Save articles for later
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
Motorists will have to pay to park on inner-city Melbourne streets on Sundays and later into the evening, but will benefit from discounted Saturday rates and free short stays under a council overhaul that aims to funnel more vehicles into multi-storey car parks.
The City of Melbourne expects to make an extra $2.7 million in revenue a year by limiting free CBD parking and operating parking metres until 10pm instead of 8.30pm.
Parking rules will be simplified across Melbourne’s CBD. Credit: Chris Hopkins
However, motorists will be able to take advantage of free 15-minute parking in any council spot in an effort to encourage short visits to city traders, and pay a discounted rate of $4 an hour (from $7) on weekends and after 7pm on weekdays.
Under the parking plan, released on Thursday, the city council will also replace a confusing hotchpotch of different parking rules with a consistent two-hour paid parking limit across the CBD from June.
Time limits will be imposed on loading zones to increase their availability for traders, and accessible parking and drop-off zones will be introduced to every street.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the overhaul would mean more parking spaces are available, making it simpler and easier for people to visit the city.
“Good parking management helps keep our city moving,” Capp said. “Businesses need confidence that their customers can find a park and deliveries will arrive on time”.
But Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said his members would strongly oppose the extension of paid parking.
“The best way to attract more people back to the CBD is to make the city more accessible and attractive,” he said. “Unfortunately, this proposal does exactly the opposite”.
The City of Melbourne made $39 million from its parking meters and $24 million from parking fines last financial year.
That was a $34 million drop compared to 2019, when it raised $58.7 million in fees and $38.5 million from fines, as fewer people visited the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are 1872 on-street parking spaces in the CBD and 24,683 spaces in commercial multi-storey car parks, which charge between $10 and $30 an hour on weekdays.
But the council parking plan says most motorists clog up the city by cruising around looking for street parking before going to a commercial multi-storey.
Around a third of people who travel into the city to shop, eat or socialise drive. Half of them park on the street and the other half use commercial car parks, the council plan says.
The number of on-street parking spaces has shrunk by 30 per cent over the past 10 years and the council said it will continue to remove them to make way for wider footpaths, tram stops, outdoor dining spaces, trees and open spaces.
The council is not proposing to increase the current maximum $7 hourly parking rate.
But it does say that the below-market rate is subsidised by council ratepayers for visitors from other municipalities, and flagged it could hike fees so they “reflect the value of the space to the user, and cover maintenance costs”.
City councillors will vote on whether to approve the plan at a meeting on May 16.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
Most Viewed in National
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
