Wollongong City Council has taken the first step towards installing parking meters in "high use" areas - including the CBD and foreshore.

The council's five-year belt-tightening budget, announced this week, will fund an investigation of parking meters and seven-day parking rangers, in an effort to improve parking and increase revenue for the council.

A council spokeswoman said meters were being considered as part of a larger traffic study.

"The option of paid parking meters for high use areas will be considered as part of a development of traffic transport and parking plans for the city centre," she said.

Seven-day parking rangers were also on the drawing board, but the council had not yet worked out how much extra revenue this would raise.

"At this stage council has not considered the number of parking rangers required to provide seven-day coverage and a full needs analysis will be required before this is determined," she said.

"This issue has been raised as the result of community concerns and the identified need to maintain adequate enforcement to prevent damage to council's reserves."

The council has already conducted a number of studies into parking in the city, but has so far backed away from recommending parking meters.

Some former councillors have publicly said parking meters are inevitable.

"It's not about revenue, because meters are revenue neutral, it is about turnover and sharing the available spaces," former independent councillor David Martin said last October.

"I think meters are inevitable as we grow and take on the characteristics of a major city, just as Sydney and its suburbs did."

A 2005 council report said Wollongong's population would grow 31 per cent by 2026.