Council to put Little Collins St carpark on the market

The City of Melbourne will sell a CBD carpark to help alleviate future “strain” on its projected ability to provide new community facilities.

Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the sale at their May 28 council meeting following an internal review, which deemed the carpark surplus to both its and the community’s needs.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the Parkade carpark at 34-60 Little Collins St was not suitable for repurposing or for community use.

“Council has interrogated the current use of the land, future use of the land, the return to our community, and how else we could be using proceeds from the sale or even the site itself,” Cr Capp said.

The feedback really highlighted a focus on community use, now and into the future. Amenity and financial sustainability are top of mind for members of our community.

An online survey on the Participate Melbourne website revealed that 43 per cent supported the proposed sale of the land, 34 per cent opposed, while 23 per cent were neither for nor against the idea.

The most common rationale for supporting the proposed sale was based on the aesthetics of the land, and the property not being used to its full potential.

Those who opposed the sale did so on the grounds that the land be used for alternate purposes to better serve the community, and that the site could be purchased by developers.

A commonality between respondents was that they wanted to see how proceeds would be used by the council if sold.

“I can see that there are some really strong arguments as to why this piece of land is now surplus to our needs and many other ways that we could be investing that money at the moment,” Cr Davydd Griffiths said.

According to Cr Griffiths, the council would undergo a massive strain in its future efforts to provide enough sporting and recreation facilities in the city for an expanding population.

“We need to make a decision about what kind of assets we want to own,” he said.

The land will be sold on the open market by auction or expression of interest, with the council to explore the possibility of including affordable housing as part of its sales terms. •