By Ewen McRae
Melton and Caroline Springs town centres will not receive additional carparking after a Melton council report declared current provisions adequate.
The officers’ report, which followed a notice of motion from Cr Sophie Ramsey in March, explored the possible need for multi-storey carparks in the two town centres because of increased usage and demand.
It found Melton town centre had 2134 public carparks and Caroline Springs town square had 1114.
A council survey of parking in Melton found that the peak occupancy rate of spaces was 66 per cent, while there was a higher demand for spaces with three to four-hour limits.
Rather than multi-story carparking, the study instead recommended changes to time limits on existing spaces.
“The study concluded that there is sufficient parking within the Melton township as a whole to meet the current peak parking demands and that a multi-storey carpark is not necessarily the solution towards addressing the existing demand versus parking spaces for the medium-term parking gaps,” the officers’ report stated.
“There is no evidence to suggest that a multi-storey carpark in the Melton township is required.”
While there has been no carparking study done in Caroline Springs, the report stated that undertaking one would be premature due to the state of flux in the area with several new developments ongoing.
Cr Ramsey moved a motion at last week’s meeting that the council undertake a review of carparking requirements in Melton and Caroline Springs town centres as part of the High Street Structure Plan project, which is anticipated to start in mid-2020.
“As we plan our wonderful city, with an additional 300,000 people coming in the not too distant future … we need to look strategically at multi-storey carparking in both areas,” she said. “Because it’s only going to get worse, not better.”
