Write Direction: Parking is a problem

I WAS stunned to read an online report, which has apparently been publicised on a TV channel’s news program, saying that A$1 billion is being frittered away each year by developers building unnecessary car parking spaces when constructing blocks of home units.

A think tank known as the Grattan Institute has called for the ability of developers to be able to abolish the minimum requirement for off-street parking for new apartment blocks, which they say could save some $5.2 billion by 2031.

They go on to suggest that developers could then build an extra 9000 homes in five years by the savings so created. They further pointed out that research shows that the occupants of 40 per cent of one-bed studios do not own a car, therefore 40 per cent of the car spaces are left idle and unused by residents.

They see this as an added expense to young couples who are looking to buy residential property and suggest this saving could be better spent elsewhere.

I really hope that councils don’t fall for this opinion. Off-street parking is a basic need for every new building in order to reduce the number of vehicles that use the free, government-sponsored parking lots that the rest of us call our street frontage. This is already overloaded by cars, vans, caravans, boats and tradies’ trucks, and often unpassable in both directions, especially at night.

The reality of vehicle ownership in this day and age sees a working husband and wife each having their own vehicle to travel to work and use daily. Their grown family members, who are still living at home, now have a vehicle each. All need somewhere to park their vehicles, plus those of their friends and relatives who visit. Many also have a trailer, a caravan or a boat to be parked somewhere.

While eliminating this off-street parking requirement is seen as a cheap and easy method of saving funds to be better invested in building more housing, it stretches a very long bow, which simply will not work out practically.

Yes, it is interesting to look at new ideas on how to provide more less-expensive housing, but road users are sure to hate that set of so-called logic.

I would be alarmed if my Council weakened to this unlikely set of circumstances.