While construction of 1000 new car parks to service the incoming GovHub could begin by the end of the year, don’t bank on being able to leave your car all day.
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As part of the state government’s $47.8 million commitment to build a brand new public service hub in Ballarat to house 1000 government employees, $2 million is being given to the Ballarat City Council to construct new parks around the Mair Street precinct to accommodate the influx of workers.
City of Ballarat infrastructure and environment director Terry Demeo said council hoped to have a funding agreement in place soon to facilitate the works. Mr Demeo said council “would provide a range of parking options”, meaning a portion of the new parks will not be all day.
“The City of Ballarat has identified significant additional parking in the CBD Car Parking Action Plan, with areas around the Armstrong Street North site able to accommodate extra street parking,” Mr Demeo said.
While council is yet to state precisely where the new parks will be located, the Action Plan identifies just 221 new spaces in the seven parking precincts which line Armstrong Street North itself.
Almost all of those identified spaces are based on the introduction of formalised parking along streets where cars already park. On streets where there is no signage or road markings drivers are expected to park parallel, however this is not commonly practiced throughout the city and is not enforced by Ballarat City parking inspectors.
Regional Development Minister Jaala Pulford said the car parks’ delivery would be the council’s primary responsibility.
Construction of the new premises to the north of Civic Hall is expected to begin in early 2018 and will boast 350 on-site car parks.