Rural City of Wangaratta

Merriwa Park/ Kaluna Park Masterplan Variation

At the Council meeting held on Tuesday 24 January 2012, Council resolved as follows:

“That:

1. Council approve the proposed variations to the Merriwa Park / Kaluna Park Masterplan as outlined within the report;
2. Council endorse an application to the Minister under Section 17E of the Crown Land (Reserves) Act for the use of reserved land for car parking;
3. all stakeholders including major users of the park be advised in writing of the variations to the Merriwa Park/ Kaluna Park masterplan as outlined within this report.”

Application has been made to the Minister for Environment, the Hon. Ryan Smith seeking approval as per point 2 above.

The arrangement of the proposed car park works in the plan submitted to the Minister after the January Council meeting vary from the masterplan in relation to how the car parking area is to be access and the areas of existing pavement removed and retained.

The variations to the master plan are recommended for the following reasons:

1.   The access road to the levee also provides vehicular access to the all-abilities toilet that services the park area.  Discussions with the Wangaratta Access & Inclusion Group highlighted the need to retain vehicular access adjacent to the toilet.  Under the masterplan, the distance from the car park to the toilet would be over 100m and is considered too far for a person with a disability to have to travel from their car to access the toilet. 

The Wangaratta Urban Landcare Group also expressed a desire to maintain vehicular access to the levee bank to facilitate their work within Kaluna Park.

2.   The playground is currently bounded by the tennis courts and the two roads.  The masterplan looked to remove the roadway on the eastern side of the playground so that it would open out onto grassed parkland.  The proposed works remain faithful to this concept only that it is the roadway on the west side of the playground that is to be removed. 

3.   The pavement on the eastern side of the playground that was intended to be removed under the masterplan is proposed to be retained to maintain status quo for vehicles heading down to the all-abilities toilet.  This way, vehicles driving down to the toilet block will not be required to snake their way through a car park.

4.   The masterplan contained a recommendation for a two hour restriction on all parking within Merriwa Park to discourage non- recreational users of the park.  The proposal is to provide a mix of short (2hr), medium (3-4hr) and long term (untimed) parking.  Two hours is considered too short for people who are in the park to play tennis and bays with a three or four hour restriction would be more appropriate.  The additional bays installed on the decommissioned tennis hard courts will be untimed, contributing to the stock of untimed parking spaces within easy walking distance of the CBD as identified in the Wangaratta Parking Strategy.  These untimed bays will also be available for those cycling tourists who wish to park their car for the day in Wangaratta and take advantage of the Oxley rail trail.

In response to discussions with the Minister for the Environment, a compromise plan has been developed and contains the following distinguishing features to the plan currently before the Minister:

· Removes the inner roadway to the disabled toilet facilities and reduces the car parking at this location to service vehicles and disabled parking.

· Narrows the road into the proposed parking area from the existing defined parking, eliminating four parking spaces and placing lawn around the two gum trees currently surrounded by pavement.

· Reduces the untimed car parking from 40 spaces to 30 spaces.

· Reduces the overall car parking in the proposed plan by 16 spaces.

· The untimed car parking is contained within the redundant tennis court area.

· Eliminates isolated areas of parkland currently disconnected by roadways allowing for largely uninterrupted parkland areas.

· Increases the overall parkland by 800 square metres.

The proposal results in car parking spaces being foregone and increases the area of parkland also removing the isolated sections.

At the Council Meeting held on 21 February 2012, Council resolved to defer a decision on submitting a compromise plan to the Minister to allow a period of public consultation and feedback.

Submissions on the proposed changes to the plan are welcome up until 4.00pm on Friday 9 March 2012.  Submissions can be made by using the online form on this website (in About Council) or in writing to Rural City of Wangaratta, PO Box 238, WANGARATTA  VIC 3676 or emailed to council@wangaratta.vic.gov.au

In order to allow community access to submissions and overcome privacy restrictions, notice is hereby given that all submissions received will be available from Council’s website in this round of consultation. 

Plans showing the existing conditions and the proposed variations are available for viewing in the foyer of the Wangaratta Government Centre or download them here:

Plan A - Merriwa Park existing layout (253 KB)

Plan B - Merriwa Park Masterplan proposal (241 KB)

Plan C - Proposal with Minister (265 KB)

Plan D - Proposed Compromise (281 KB)

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