The Parking Paradox

April – May 2008, Issue 31

Parking – the great Docklands paradox – is the subject of a recently-released City of Melbourne report which indicates that there is both not enough of it and too much of it.

While acknowledging resident concerns that parking is a scarce and precious commodity, the council doesn’t really approve of it because parking encourages the environmentally unsustainable practice of motorcar usage.

Its vision for Docklands is a place where residents, workers and visitors rely on public transport and innovations such as car-sharing schemes. The reality is vastly different.

The draft CBD Parking Plan (Incorporating Docklands) reveals that 34 per cent of visitors to Docklands drive.

The CBD figure is 19 per cent. Some 51 per cent of all visitors to the CBD arrive by train. For Docklands, that figure is only 17 per cent.

For the last 30 years, the City of Melbourne has attempted to restrict motor car use through a parking limitation policy.

Despite this policy, the number of car spaces in the city has doubled.

Under City Council planning rules, new commercial developments are restricted to providing only five car spaces per 1000 square metres of floor space.

In Docklands, where the State Government controls planning through VicUrban, 30 spaces can be provided. The council believes the figure in Docklands should be 11.

The report acknowledges that it has no real control of this but concludes: “Effective use and review of current planning scheme provisions will be an important tool to manage Docklands growth.”