The Greater Geelong Council has agreed to the release of a draft Central Geelong Parking Strategy for community and stakeholder feedback in early 2023.
The draft strategy proposes six key strategic moves that would allow the City to manage the current and future demand for parking in Central Geelong in a way that is agile and adaptable.
It aims to help make parking available where and when it is needed, to those who most need it.
The draft strategy has been developed with the help of extensive community input, including a survey of more than 2500 community members, as well as more recent consultation with the healthcare, education, retail, commercial and hospitality sectors.
The six proposed key strategic moves are:
- Introduce a precinct-based approach to parking management, dividing central Geelong into key sections and prioritising users in each precinct based on customers, businesses and services who need parking the most;
- Use smart technology such as parking sensors to introduce adjustable pricing and time restrictions – to encourage greater use of areas of lower demand;
- Explore and encourage shared parking for new developments;
- Use partnerships (e.g. with state government and the private sector) to deliver new parking supply – such as multistorey parking on the fringe of the city;
- Advocate for greater investment in public transport; and
- Reinvest a portion of parking revenue directly into the areas it's generated from, such as through streetscape upgrades.
The strategy – in particular the proposal for a demand management model – recognises that the community has expressed considerable frustration when trying to find on-street parking.
This is despite data showing there are at least 3000 empty spaces available at any one time across the week in central Geelong.
By tailoring pricing and time limits to the level of demand in different areas, the proposed strategy aims to increase choice and availability of parking across Central Geelong.
The draft strategy is evidence-based and has been modelled on national and international best practice. It aims to meet the evolving needs of Central Geelong and help deliver greater investment in, and equitable access to jobs, goods and services.
The strategy also aligns with the State Government-developed Central Geelong Framework Plan, which is awaiting Ministerial sign-off and will guide development in the city over the next 30 years.
It includes proposed Parking Precinct Hubs around central Geelong that are outlined in the framework plan.
Councillor Peter Murrihy:
I am glad that we have the opportunity to put this strategy out for public comment as community feedback is crucial to the direction it takes.The idea with parking is to try to make it available when and where it is needed and there has already been much consultation across a number of sectors which has highlighted that.
We understand how critical access and movement around the city is so we want to hear from as many people as possible about the proposals made in the strategy.
Councillor Eddy Kontelj:
We need an effective parking model in our city so this is an important item of discussion and we want the community to engage with it.If you want free on street parking, tell us, if you want more parking, tell us, if you want accessing parking and paying for it to be simpler, tell us. We really want to explicitly know what you are thinking and what you want us to do.
The strategy is set to provide direction for how we will manage, accommodate and facilitate parking in the Geelong CBD area into the future and I really do urge community feedback so that we get the right model moving forward.
The full draft strategy can be viewed within the minutes of the 22 November Council meeting on our meetings page.
The City will advise an opening date for the engagement period, which will run for at least eight weeks.
