Council battles for parking spot

By Nathan Johnston
THE City of Greater Dandenong is poised to take legal action against a developer to retain control of a prime piece of real estate in Springvale.
Land at the corner of Balmoral and Buckingham Avenue has been under the control of private developers since 1994.
Although it’s councilowned land, the former Springvale Council sold the rights to develop it in 1994.
But now, after more than 10 years of no action, CEO Carl Wulff said he was working to get it back.
“It’s a complex issue. The council entered into an agreement with a different company at the time, and another company has since bought the rights to the land from the original group.
“The Springvale council entered into the agreement with conditions that certain criteria be met, including provision for car parking.”
He said the deal, had it been carried through, would have been beneficial to both parties.
“But they’ve never done anything with it,” Mr Wulff said.
“I sat down with the existing holders, and said this has been going on for far too long.
“It seems the longer it has run, the harder it is for us to extract ourselves from the agreement.”
Cr Youhorn Chea raised the matter at council’s Monday night meeting after he received a petition from 56 business and property owners in central Springvale lobbying for a multilevel car park.
“The community is becoming frustrated. Car parking is one of the main issues at the Springvale Shopping Centre,” he said.
“This agreement has been going on for 10 years already. How long do we have to wait?”
Mr Wulff acknowledged there was a parking problem in Springvale.
“There’s no doubt we need additional parking in Springvale,” he said.
“The Buckingham and Balmoral Avenue land is an option, but we’re not in a position to progress it, nor are we at a point where we can comment on how long the recovery process will take.
“First of all we have to get to a point where we have control over the land. If we can’t, Warwick Avenue could be another option.”
He said multilevel car parks were also expensive to build.
“It costs between $8000 and $10,000 per space, so if we want a 400 or 500 space car park, we’re looking at $4 or $5 million.”
Petition organiser Martin Lee from Lee Pharmacy said the business people were not asking for a massive structure.
“We all believe that a quick solution to the problem would be to construct a one or twostorey car park,” Mr Lee said.
“An additional 100 spaces would certainly help in the short term. Additional storeys could be added later if required.
“I don’t think we need a developer to build extra shops. There are still vacancies in the shopping centres now.
“What we need most is better parking.”