Car spaces ‘limited’ for public in Sunshine

Fewer than one third of spaces at the new 361-space multi-deck carpark in Sunshine will be available to the public.

The seven-storey, $9.3million building between George and Dawson streets will be opened next month.

It will provide 113 spaces for the public, according to a report by GTA Consultants.

Of those spaces, 107 will be on the first three levels.

The four other levels are reserved for council staff (140 spaces) and Brimbank Community and Civic Centre tenant partners, with 96 spaces for council fleet vehicles.

But 253 bays will be available to the public at weekends.

Parking in the new building will be free for the first two hours, $2 for between two and four hours, and $4 for longer than four hours.

The fees will be reviewed annually.

They will be the same for weekdays as weekends, although rates could increase if occupancy rates hit 90 per cent.

One hundred spaces currently reserved for workers building the Brimbank Community and Civic Centre at Sunshine Plaza will be made available to the public when work is finished.

But the consultants’ report said it feared paid parking “may shift some of the long- term demand into residential areas as there may be users who are unwilling to pay but willing to walk”.

“It must be recognised that the introduction of paid parking could have flow-on effects into the surrounding area,” the report stated.

Sunshine CBD will also gain at least another 139 car parking spaces when the multi-deck carpark is expanded on to land next door.

With the council having approved the sale of about 2000 square metres of land in an existing carpark in Clarke and Withers streets to build a new VicRoads regional office, the loss of 90 spaces at that site will be made up by the new expansion.

The ground level at the new carpark will be taken up by retail shops on Dawson Street.