It’s unfair to pay for public car parks, VCAT rules say

By Violet Li

The state court has ruled that an Endeavor Hills day care center would not be required to pay Casey Council to use the six spaces in its adjacent public parking lot.

Inspire and Play Early Learning Center has sought approval from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to remove a license condition which required the owner to enter into a lease agreement with Casey Council to use six spaces in the public car park directly at east of the daycare. .

The rental fee was an annual sum of $7,500 plus GST and would increase by 5 per cent per year. Council Casey proposed reducing that figure to $900 per year.

The court reviewed the previous rental agreement and noted that despite fees paid to Casey Council for the use of six spaces, those spaces were labeled as “non-exclusive use.”

The court ruled that it was not fair to pay for “non-exclusive use” of six public parking spaces.

The traffic impact assessment report revealed a maximum occupancy of 23 out of 32 spaces in the public parking lots to the east and north of the nursery and a maximum occupancy of 25 out of 42 spaces along the street with facades non-residential.

As the court supported the idea of ​​relying on six spaces in the nearby public parking lot instead of streetside parking for safety reasons, it was satisfied that there were sufficient vacant spaces near the daycare to justify the renunciation of six places.

He also suggested appropriate signage to encourage, but not mandate, the daycare’s use of all six spaces.