A PREDICTED $2.55 million economic blow to Wodonga has prompted the city’s council to kill off overnight van parking in the CBD.
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The council will instead review its parking bays for campervans and caravans across the city and seek to improve signage.
A study by the council forecast that if an overnight lot was formed near the old pool site, known as CBD West, it would mean a $2.55 million financial hit to the city.
That was based on other potential commercial uses of the site, lost rate income and foregone land value.
Councillor Ron Mildren told this week’s council meeting it would be wrong to offer overnight parking.
“It’s common sense that we should be trying to look after those businesses in our town that service those people, rather than trying to allow, shall I say, cheap alternatives,” Cr Mildren said.
Councillor Tim Quilty said the study provided a “pretty compelling” argument for no overnight parking.
“The net economic loss, compared to other uses of the land, was in the order of $2.5 million per year,” Cr Quilty said.
“You might quibble with the costings (and) assumptions behind them, it might be out by an order of magnitude, but it would still be a bad idea to put an RV park in the centre of town.
“I realise that will be disappointing for some members of the community that think there is a great economic benefit from RVs, but with the improved signage and continuing to add long-vehicle parking around the city it will capture that market.”
Existing caravan and long-vehicle parking in Wodonga includes four bays along Elgin Boulevard near Woolworths, four bays in Smythe Street and three in Havelock Street.
The Wodonga Ratepayers’ Association president Ian Deegan criticised the report’s lack of consideration of ablutions dump points at parking bays.
“Whoever is the author of this report has not got any idea of caravanners and travellers, if they did they would know it’s a simple thing (to have a dump point),” Mr Deegan said.