At the Council Meeting on 1st September 2020, the City of Yarra resolved to adopt parking maximums.
The maximum car parking rate applies in the commercial areas of Cremorne, at one place per 100 m2 of floor area.
Our submission to the council meeting
We support the Officer recommendation for Option A, which calls for parking maximums in Cremorne.
We agree with the analysis in the Officer report, that Cremorne is booming and will attract thousands of new workers, many of whom will commute into Cremorne each business day, on streets that are already at capacity during peak hour, and facing gridlock before 2030.
Because car parking bays induce journeys by car, the only effective option that Council has to mitigate the onset of gridlock, is to slow the growth in the provision of off-street parking. This is done by changing the planning scheme from parking minimums to parking maximums. There will still be growth in the total number of parking bays in Yarra, it’s just that the growth will be slowed. There will still be growth in peak hour congestion, it’s just that the growth will be less than business as usual.
Other governments who have changed to parking maximums include the City of Melbourne, the City of Port Phillip, and the City of Bendigo. New Zealand have removed parking minimums for all towns and cities larger than 10,000 people.
Overall, it’s great to see Yarra implementing integrated transport and land use planning. We’re encouraged to see this first step, joining other progressive governments, and applying maximums in Cremorne. We look forward to further steps to address other identified issues, as part of a broader package of reform, such as investing in infrastructure to offer safe alternatives to driving, including wider footpaths, 30 km/h superblocks, and a network of protected bicycle lanes; as recommended by a plethora of best practice design guides and adopted Council policies.
Thank you, and we urge you to support the Officer recommendation for Option A.
Learn more
Learn more about parking maximums at: https://streets-alive-yarra.org/parking-maximums/.
Published 1st September 2020. Corrected 11th September, to state that New Zealand has removed minimums, not imposed maximums.