report recommending a reduction in the number of parking permits per household, changes to the areas eligible for permits and higher fees for residential and coupon parking.

Residential parking costs less than other forms, says council chief transport officer Steve Spence.

“It only costs residents 25 cents a day to park their car using a residents’ parking permit compared with commuters being charged $5 a day or about $7 a day to rent a garage in the same area,” he says.

The council is also considering restricting the number of new residents’ parking permits for multi-unit dwellings and properties with off-street parking:

“In terms of multi-unit dwellings such as apartments, we want to reduce the number of resident permits each unit is eligible for from two per unit to one,” says Mr Spence.

Southern Ward councillor Celia Wade-Brown says this should not have a negative effect on people living in inner-city apartments.

“The whole point of living in a convenient location is reducing car use,” she says.

If the proposal to restrict permit eligibility to residential areas goes ahead, more than 250 addresses currently zoned as being in the central area and suburban centre will be affected.

Potentially affected areas are Mt Cook, Clifton, Thorndon, Brooklyn, Newtown, Wadestown, Te Aro, Mt Victoria and Kilbirnie. Click here to see the permit eligibility map.

Changes to permit criteria will not affect current permit-holders.

Existing permits will be renewed indefinitely for the person who originally applied for it, so long as they reside at the address the permit is registered to.

During public consultation between September 14 and October 16, 449 submissions were received.