Parking plans on drawing board

By Melissa Grant
CARDINIA Shire Council’s temporary parking plans for Pakenham are still on the drawing board, just a month before the closure of a 280-space car parking bay.
The council has flagged temporary parking areas but it is unclear as to when they will be formalised.
The Treloar Lane parking area will be fenced off in mid-September, to pave the way for construction on an $80 million retail hub.
At Monday night’s council meeting, temporary parking bays at PB Ronald Reserve, James Street, Cook Drive near Retravision and behind the Treloar Lane arcades were touted as temporary parking solutions.
The council’s general manager assets and services Mike Ellis said the area behind Retravision could provide 150 car parks.
Mr Ellis said planning permits still had to be issued before the additional parking arrangements were finalised.
Cardinia Shire mayor Bill Pearson was hopeful the council would be able to release a detailed list of temporary parking arrangements in the coming weeks.
Cr Pearson said the council had been working hard behind the scenes since Woolworths offered to develop the site.
“Anyone with spare land around Pakenham has been talked to,” he said.
“By the time they start digging hopefully we’ll have the other (parking) areas up and running.”
But Toy Kingdom owner Rod Ferguson said it was disappointing alternative parking arrangements still hadn’t been finalised.
“The fencing is still going to happen and they haven’t progressed any further,” he said.
“The only one I can see in place would be Darrell Hardy’s block (Cook Drive).”
Mr Ferguson was also concerned the council hadn’t publicly addressed the provision of car parks for construction workers.
“If there’s going to be 200 construction workers all these parking spots are going to be taken up by 7 o’clock in the morning,” he said.
“The bottom line is we wanted to have the parking arrangements rubber-stamped before the fence goes up.”
Cr Pearson urged traders to be patient during construction of the retail centre.
“It’s (temporary parking) not going to solve all the problems because it’s such a massive construction site,” he said.
“The amount of stuff to go out of the site is going to be astronomical because of the underground car park.
“We have not had a development like this in Pakenham ever,” Cr Brett Owen agreed.
“I just hope that businesses and residents understand there is going to be a bit of short-term pain,” he said.