Car park cuts

By Nicole Williams
NEW apartments will cut car parking in Noble Park and it has left one councillor fuming.
The developer applied to convert a restaurant and parking complex in Douglas Street into 12 apartments, which would result in 43 car parks being lost from the centre of Noble Park.
The application was discussed at length at Monday night’s council meeting and it split councillors 50/50 but was passed under the casting vote of Mayor Youhorn Chea.
Councillor Roz Blades is outraged the development was approved because of the damage it will cause to the already gridlocked town centre.
Cr Blades has previously spoken to the Star about daily traffic jams and insufficient car parking in the centre of Noble Park.
“Right now, you can’t turn left from Buckley Street or reverse out of a park,” she said at the meeting.
“You can’t bring this level of traffic into the centre of Noble Park.
“The lack of car parking will cause damage and disadvantage traders.”
Cr Blades said the council was trying to draw people into the area.
“We’re doing what we can to attract people to shop in Noble Park,” she said.
“This doesn’t contribute to that. It contributes to making shoppers go elsewhere.”
A planning application by the developer for 13 apartments at the same site was rejected by the council, and then by VCAT last year due to minimal natural light and ventilation in the apartments and insufficient car parking.
The new application includes one car park per apartment and 18 car spaces for the 17 shops on the site, including existing on-street parking.
Cr Peter Brown also spoke against the proposal, and quoted the VCAT report from September.
The report said the lack of parking was “fatal” to the original proposal and showed “no real or lasting benefits to the landowner, traders or wider community”.
Cr Loi Truong and Cr Paul Donovan argued the development would improve central Noble Park.
“The modern provision of accommodation is a plus for the area,” Cr Donovan said.
“Anything we can get to draw people into Noble Park is an advantage.”
Cr Truong said should support a redevelopment which could help revitalise Noble Park, like similar developments had in Springvale.
“Noble Park has Coles and Safeway and the Noble Park Pool,” he said.
“People of the area should be able to compare it to Springvale.”