Councillors divided on parking as urban forest plans for Carlton and East Melbourne approved

Plans for increased greening and tree canopy in four inner-city suburbs have been adopted by the City of Melbourne despite some councillors opposing them due to concerns surrounding the potential loss of car parking.

Seven councillors voted in favour of adopting final Urban Forest Precinct Plans for the CBD, East Melbourne, Carlton and South Yarra at the March 18 Future Committee meeting, which set out 10-year plans for street tree planting.

Tree planting for East Melbourne has been prioritised in different streets, based on where trees are needed most, with staged plantings mooted for sections of Spring St, Wellington Parade, Clarendon St, Powlett St and Grey St.

Together with new planting opportunities, the program also seeks to grow and care for the area’s existing trees, with the council adding that new prospects for streetscape improvements not shown in the plan may also provide extra planting options.

The plans seek to achieve “urban forest diversity” with a range of different tree species, including deciduous trees that lose all their leaves for parts of the year, allowing for shade during summer and sunlight during winter, as well as autumn colours.

Around 36 per cent of the street trees in the municipality is made up of eucalypt, plane and elm trees, and East Melbourne is dominated by these species. Other prominent species in the neighbourhood include maples and oak trees.

The report highlighted that sycamore lace bug and elm leaf beetle infestations presented “a high risk for East Melbourne”.

“If we have streets with a mix of different tree species (while maintaining local character) that will reduce this pest and pathogen risk. It is also important to establish isolated groups of elm and plane trees, so that different populations of these species can be protected if a large-scale pest or pathogen outbreak were to occur,” the report stated.

The council will also look to implement new “insect pollinators” along the southern end of Simpson St and the eastern end of Hotham St in response to calls from the community to establish more biodiversity corridors.

As for Carlton, new plantings are mooted for large sections of Swanston, Victoria, Bouverie and Station streets, while the entirety of Pelham St, which has previously been the subject of a proposal for a new biodiversity corridor, will also be a major focus.

The program for Carlton also seeks to care for existing biodiversity corridors surrounding Argyle and Lincoln Squares, while creating a new insect pollinator along Princes Park Drive.

In its response to the plans, the Carlton Residents’ Association congratulated the council on its strategy, but said more work was needed to collect data on tree maintenance and tree replacement.

It also added that the council’s own thermal modelling revealed a greater role for Homes Victoria surrounding its properties on Lygon and Drummond streets, as well as for future redevelopment of public housing towers.

Despite the plans being voted through on March 18, four councillors – Phil Le Liu, Owen Guest, Gladys Liu and Rafael Camillo – opposed them after raising questions regarding how the plans might impact car parking across the four areas.

Cr Le Liu asked the council’s management how many parks would be lost under the plans, arguing that too many had already been lost in the CBD under previous greening plans that resulted in revenue “suffering very, very heavily”.

A council officer responded by saying that any loss of car parking wouldn’t be known until the next stage when street greening designs were finalised, but that these would go through their own process of community consultation.

Cr Le Liu urged the council’s parking team and parks and gardens team “to talk to each other” and said he had been assured no further car parks would be lost as part of recent parking and kerbside management plans across the city.

The council’s CEO Alison Leighton stressed that both council branches did engage closely on the urban forest plans, and that any information relating to parking would be presented to the council at a later date as part of detailed designs. •