Petitions result in Drouin parking study

Drouin’s parking is set to be reviewed but in the immediate term, a section of three hour car parking in Young St, Drouin will be converted to all day parking.

Responding to a number of community petitions calling on council to address parking needs, Baw Baw Shire has decided to convert part of the Young St three hour parking area into all day parking.

But to address the bigger picture and long term needs, council also decided to establish a project reference group to review parking matters in Drouin with an aim to identify further parking opportunities and specific improvements in the short to long term.

Cr Keith Cook said Drouin had grown at a rapid rate over the past 10 years.

“Parking has become an issue so it is good to have this report,” he said.

Cr Tricia Jones said hardly a day went by that people did not talk to her about parking in Drouin.

“Investigating the feasibility of additional parking areas is an absolute must,” she said.

In recent months council received a number of separate petitions relating to people using parking in Young St for all-day parking.

The four petitions, in total, were signed by more than 540 people.

The petitions raised concern with the perceived use of the existing three-hour parking area along Young Street as all day parking by business owners and their staff over the past two years.

A report to council said council’s recent parking enforcement resulted in business owners and their staff now parking in alternate locations, which includes in front of Civic Park, Drouin.

In response to petitioners’ concerns, officers undertook parking surveys of the 68 three hour car parking spaces in Young St on January 18 and February 2. The two areas were defined as parking area A with 46 spaces and parking area B with 22 spaces. There also are 26 all day car parking spaces in Young St.

The parking survey results showed there was a high turnover of parking in the three hour area, with 79 to 84 per cent of stays less than one hour.

Results showed the parking occupancy rate was generally low with an average of 43 per cent total occupancy for the 22 spaces in parking area B and 47 per cent for the 46 spaces in parking area A on January 18.

When school had returned on February 2, the occupancy rates were slightly higher at 52 per cent for parking area B and 56 per cent for parking area A. However, this was during peak times between 11am and 3pm.

“Given the low occupancy rates of this area it is proposed to convert 36 spaces to all day parking in the western section, subject to consultation with local businesses. Parking in front of the shops will remain three hour,” officers recommended.

The project reference group to be established by council will focus on:

Establishing current parking patterns for the Drouin central business district in reference to the previous parking study completed in 2014;

Investigate opportunities for improvements by reviewing existing parking restrictions across the cbd area; and,

Investigate the feasibility of additional car parking areas as per the recommendations of the Drouin Parking Study. This could include the vacant VicTrack land on south side of Princes Way and/or any other vacant blocks suitable for provision of additional parking.

“The needs of both short term parking (for people visiting local businesses) and long term parking (for businesses and their staff) must be balanced for the successful operation of the town centre,” officers said.