Perth Voice Interactive

A SCHEME that penalises shops for not having enough parking is likely to be reviewed.

Vincent mayor John Carey says his city’s parking-in-lieu scheme, where applicants pay $5400 for every bay they fail to provide, is resulting in “perverse outcomes”.

He notes offices don’t attract the fee but shops do, resulting in developers installing boring offices at street level.

“That’s a poorer outcome, because what we want to see on our major streets is active shopfronts, which are retail,” he says. “We do need to change our policy.”

Mr Carey’s comments follow his council’s decision to drop a $23,000 parking-in-lieu fee for a new Charles Street skate shop (Voice, July 18, 2015).

Owner Shane Greenshields had told councillors the fee could have been the difference between him opening the store, or not. He didn’t feel the fee was fair because most of his customers would be school-aged kids who didn’t drive.

by DAVID BELL