Councillors divided on parking as urban forest plans approved

Plans for increased greening and tree canopy in four inner-city suburbs have been adopted by the City of Melbourne despite some councillors opposing them due to concerns surrounding the potential loss of car parking.

Seven councillors voted in favour of adopting final Urban Forest Precinct Plans for the CBD, East Melbourne, Carlton and South Yarra at the March 18 Future Committee meeting, which set out 10-year plans for street tree planting.

Plans for the CBD build on work already undertaken as part of previous urban forest plans in the central city, with new plantings mooted for large areas along Flinders, Spring, William and Elizabeth streets, as well as Chinatown and Little Collins St.

The plans seek to achieve “urban forest diversity” with a range of different tree species including deciduous trees that lose all their leaves for parts of the year, allowing for shade during summer and sunlight during winter, as well as autumn colours.

When the council consulted the community on its plans, it heard a strong desire for a more “diverse central city planting palette” to the eucalypt, plane and elm trees that currently account for 36 per cent of the municipality’s street trees.

The report highlighted that the dominance of London plane trees in particular posed a “high risk” for pests and pathogens, and that planting a more diverse range of species could help with mitigation.

“Replacement plans generally seek to establish evergreen trees in the centre medians to provide year-round wind mitigation and deciduous trees in the footpath to allow solar access to buildings in winter,” the plans stated.

The council will also look to implement a new “insect pollinator” abutting Fed Square between Princes Bridge and Flinders St in response to calls from the community to establish more biodiversity corridors.

Despite the plans being voted through, four councillors – Phil Le Liu, Owen Guest, Gladys Liu and Rafael Camillo – opposed them after raising questions regarding how the plans might impact car parking across the four areas.

Cr Le Liu asked the council’s management how many parking spaces would be lost under the plans, arguing that too many had already disappeared in the CBD under previous greening plans, which resulted in revenue “suffering very, very heavily”.

A council officer responded by saying that any loss of car parking wouldn’t be known until the next stage when street greening designs were finalised, but that these would go through their own process of community consultation.

Cr Le Liu urged the council’s parking team and parks and gardens team “to talk to each other” and said he had been assured no further car parks would be lost as part of recent parking and kerbside management plans across the city.

The council’s CEO Alison Leighton stressed that both council branches did engage closely on the urban forest plans, and that any information relating to parking would be presented to the council at a later date as part of detailed designs. •