Driveways to go for more parking By Tim Dick Urban Affairs Reporter June 21, 2005
In summer, parking near Sydney's beaches has become as coveted as the bronzed bodies on them, and one council has a cunning plan to increase their number - shrink the driveways.
Wide expanses of concrete to allow cars into garages would be dug up to create more kerbside parking.
Waverley Municipal Council will debate a proposal tonight to restrict driveways to the width of one car, instead of the present position where many houses and blocks of flats have separate driveways for each garage or carport.
The proposal, by Labor councillors Ingrid Strewe and John Wakefield, aims to cut existing driveways to a standard width, replacing the excess with grass verges, trees and more parking for visitors and nearby residents.
"On many occasions a single driveway to a block of flats would be perfectly adequate and & by reducing the size of the driveways, one, two, or sometimes three on-street parking places would be created," the councillors' proposal said.
"The reduction in the width of concrete driveways would improve the look of our streets" and increase the area that allows rain to pass through into the ground.
The proposal was a practical measure which, over time, would help the local environment and alleviate a pressing parking problem, Councillor Strewe said.
"We've got houses with metres of concrete that's unnecessary to drive into," Cr Strewe said. "It's insane that a private dwelling can take up so much space."
She said that although the change would be expensive for the council, increasing the number of parking spaces in metered areas would soon pay for itself.
Cr Strewe said that she did not think increasing the number of parking spaces would encourage more people to drive to the beach but would go someway to meet the demand for car spaces that was not being met.
She said she was hopeful that tonight's motion would be passed. If it was, an investigation into its costs and benefits - financial and environmental - would be undertaken before it was implemented.
Elsewhere, Sutherland Shire's draft planning rules restrict driveways to a maximum of 5.5 metres width or about the size of the entrance to a double garage. This is the same width as in Warringah Council, although it allows some lots in its rural areas to have triple driveways.