Melbourne café and restaurant owners prepared to pay for outdoor parklets
Melbourne’s restaurant and café owners are ready to pay for parklets that were set up during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The parklets were free during the pandemic, however, councils are either shutting them down or asking owners to pay for the space. To keep the street dining, owners will have to pay around a $580 annual fee for a permit, on top of design and installation costs.
Merri-bek Mayor Adam Pulford said council debated whether to keep the status quo of free parklets, but ultimately decided that a fee for the space was the appropriate way forward.
Souva So Good owner John Mihailidis is prepared to pay Banyule City Council’s $530.45 for one parking space and $371 for each additional space annually. Mihailidis has parklets outside his Greek tavern in Ivanhoe,
“Financially, I wouldn’t want it to be more than that, but that’s fine, if that’s what the cost is going to be,” he told The Age.
“It gives people the opportunity to be sitting outside in the sun and enjoying the community... that’s my big thing. It’s not just about the cost.”
The City of Melbourne introduced fees for parklets two years ago and according to Phillip Mansour, executive officer of Carlton local traders’ association Carlton Inc, 95% of businesses have kept the fixtures despite the fees.
“It’s been a cost incurred to businesses that they believe has returned on investment,” Mansour told The Age.
“It is a bit of a pill to swallow when you’ve got to pay for that additional space but ... they’re looking forward to the summer period now with the extra outdoor dining space, as they have been over the past few years.”
Yarra City Council charges $2425 a year per parking space as well as a $325 application fee.
However, fees go higher for higher-traffic street. It’s $3244.80 on a mid-traffic street and $5408 on a high-traffic street to rent a space for the year.
Those costs are high, but Collingwood’s Molly Rose Brewery owner Nic Sandery is willing to pay. Sandery closed his spaces down after noise complaints but intends to reopen them in a reduced capacity saying the “on-street dining is an amazing, amazing thing” and “benefited our business”.
“It’s a tricky one because it’s generally not all-weather, so you have to allow for paying for it all year, but only using it for maybe a third to a half of the year,” Sandery told The Age.
“The advertising of people having a fantastic time at your venue, I think is, for me, worthwhile.”
Fees aren’t the only hurdle to overcome, with the application process also proving tricky for some.
Some businesses are prepared to pay up but have been unable to successfully navigate the council application process.
Thirty Mill operations manager Michael Docker had his application rejected by the City of Stonnington after spending $3000 on those architectural drawings required bu council to complete the application properly.
A council spokesperson said: “The application for a permanent parklet was refused due to safety concerns, with the parklet’s location creating a risk of cars striking the dining area during parking attempts.”
Docker hopes the council will change its position.
Jonathan Jackson, 27th August 2024
