DEVELOPERS will now be able pay cash to council to avoid having to construct car parks on their developments in Frankston.
The recently approved amendment to the Frankston Planning Scheme states that developers are usually required to construct 3 car spaces per 100 square metres for “food and drink premises” and 3 car spaces per 100 square metres for shops “other than restricted retail”. 0.3 car spaces per bedroom are usually required to be constructed for “residential buildings other than residential aged care”. The new parking overlay would allow for developers to pay council to avoid these restrictions.
The payment to be made to council to avoid constructing car parks, subject to approval, is currently valued at $19,500 per space.
The amendment was approved by planning minister Richard Wynne on 22 November.
“The new planning provisions apply to the whole Frankston Metropolitan Activity Centre area and introduce a number of important changes to how car parking is assessed for new development applications,” said Frankston mayor Michael O’Reilly.
“This includes allowing Council to collect financial contributions in lieu of physical car parking on site, where appropriate, as some sites are too small or are awkwardly accessed, making it difficult to accommodate car parking.”
The amendment reads that “all funds collected by the responsible authority must be utilised on public parking projects within the Frankston Metropolitan Activity Centre or adjacent to the Frankston Metropolitan Activity City Centre in accordance with the Frankston Metropolitan Parking Precinct Plan, including (where appropriate) multistorey facilities.”
Cr O’Reilly said “these financial contributions from developers can only be used to construct future car parking and related improvements on identified sites within the FMAC area.”
“While this amount does not fully reflect the cost of constructing new multi-storey public car parking facilities, it is considered an appropriate level of contribution to maintain Frankston as a competitive location for new investment.”
The planning scheme amendment C111 reads that “the responsible authority may consider accepting a financial contribution in-lieu of one or more car parking spaces” if “the applicant demonstrates that the car parking requirement cannot be practically provided on-site or reasonably nearby” and “the number of car parking spaces to be provided on-site is low, and is not considered to achieve the objective of consolidating car parking into large, well located, easily accessible and locatable facilities.”
Initial plans for the cash in lieu scheme were approved by the previous Frankston Council in mid 2016.
Council has previously charged $10,000 per car space not provided from 1987 until 1994. Cr Colin Hampton said at a 2017 council meeting that the “policy worked extremely well”. (“Free car parking pushed”, The Times, 18/9/17)
Parking in Frankston is often a talking point, with funding for a multi-million multi-storey car park near Frankston Station being promised by both major parties prior to November’s state election.
Frankston Council claims to be “only the fifth Council in metropolitan Melbourne to have the ‘cash in lieu’ of car parking option included in its planning scheme.”
The FMAC Parking Precinct Plan can be read at frankston.vic.gov.au/FMACParkingPrecinctPlan
