Paid parking is on the plans for Werribee’s CBD, with concept drawings for a new $7.4 million Cherry Street carpark clearly showing ticket machines.
Plans seen by Star Weekly show two parking ticket machines at the 150-space carpark, which will be built on the former Werribee Hyundai site and two adjoining sites.
It is scheduled to open in early 2016.
The council reportedly purchased the former Hyundai site for $4.8 million last December, along with the two adjoining lots totalling $1 million.
Adding construction costs of $1.6 million means each parking spot will cost about $50,000.
Wyndham acting chief executive Kelly Grigsby said the site would ultimately be turned into a multi-storey carpark.
“As this will take time to achieve, the site will be used as an at‐grade or single-storey car park in the interim, rather than leaving the site unused during this time,” she said.
Ms Grigsby would not disclose what time restrictions or fees would apply to use the new carpark, saying this information would be included in its Werribee City Centre Parking Strategy.
She also would not say if paid parking would be extended to other areas of the CBD.
The council has delayed release of its car- parking strategy for a second time. It’s now due to be tabled at the October meeting, and will detail council plans to alleviate parking pressures.
A Star Weekly report revealed the council has slugged drivers more than $1.1 million in parking fines in the past year – nearly double that of the previous 12 months. Since February, the council has also had a moratorium on new business parking permits in Werribee CBD, meaning employees without permits must move their cars every couple of hours.
Wyndham Business and Tourism Association president Nick Christou said, while he was pleased about the new carpark, it would not fix all of the area’s parking problems.
Mr Christou, who co-owns the Park Hotel on Watton Street, said there has been no sign of when council would lift its moratorium on parking permits.
“As business owners, we need the option to purchase permanent parking permits; we have to have somewhere to park our vehicles. Does that mean this new carpark is going to have an allocation for parking permits?
“We’re trying to encourage people to come to Werribee and do their shopping here, but how can you do that if they put paid-parking meters in?
“People will go … where they don’t have to pay.”
