Attachment F - Carparking Evaluation -Noosa Carparking Study - McGagney report

                                                                                                        Noosa Council
                                                                                   Noosa Car Parking Study 2017 - 2032
                                                                                                          Final Report


      District development guidelines will need to consider restrictions around the removal of parking due to
      redevelopment, to prevent individual developers from removing existing parking to make way for an
      addition. For example, the district bylaws could stipulate that a property owner could undertake an
      expansion only if he or she provided additional spaces elsewhere.


Beyond the benefits of shared parking relating to efficient use of spaces and reduced supply, shared parking
can also have huge positive impacts on urban forms. Where shared parking is applied in order to provide
consolidated parking facilities instead of numerous small off-street surface car parks, this allows a much denser,
walkable urban form to develop. This is because the urban form will no longer be punctuated by pockets of
smaller parking areas and associated driveways. By exploiting the opportunities for shared parking, a much more
compact and lively centre can be achieved at key locations within Noosa Shire.

Parking maximums could also be used to support the development of consolidated shared parking by
constraining on-site parking such that any additional parking demand must be provided for in consolidated
parking facilities. Under such a scenario the onus would be on Council to supply consolidated parking facilities.

Key activity hubs such as Hastings Street, for reasons outside of parking policy, inevitably achieve a diverse and
flexible mix of land use. In this environment, shared parking arrangements would be beneficial.

Unbundled Parking
When parking is bundled with property, this cost of parking is simply incorporated into the cost of goods,
services and property, and prevents consumers from realising savings through behavioural change or consumer
choice that reduces their demand for parking. Unbundled parking refers to the strategy of separating the costs
of purchasing or leasing residential and commercial property from parking resources. That is, dwellings and
tenancies are leased or purchased without associated parking spaces, and spaces are purchased separately if
required.

For example, in a medium density residential development, dwellings could be purchased separately from the
car parks. Unbundled car-parks associated with residential development in town centres can cost an additional
20-25% of the total purchase price of smaller dwellings (Litman, 2006). This “unbundles” the cost of parking
from the purchase cost and supports the principle of consumer choice flexibility.

Such a scheme would be privately conducted by individual developers / body-corporate / building management
of residential or office buildings. However, government has a role to legislate unbundled parking (and associated
reductions in minimum parking requirements) as an option into the development approval process.

Unbundled parking is somewhat dependent on the availability of effective parking brokerage services so that in
the event of a parking surplus (i.e. not all car-parks provided with a particular development are purchased) then
the building owner or body corporate committee is able to lease the car parks to other users. Opportunities for
unbundling are therefore enhanced by the existence of a comprehensive Local Area Parking Management Plan.

In Noosa, allowing and promoting unbundling parking is considered to be a valuable mechanism for parking
policy to support the principles espoused in the Transport Strategy, particularly in as much as it allows the true
cost of parking to be ultimately borne by users and provides greater freedom of choice to consumers which
may be exercised to minimise such costs.




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