A free 60-90 minute parking proposal in Launceston's multi-storey car parks is not expected to go ahead.
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City of Launceston councillors are recommended to vote against the proposal at its meeting on Thursday.
The council's multi-storey car parks provide less than 13 per cent of the inner city's total parking.
"Accordingly, it would be difficult to have a meaningful impact on the operation in the CBD," the council's meeting agenda says. "The introduction of free parking is likely to have a negative impact on retail within the city by decreasing the availability of short-term parking spaces."
The first-hour-free trial conducted by the council in 2006 showed it did not have a measurable impact on the number of people visiting the city.
The council plans to promote its already-offered free parking between 3.30pm and 5.30pm incentives more widely.
Mayor Albert van Zetten announced he would look into whether the free parking idea was viable during the 2018 local government elections.
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Having the short-stay options, like parking meters, means there is a good overturn of people consistently coming into the city throughout the day, the council said, with the impact of free parking evident on Sundays.
"There are no parking restrictions or meter charges on Sundays, which results in an almost total occupancy of on-street parking by commuters and long-term parkers."
The council said a reason for the lack of Sunday trade may be because of patrons being unable to find a park and not coming into the city because the spaces were taken up by the commuters.
The council's three multi-storey car parks offer nearly 800 spaces, and each of those spaces turn over nearly six times a day.
"The value of short-term car parks to the city's economy may be up to 20 times the value of commuter car parking," the council said.
About 8000 people travel into Launceston each day for work, with 89 per cent of those coming in a car. The council said it was looking at other ways to decrease the number of cars within the city. Conversations with Metro about the revision of bus routes were also occurring in a bid to attract more people to public transport.
The council's two Paterson Street car parks often already operate at capacity, with the council saying the introduction of free parking would more likely see the shift parking like what has occurred in Hobart.
When Hobart introduced its free parking strategy the privately-owned car parks became more commuter-based, offering early bird and all-day parking in a bid to compete with the public parking.
"The effect of this is the City of Hobart being primarily responsible for the majority of the short-term parking capacity, which provides more than three times the capacity provided by the City of Launceston," the council said.
The council will discuss the motion at its meeting on Thursday.
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Journalist at The Examiner Newspaper
Journalist at The Examiner Newspaper
