Page 3425 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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sustainable transport measures like “three for free” parking, retain control over land use and retain a revenue stream from the site. Where sites are released for car parking, there will generally be a requirement that the parking forms part of an integrated development, providing attractive, active frontages for land use settings that optimise the development potential of the sites.
Over time, a growing proportion of pay parking in the major centres will be provided by the private sector, with a proportion being for tenant parking, on site and generally unavailable to the public at large. There will also be a diminishing proportion of parking provided by the ACT government in the form of surface car parks, as they could return better value for the community as alternative developments, with parking replaced as part of the development or in an alternative location.
Work undertaken for the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate in 2006 and 2009 points to government ownership of parking in the major centres at around 30 per cent to remain and act as a price influencer of parking fees. Currently, the territory maintains about 30 per cent of publicly available parking in Tuggeranong, 40 per cent in Belconnen, about 50 per cent in the city and more than 60 per cent in Woden. Data from other jurisdictions supports 25 to 35 per cent as being enough to significantly influence market pricing and keep rates competitive for consumers.
There is therefore scope in the ACT market for sales of car parks for development and the provision of parking by the private sector without compromising the territory’s potential to influence parking pricing as well as to maintain sustainable transport schemes like “three for free”.
For private providers to come to the business of providing multistorey parking stations, the price of alternative car parking areas is a key factor. The availability of cheaper surface car parks will not encourage private providers to build multistorey parking stations. Also, the government encourages multilevel car parks as part of the integrated development in or near the city and town centres rather than stand-alone car parks.
Minister Corbell has already provided the rationale behind the government’s approach to parking pricing. Since 2001, the car, as drivers share travel to the city and town centres, has been declining in proportion. As the city grows to 2016, parking demand will increase. This, however, is expected to be offset by the number of people travelling by bicycle, bus, car as a passenger and walking, as government policies and investment in infrastructure and planning encourage people to consider alternative travel modes to the private car for some or all of their travel needs to the city.
While parking demand in Civic is high, it will plateau as the government’s sustainable transport investments change the way we travel to the city. Even now, there is still about 10 to 15 per cent spare capacity in public and privately operated car parks across the city in busy periods.
There are a number of options available to meet parking requirements to serve the city in the future. These include opportunities to provide sites for release to the private sector for commercial parking as part of integrated mixed-use developments.
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