Above-ground car park ban

ATANG · 20th Feb, 2018

What an above-ground car park ban could mean for Melbourne’s CBD

Plans to ban above ground car parking in most inner-city skyscrapers have met with mixed reactions from architects and residential developers.

The Victorian Property Council has raised concerns the move could make projects less commercially viable, while others have lauded it as “the way of the future”.

Under a proposal being considered by the Melbourne City Council, car spaces would be forced underground in the central business district in a bid to improve the city’s streetscapes.

In Southbank and sites where basement parking was not possible, car spaces would only be allowed on lower levels if the ceiling was high enough to be converted into apartments or officers in the future.

The changes — part of a report that aims to “improve the quality of urban design of private developments” and encourage “street activation” — are expected to be voted on by councillors on Tuesday evening. If approved, they will be sent to planning minister Richard Wynne to consider.

The report stated there had been a proliferation of exposed above-ground parking in residential towers built since 1999.

About 15 per cent of floor space in central Melbourne, and almost a quarter of floor space in Southbank, is taken up by car parking, according to a 2016 census of land use conducted by the council.

SMA Projects development manager Robert Murphy said though Melbourne city council had actively sought to push people out of cars and into other modes of transport in recent years, apartment buyers still wanted parking spaces.

“The demand for cars in an office building isn’t what it used to to be. Owners don’t want to be paying for the car parks of staff,” he said.

“[But] it’s very difficult to market and sell an apartment without a car space. Even if you discount it … the demand is not there.”

The Property Council’s Victorian arm said local and state governments should be doing everything they could to attract both commercial and residential development to Melbourne’s CBD.

“No matter the outcomes that Melbourne City Council is seeking to address, it must ensure sufficient flexibility to safeguard the commercial viability of new developments,” deputy director Matthew Kandelaars said.

“If it doesn’t, we will see pressure on commercial rents and the potential slowing of the rate of jobs in our capital city.”

Neometro director Jeff Provan welcomed the proposed changes and said it reflected a global shift away from car ownership.

“I think it’s the way of the future,” Mr Provan said. “We have to minimise cars within our cities, they are clogging up the city.”

About half of the apartments in Neometro’s latest developments did not have a car space, Mr Provan said.

“I think the City of Melbourne would be learning lessons from mistakes made in Southbank,” he said, where pedestrians on the street were “walking past a grill and looking at the front end of cars”.

“The streets become soulless.”

'Streets become soulless': Mixed reaction to plans to ban Melbourne CBD above-ground car parking
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