A MULTI-STOREY public car park behind the Bathurst RSL and 165 new car spaces at Carrington Park are the key planks in a Bathurst Regional Council plan to boost parking in the central business district.
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And a consultant's proposal to make Russell Street a "people first" shared zone between William and George streets, where pedestrians would be given precedence over vehicles, has been rejected in another sign that cars will be welcomed into the Bathurst CBD for some years yet.
Council's response to Allen Jack + Cottier Architects' draft CBD master plan, titled Futureproofing Our CBD, will go on public display for 28 days after being tabled at the monthly council meeting on Wednesday night.
The response also rejects "at this time" the consultant's recommendation that on-road cycling routes be installed in Keppel and William streets, noting the impact they would have on on-street parking, and says council will not convert six mid-block pedestrian refuges in the CBD to "formalised pedestrian crossings" that would give pedestrians right of way over motorists.
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However, council will support a speed limit reduction in the CBD to 40km/h.
Notes provided in Futureproofing Our CBD make it clear cars remain a big part of plans for the city's centre.
"Council is currently investigating options for an expanded public car park at George Street in conjunction with a proposal for an Integrated Medical Centre on the adjoining former Clancy Motors site," the notes state.
"Additional off-street car parking supply in Carrington Park is supported and, at surface level, could be designed and funded more quickly than the George Street car park location.
"Parking at this location would also distribute all day off-street parking more evenly across the CBD."
Council will also pursue further line-marking of on-street car spaces in the CBD which, it says, "will marginally reduce the existing on-street supply ... but it will likely increase the efficiency of use of spaces" and will install wheel stops in locations where there is outdoor dining on the footpath or where awnings and verandas might be hit by reversing cars.
Council will not consider a change to nose-in parking, as proposed in the draft master plan.
In a report to Wednesday's meeting, environmental planning and building services director Neil Southorn says councillors held a working party in March to prepare council's response and would now seek public feedback.
That feedback will be considered before council adopts a final version of Futureproofing Our CBD.
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