Dear Sydney of City Councillors

I am writing on behalf of the members of the Alexandria Residents Action Group to advise you that we regard the resident parking scheme as described by the Sydney of City’s parking officers to be at best, a stop gap measure to alleviate the very real problems we are experiencing as a result of the influx of parking by workers from Australian Technology Park.

We seek parking arrangements that meet the needs of our residents (whether or not they own a car) and arrangements that will accommodate parking for family and other visitors including community services such as Meals on Wheels and Community Nursing, trades people, delivery services and builders undertaking renovations.

The upcoming parking study by Sydney of City Council will only serve to offer residents solutions within the current parking policy framework, and is not considered to be comprehensive enough to meet our needs.

We believe that a more comprehensive survey of the entire Alexandria Local Government Area is required to develop a traffic and parking management plan that addresses the broader issues impacting Alexandria which include the developments at Australian Technology Park (existing and proposed) and the impacts of major developments such as the Ashmore Estate.

We urge you to listen to our very real concerns and do everything in your power to offer flexible comprehensive solutions – starting with the initiation of study to develop a parking and traffic management.

Background

Since 2008, residents close to Australian Technology Park have been coping with the pressure of employees using our streets for parking, while the ATP’s parking lot which can accommodate over 250 vehicles, remains locked and empty.

The management of ATP commissioned a parking survey which was released in a community ‘consultation’ in August 2010. The study recommended the introduction of resident parking and increasing the available parking in some streets by introducing angled parking.

These recommendations and the scope of the survey are totally unacceptable as they did nothing to address the root cause of the problem or accept any responsibility by the ATP to make any changes to alleviate the problems caused by their tenants.

The Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority have been asked by the State Government to investigate potential uses for the remaining land available at ATP. As we believe there is no planned increase to the onsite parking arrangements, any proposed additions will exacerbate an already unacceptable situation for residents.

Sincerely

Gary Speechley
Co-Chairman of Alexandria Residents Action Group