DOES NOT HAVING ENOUGH SPACE FOR CUSTOMER PARKING PUT YOU OFF FROM STARTING YOUR DEVELOPMENT?

​If the answer to the above question is 'YES', you have made a mistake. Here is an example. We recently prepared a parking demand assessment for a restaurant that can serves for 150+ customers in indoor and outdoor seating areas. Guess how many car parking spaces it provides? Five. Yes, just five. 
Statutory parking rates of Clause 52.06 of the Planning Scheme states that a rate of 0.4 car parking spaces per customer applies to restaurants. At that rate, this restaurant would have ideally required 60 car parking spaces. A little math here, an average car parking space is 2.6m x 4.9m, which equates to 12.74 square meters. The land area required for just the 60 parking spaces would be 764.40 square meters. Then you add the parking aisle widths, pedestrian paths etc. You would need to purchase another 1000 square meter land just to fit car parking spaces in them. 
This is far from reality, isn't it? Local council do not require you to follow the statutory requirements precisely. As long as a car parking demand assessment is provided with accurate information, a parking requirement reduction is allowed. 
In fact, councils support drifting away from car parking as long as you have a solid plan. A solid plan typically includes the following:

• Providing end-trip facilities for cyclists
• Promoting the use of public transport
• Promoting walking to and from your property
• Providing time-restricted car parking spaces
• Encouraging the use of car sharing schemes
• Providing innovating systems such as car stackers or vehicle charging stations

These ideas are almost always inline with Integrated Transport Plans & Strategies of many local government areas. Through above ideas, together with the ability to use street parking or other public car parking facilities, you can operate a business such as a restaurant with very low parking numbers. 
If you think about it, providing the exact requirement is in fact supporting the use of motor cars in place of other sustainable transport modes. 
This is where traffic engineers can help. We help determine these transport related opportunities and assist you through the process of getting your development plan approved. RedSquare Traffic's traffic engineers prepare Car Parking Demand Assessments, Traffic Impact Assessments, Traffic and Parking Assessments which are required under the Planning scheme to support reductions of car parking spaces. 

Talk to us today to learn more about parking space reductions or car parking demand assessments. 

- RedSquare Traffic
Creativity in transport engineering

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