Parking not fair

By Tania Martin
THE Shire of Yarra Ranges last week approved an application for six double storey serviced apartments in Yarra Glen, despite a call to put the application on hold for two weeks for consultation over parking issues.
Nearby businesses say the application would raise parking concerns for traders and that it was an over development of the area.
However, after receiving eight objections from nearby businesses, the council approved the application in Herbert Street.
Yarra Glen Chamber of Commerce president Chris Lamacraft claims the council has applied one set of rules to traders and given the developer of the apartments another.
He said nearby businesses, such as the Banq Restaurant and the antique shop, had to provide a certain amount of parking space before they were allowed to open.
And he said it appears that the parking needed for those businesses will be taken by the proposed development.
The report to the council outlined that the application would need 12 parking spaces but that only three could be constructed on the applicant’s land, and the rest would have to be on the body corporate land.
The body corporate land is where the Banq Restaurant and antique shop have their parking. Mr Lamacraft said the shire’s presumption that the existing parking in and along Herbert Street was probably only full at peak times was also wrong as the parking is frequently full of vehicles during most trading hours.
A report to the council outlined that the peak usage of the car parks would probably occur on early Sunday afternoons.
However, Mr Lamacraft said if what was stated in the council reports was true, then nearby traders wouldn’t have had the need for the shire’s new car park which has been appreciated by businesses.
“Even the new car park fills up at peak times. The shire will effectively be penalising existing businesses by giving away existing contracted car parking to a new business,” he said.
Mr Lamacraft called to have the proposal deferred for two weeks at last Tuesday night’s council meeting but his request was denied.
He said it wouldn’t have mattered what he said as an objector as the council had already made its mind up about the application.
Mr Lamacraft said the application would also impinge on a nearby agricultural machinery business at 23 Bell Street.
He said this business had planned for some time to extend back with a two storey rear extension to create a bigger agricultural machinery workshop.
And Mr Lamacraft said the workshop would abut the serviced apartments and that it would create a noise problem.
He said the noise would be a problem during certain agricultural peak times, such as harvesting, as the demand for servicing equipment would increase.
However, Ryrie Ward councillor Jeanette McRae said that she was pleased with the proposed development as it would provide accommodation access to visitors to Yarra Glen.
Cr McRae also called for double glazing to be installed in the building to help block out the noise from the agricultural machinery business.