WITH the revitalisation of the Nicholas Street Precinct and hopes of drawing more businesses to the CBD, Ipswich City Council is set to implement a new parking plan for replacing the 13-year-old strategy currently in place.
Business owners and customers alike are keen to see how this new parking plan will impact business growth, with the revitalisation referred to as the turning point for the city.
“Working in the Ipswich CBD, I try to park away from the CBD as it costs a lot,” one worker told Local Ipswich News.
“I use public transport often, but if the parking was a more convenient option I may drive in sometimes.”
The whole-of-city approach to parking is being sold as delivering better outcomes for all residents and businesses.
The Ipswich CBD currently offers more than 3500 parking spots, both on and off-street, so the new iGO Parking Action Plan will manage parking demand city-wide for the next 10 years.
Infrastructure, Planning and Assets Committee chairperson Councillor Andrew Antoniolli said Council began updating the plan two years ago with extensive community consultation to better understand what residents need from Council-managed parking.
“A key foundation of the new plan is to take a ‘demand management approach’ to parking. This is the acknowledgement that existing car parking supply should be optimised before new car parking supply
is created,” Cr Antoniolli said.
“The plan also attempts to balance the increasingly diverse needs of both businesses and residents who may need short or long-stay parking, access to more loading zones, disability spaces, or even more electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle parking.
“Parking in Ipswich is always in high demand, and the new Parking Action Plan adopted by Council on Thursday will allow us to better balance the needs of all residents and businesses.
“This new Parking Action Plan establishes parking precincts across busy city hubs within Ipswich Central and the Springfield Town Centre.”
Cr Antoniolli said some of the other key updates included the 2011 Ipswich Central parking management framework and precincts, a new parking management framework and precincts for Springfield Central along with school parking updates.
