More car parking for Church Street?

Consultation on options to redevelop land to increase parking spaces in Brighton is extended until Sunday 2 September 2018.

Have your say online

The question of ‘should Council redevelop land to create up to 236 new parking spaces in Brighton’ lies at the heart of a new community consultation campaign being initiated by Bayside City Council.

A lack of parking in Bayside’s shopping villages is one of the key concerns that community members raise with Council.  In most locations this is challenging due to limitations on available land. However Council currently owns two existing ‘at grade’ car parks at 22-26 Black Street and 21-27 Well Street Brighton that are well located and of a sufficient size to enable redevelopment to increase the availability of public parking.

Mayor Cr Laurence Evans said that Council wants to hear from the community about whether it should redevelop these sites and, if so, which of three pre-developed options will provide the best outcome.

“Car parking in our retail precincts is a major issue for our community,” Cr Evans said

“While there is limited council-owned land in most of the municipality’s shopping villages, these two sites near Church Street could be redeveloped to increase parking availability.

“Council has developed three options that would redevelop these sites and provide increases in public parking ranging from 86 to 236 news spaces.

“We want to hear from the community if they would like Council to proceed with redeveloping these sites, and if so, which of the three options is most suitable.”

Under the proposal the Well Street site, located behind the Woolworths, would be converted to a multi-storey carpark with the second site at Black Street redeveloped for a mixed residential/commercial development with possible public car parking.

Cr Evans said that the business case for the creation of the new car parking relies on both sites being developed together.

“Over the past several years Council has worked hard to achieve a debt-free status and it is important that any new capital projects either be cost neutral or have a broad community benefit before Council considers any future debt,” Cr Evans said.

“Council has developed three options which involve varying degrees of basement level public car parking on the Black and Well Street sites but, to achieve the cost neutral status, the Black Street redevelopment will need to contain a residential and commercial component.”

Community members are invited to have their say online or in person at a drop in session on either Wednesday 22 August between 4pm and 7pm or Saturday 25 August between 10am and 1pm at the Brighton Town Hall.

Community feedback will be combined with quantitative data from a Council commissioned Parking Survey to help inform the decision on whether to proceed with the proposal.

Clarification of net increase in parking

Council wishes to clarify that the net increase in public car parking from the proposed upgrades are as follows:

Option 1 – TOTAL: 286 public parking spaces (net increase of 86 spaces)

Option 2 – TOTAL: 346 public parking spaces (net increase of 146 spaces)

Option 3 – TOTAL: 436 public parking spaces (net increase of 236 spaces)