CLEVELAND business owners are concerned a five-level aged care development planned for Doig Street will throw CBD parking into chaos.
Pearson Bros Property Management co-owner Graham Pearson said there would be a major problem when workers started taking up parks during the build and he was worried about the development's long-term impact.
It comes as a development application is lodged with council for a separate 148-unit retirement facility and supermarket at Middle Street, which will provide 293 parking spaces.
Kay Pearson, who co-owns Pearson Brothers, said parking at Cleveland had always been an issue and council had done nothing to make improvements.
Locals and workers have long complained about parking issues in the CBD, including in 2016 when council sold a heavily-used parking lot on Wynyard Street to LJ Hooker.
A one-hour parking trial has been introduced in the area to free up spaces, with complaints made in the past about three-hour time limits restricting business turnover.
Mr Pearson objected to the development proposal when an application was lodged in 2018, raising concerns about car parks being lost and opportunities for developers to buy what he called ratepayer-owned land.
"You have people making decisions who are not aware of how construction actually operates," he said.
"You have guys who have been to university, reading out of a book, who wouldn't have a clue.
"I am not against development because I am a developer, it is the planning that (frustrates) me."
Cr Peter Mitchell said there would be an increase in parks as part of the centre - which would also include shops and offices - and the developer would have an obligation to plan parking for workers.
"I will be encouraging council officers to work with the developers and builders to do that," he said.
"I know from the information that I'm shown, that there has been a net increase in both on-street and off-street parks at Cleveland.
"The statistics tell us that there are more parks than there has been previously."
"The building is five storeys, so the parks are going to be flat out catering for the building itself," he said.
"People won't drive into underground parking if they want to go somewhere for 10 minutes. They are going to stop in our parks."
Cr Mitchell said preparations needed to be made for developments that might pop-up in the CBD.
"We know Doig Street is coming ... but what if someone else chooses to take up development opportunities?," he said.
"We don't want to be caught with our pants down. I think these things are foreseeable and the public reaction is foreseeable, because there has been a bit of hobby horsing in Cleveland for 15 years.
"If we want a pedestrian friendly, vibrant centre, where the area is not dominated by cars but dominated by people, we need to have the conversation about how we do that together."
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