Would you pay $2 an hour for parking in Monash? Paid options put on the backburner

As the streets become more clogged and the housing density ramps up, the challenge of where people can park, and how much they should be prepared to pay to do so, has split Monash Council down the middle.

What’s the issue?

At the August 2023 meeting, Monash Council directed officers to undertake a comprehensive review of the provision and management of car parking in and around activity centres and other areas of high demand across the municipality.

Monash remains one of the only metropolitan councils in Victoria to not have paid parking.

What had council officers proposed?

The Draft Parking Management Framework and the Draft Strategic Parking Management Review Recommendations outlined a number of actions to provide better management of parking, including introducing dynamic digital signage options, extending parking restrictions, increasing parking enforcement and paid parking. 

Monash Council suggested a figure of $2 an hour for some parking spots as a future possibility.

What was voted on?

A motion to adopt the review framework and recommendations as draft documents for consultation was brought before council on Tuesday April 29.

During debate, Councillor Josh Fergeus said parking needed to be priced accordingly to create sufficient revenue for the council.

“At the rate proposed in this report, $2 per hour, 10 hours per day, six days per week, it would take eight years of 100 percent occupancy for one premium park, kerbside, to generate the funds required to provide just one free off-street car park,” he said.

Mayor Paul Klisaris spoke against the motion, saying paid parking was “a flawed approach that risks creating more inequity than benefit”.

“Making parking more accessible shouldn’t come at the cost of fairness,” he said.

Councillor Geoff Lake also voted against the motion, saying more work needed to be done on the recommendations outlined.

“I think this is the sort of model that you would implement in the 1980s,” he said. “It’s a fairly outdated and lame approach to the introduction of paid car parking.”

The motion was defeated four votes to seven.

Councillor Klisaris moved an alternative motion: to note and adopt the framework document without going to consultation, but resolve to not further explore or introduce paid parking at this time. The motion was lost five votes to six.

What’s next?

Despite 18 months of work on this report undertaken by council officers, it seems as if it is back to square one for the council.

Last month Monash Council opened its $40 million-plus extension of the Bogong Avenue Car Park, which added more than 500 parking spaces across four floors, increasing the total capacity to more than 1,000 free spots.

However, in areas of high activity including Glen Waverley and Oakleigh, parking spaces continue to be a precious find for shoppers, workers and visitors.