Valley View article: Parking in Moonee Valley – A city in transition

Parking is an important and complex issue for both Council and the local community. This issue will become even more complex as Moonee Valley’s population continues to grow. The population of metropolitan Melbourne is expected to reach five million by the year 2026. The State Government has a policy which encourages growth in inner Melbourne councils like Moonee Valley. This means higher density living in some areas, more people and in most cases more cars in our municipality.

At the time of printing this edition of Valley View, Council had done further work on its draft Municipal Parking Strategy. This draft strategy has already been out for one round of community consultation in 2010. Council received some good feedback, most of which has been included in the next draft.

This current draft of the strategy includes bold proposals designed to tackle some of the tough issues we face in Moonee Valley in relation to balancing parking requirements both now and into the future. For example, Council receives more requests for resident and visitor parking permits in a given street than there are spaces on the road network. This is something that will need to change. In some areas within the municipality, there is not enough on-road space for residents in households who own four or five cars to park all these cars in the street.

Council has also found that there are many households that choose to park on the street even though they have driveways and garages and choose not to use these areas to park their cars.

Council’s aim is to develop a robust and effective strategy that protects residential parking in less densely populated areas and encourages people moving into busy activity centres that are well serviced by public transport to rely less on their cars and use more sustainable modes of transport.

Council also needs a parking strategy that can help address those tough parking issues today and in the future.

Moonee Valley is a city in transition. As Melbourne grows, this area will slowly move from being a predominantly suburban municipality to a vibrant inner Melbourne precinct.

Before any decisions are made about the draft strategy, Council will consult with the community again.

Story reported in the August/ September edition of Valley View (Moonee Valley resident newsletter – distributed the week starting 25 July 2011)