What new devil is this?
Have you taken a walk down Joesph St lately? Seems a new style of ‘on nature strip parking’ has been popping up. Is it because developers aren’t allowing for enough parks on site and off the street?
These concrete squares have appeared in Joesph St, they run from the road over the nature strip.
They have appeared on the small hill where it may be dangerous to park on the road. And there is obviously no room for residents to park within their properties.
The ‘parking spots’ are very close to well established trees, and under their drip-line, meaning they are over the roots of these trees.
No longer beautiful green nature strips, we have concrete car parks.
This is public land, it should be green like the rest of Joesph St, which looks like this:
And this:
Ballarat East is known for its green streets, the trees, lack of kerbing. This new concrete germ is changing the nature of our streets into concrete and carparks. Please comment below.
We have a request in with council for more information.
Tags:parking
Well done on sharing this information.
Juliette Calderone
Whilst many Australian residents, with the support of their Councils, are attempting to beautify and green their nature strips enabling more sustainable and healthy environments, Ballarat City Council seems to have set a dangerous precedent in Joseph Street in Ballarat East in establishing concrete car spaces on the nature strip. Put simply these houses have drive ways which can house cars and they are not the only houses in Ballarat where cars need to be parked within the boundaries of the property.
The benefits of nature strips are described as:
“Compared with fully paved areas, nature strips offer the following practical and aesthetic benefits.
• They reduce stormwater run-off.
• They complement the natural settings of the neighbourhood such as street trees and home gardens and allow healthier private and street trees to grow.
• They provide fauna habitat. …..”
Whittlesea Council.
Also has Council considered the space for current and future utility infrastructure usually housed on the nature strip ie-gas, electricity, Telstra, NBN, water-what are the implications for these and will our rates be used if future works need to be carried out and the concrete needs to be raised. Is Council liable for any injuries or accidents,-what is the risk management or insurance repercussion of the concrete car parking pad?
They are called Nature Strips for a reason they are not called Concrete Strips!!
I for one would like more information about who approved these and how the decision was made and why Council hasn’t followed the sentiment of the draft policy.
Looking at the pictures, it is evident that there is no provision for on-street parking, so residents would be obliged to park within the boundaries of their properties instead of in the roadway in the path of traffic. The properties on Joseph Street are not new, so it would be good if Leon posted again and gave us some insight into what the deeds and entitlements of his property do and do not say. It looks like a succession of mistakes here, and not easy to unravel.
The homes you can see are not new, however behind them are many ‘infill’ new developments, that clearly have not provided enough parking. We don’t want this spreading throughout the East, however it may be necessary here due to very bad planning decisions.
As a resident of said street, something had to be done to stop traffic from parking on the crest and forcing vehicles (such as the bus that regular passes) to cross onto the wrong side of the road. The addition of the parallel parking makes this particular area safer.
As for the greenery, give us residents sometime to regrow the grass.
Please stop bagging the Council when they actually have improved the area.
Thanks Leon for taking time to comment. Can you tell us why there are so many cars having to park outside in that block? And what are your thoughts about the potential undermining of your beautiful trees?
It should be noted that in the City of Ballarat’s Nature Strip Policy September 2014 (DRAFT) the following clauses:
6.10 NOT PERMITTED ON NATURE STRIPS
Hard surfaces such as concrete, pavers, asphalt or stepping stones are not permitted in
residential areas. If a hard surface is required for vehicle access purposes, a vehicle crossing
permit should be obtained.
6.10 NOT PERMITTED ON NATURE STRIPS
Hard surfaces such as concrete, pavers, asphalt or stepping stones are not permitted in
residential areas. If a hard surface is required for vehicle access purposes, a vehicle crossing
permit should be obtained.
6.16 POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
The Policy will be effective from the date formally adopted by Council. Existing modified nature strips not compliant with this Policy may remain, however any Nature Strips containing
alterations as listed in section 6.6 Not Permitted on Nature Strips may be issued a notice to remove item if deemed to be a risk to the public, or impede on pedestrians.
This policy only relates to formalised nature strips in urban areas, typically where kerb and
channel exist.
Policy available at:
http://www.ballarat.vic.gov.au/media/2722067/nature_strip_policy.pdf
I strongly believe that nature strips on road reserves should be in maintained in line with what the name implies, ie natural. Artificial abominations such as concrete parking pads and synthetic turf should be identified by community members supportive of Ballarat’s heritage and a sustainable environment and promptly reported to council for appropriate action.
Keep up the good work BE Net
Great info thanks Martin.
I would class that as part of the development ( or a development in itself) so wonder if AS4970 would come into play. I recently had to do a building impact assessment for a tree in Queen street where the owner wanted to put a new vehicle access over the bluestone gutter, council wanted an arborist to look at it before it was approved. I cant see the difference in this so wonder if the same applied. To protect the tree nothing should happen within the tree protection zone (diameter of the base of the tree X 12) without a qualified arborists approval.
Thanks David, tree protection is so important. We will make sure to ask if this has been done.
So I guess ratepayers are paying for this, which means developers get away with NOT providing what residents need. Once its here its very hard to get rid of. Lets make sure the council knows we know and won’t allow it to spread to other beautiful streets in Ballarat East.