When there is a change of land use or a new development there are requirements set out in the Council Development Plans for the provision of off street on the respective sites. The exception to this might be where a site is located within the centre of a city, and like the very centre of Adelaide CBD, on site car parking is actually prohibited.
With reference to the Australian & New Zealand Standards 2890.1:2004 – Parking Facilities Off-street car parking the uniform standards that apply to the size, angle, aisle width etc. are very clear.
Yet the number of car parking spaces that apply to certain land uses can vary greatly between various Councils. As an example recently I was involved a change of land use from office to consulting rooms. The subject site was located on a boundary between two different Councils the car parking standard on either side of the boundary varied greatly:
10 car parking spaces per 100sq. metres of consulting room floor space
or
4 car parking spaces per consulting room.
If each consulting room averaged 4 metres by 4 metres (16 sq. metres) 100 sq. metres could accommodate up to 6.25 consulting rooms requiring 25 car parking spaces. These standards are very different yet the characteristics of the locations on either side of the main road are essentially the same.
This is only one example there are many others where quite different standards amply at substantially different economic cost. The area of a car parking space is approx. (5.4 x 2.4 metres) totalling 13 sq. metres then a similar area is required for reversing and manoeuvring so something like a total of 25 sq. metres per parking space. Even at a conservative $1000 per sq. metres a car parking space would have a value of around $25,000 per parking space.
Such inconsistencies need to be addressed because they are not logical and can clearly have significant economic impact on a development proposal. The consulting rooms is only one such example other anomalies can equally apply to a range of residential, commercial, and industrial developments.
In the meantime we continue to navigate the system getting car parking dispensation and/or discounts applied wherever possible.