A former member of a council working party has called for a wholesale re-think of Goulburn’s draft CBD plan.
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Graeme Dally claims the document is based on false methodology regarding parking, which feed into upgrade recommendations put forward by consultants, Spacelab.
“The whole draft CBD plan is based on parking and it’s fundamentally flawed. I think if we go ahead with this, in five years’ time we’ll find out we don’t have enough parking,” he said.
“It will be compounded by the Performing Arts Centre, general growth and the fact that increasingly, travellers like to stop every few hours. Goulburn is a good place to stop.”
Mr Dally sat on a CBD parking working party which made recommendations to the council in 2016 to boost the number of spaces. It would cater for the city’s growth over the next 20 years. Members recommended that a CBD plan be prepared, incorporating activation of laneways, a revision of parking controls and working with the private sector to boost spaces, among other ideas.
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But Mr Dally said the three community members, including himself, never agreed that Goulburn had an excess of parking spaces, as the draft CBD plan stated that it had.
The working party wanted to survey residents on their thoughts but council planning staff scotched the idea. Instead, the council supplied figures comparing the city’s parking with other regional areas – Bundaberg, Port Macquarie and Wagga Wagga. It concluded that Goulburn had 3100 on-street and off-street parking spaces in its CBD, giving 106 spots per 1000 people. The three other centres ranged between 38 and 64 spaces/1000 people.
But Mr Dally argued this didn’t consider that these centres had satellite shopping centres, which skewed the figures. In contrast, Goulburn only had one CBD.
He said three working party members, including himself, raised concerns with the council numbers. But they were never given the chance to correct the final document, which was endorsed by councillors and later used as a basis for the draft CBD plan.
Another member, Barry McDonald had similar concerns. He argued the draft CBD plan “lacked commonsense” and “catered to the cafe culture and pushbike fraternity,” not the motoring public. He told The Post the plan was better suited to high density inner capital city redevelopment rather than a country town.
Mr Dally said Spacelab’s reliance on “comparable” regional city parking data wouldn’t matter so much if it hadn’t influenced their recommendations.
He contends that the CBD plan’s suggested bike paths, parallel parking for parts of Auburn Street, a wider median strip and parklets to provide additional seating and landscaping, will all reduce available parking.
“I think we still need to have angle parking because as soon as you cut it, put a bike path in, widen the median strip and the footpath and give pedestrian access across a mid-block crossing, it will gridlock the place and people will have nowhere else to park,” he said.
Mr Dally said he was not against bike paths; in fact his son Matthew had designed many of the cycleways for Sydney city. But he believed they wouldn’t work in Goulburn due to the CBD plan’s suggested wider medians and parallel parking.
“That will take a whole lot of parking out where are they compensating for that?” he asked.
As a rural resident he frequently comes into town with a trailer loaded with waste for the landfill. Yet he has difficulty finding a parking spot for vehicle and trailer when he comes into the CBD to shop. In a submission on the plan, he suggested more designated spaces for six-metre-long vehicles in shopping centres and other parts of the city centre.
This would also cater to the growing number of caravaners stopping through Goulburn. Mr Dally said the city was ideally placed to capitalise on this booming market.
“We could be a caravan friendly town, but we’re not,” he said.
But he supported landscaping measures recommended in the plan, saying they would add to the city’s ambiance.
Given Goulburn Mulwaree’s predicted population increase to 40,000 in the next 20 years, he says parking needs must be fully researched before the CBD master plan can be considered.
He told The Post construction of a parking station should be reconsidered, an idea which he said Cr Margaret O’Neill supported on the working party.
But Mayor Bob Kirk said the plan was just a draft at this stage.
“We’ve received many public submissions and the content of all of those will be considered as part of the process,” he said.
“The draft CBD plan contained suggestions only. I’m pretty confident in saying some of the ideas will be rejected out of hand. People are getting a bit too excited.”
The Mayor said numerous submissions objected to the proposed parallel parking in Auburn Street.
Cr Kirk told The Post a purpose-built parking station was not in the council’s immediate plans. He felt demand varied depending on the time of day but if feedback suggested more analysis was needed, councillors would consider this.
They’ve been sent a copy of the submissions, with a view to further discussion at a workshop before the matter goes to a council meeting.
Louise Thrower
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
