Why require any car parks at all?

The Press reports:

Under-fire Kaizuka Eatery and Garden Bar likely needs 21 extra car parks – not 62 – to keep trading as is, the Christchurch City Council says.

The council says it will assign a case manager to help the Cashmere business owners work through parking and liquor licence issues. 

Kaizuka’s owners, Dwayne and Tiffany Vaughan, have been been locked in a battle with council over the issues for more than a year. Fed up, they considered closing. They believe the car park requirement is still unachievable, but having a case manager assigned was “positive”. 

According to the City Plan, 10 car park spaces were required per 100 square metres of public floor area, but reductions could apply. The 800sqm bar had 18 car parks, so the Vaughans believed they needed 62 more car parks to meet resource consent requirements.

Whether they need 80 or 39 car parks, why is this a requirement at all?

There are dozens or bars in Wellington with no car parks. One can even argue better for a bar not to have car parks.

But why not leave it to each shop whether or not they have car parks, and how many? They have the best incentive to make it easy for customers to visit them, and work out the right number – rather than a Council blanket rule.