Orange City Council's proposed new package of redesigned parking spaces and timed parking zones in Lords Place south aims to deliver a better level of service and more parking opportunities.
Proposed changes to parking times in Lord Place south will add close to 200 parking opportunities a day to the street.
The new mix of short-stay, medium-stay and long-stay parking measures was designed by consultants GHD and would be implemented along with a proposed major upgrade to transform Lords Place south into a 'place for meeting'.
Orange Mayor Jason Hamling believes the new arrangements will benefit local businesses.
"Throughout this process it's been important for the Council to get expert advice," Cr Hamling said. "At the start, consultants SJB made it clear why we need to move from a car-focussed inner city to a people-focussed CBD. Now consultants GHD have come up with the contemporary
parking arrangements to match that future use."
"Whether a potential customer parks right outside and stays for a short time, or parks further up the road and can stay for longer time, what businesses want to see is more customers and these new arrangements are aimed at delivering just that," Cr Hamling said.
"Over the years we've got used to shop owners and their staff parking outside their business. Now we're a growing, busy city and we all need to adjust to new approaches that share the available parking spaces between all the people who want to use them."
"While counting the number of parking spaces is one way of looking at this challenge, it makes more sense to count the number of times a day a driver can park there."
Under the current parking arrangements there are 603 parking opportunities across a 9-hour day in the block of Lords Place between Kite and Summer streets.
Under the proposed changes to introduce half-hour time limits for angle parking and 15 minutes for parallel parking, there will be 792 parking opportunities across a 9-hour day in Lords Place between Summer and Kite streets. (The 30 minute limit mirrors the arrangements
in Summer Street).
The new parking arrangements also include introducing 2-hour parking in the Ophir Car Park in the spaces directly fronting Kite Street and Lords Place (38 spaces including two spaces for the mobility impaired), and reintroducing paid all-day parking to the remaining spaces in
the Ophir Car Park (179 spaces - paid parking was suspended during the pandemic). If the plan is adopted the reintroduction of paid parking will not occur until early 2023.
GHD also found the line marking of car spaces in nearby streets would improve parking efficiencies and deliver an additional 43 spaces.
The GHD plan also suggests further investigation of introducing centre median parking in Lords Place South between Kite and Moulder streets to supply even more parking spaces. This parking arrangement requires further survey, investigation and compliance with relevant
traffic and Australian Standards.
"There are thousands of parking spaces around our CBD, and we aim to share them fairly by a system of time limits," Cr Jason Hamling said.
"Our system of limited time parking zones isn't about raising money through parking fines. It's about sharing the parking spaces that are most in demand. It's about creating turnover."
"While there'll be fewer parking spaces, having 15-minute and 30-minute zones means it will be more likely drivers who want to pop in for a quick visit will find a spot. If we want to stay longer, we'll learn to park just up the road. And yes, there will still be three dedicated parking spaces for people with a disability."
"This is not about parking. It's about whether or not we want to make the switch from a car focus to a people-focussed street, to create a place for meeting in our beautiful town ."
The proposal for Lords Place South is currently on exhibition for community comment. Residents have until 28 September to have their say at YourSay Orange.
A report on the community response will be considered by Orange City Council at its meeting in October.
