No public parking in WIN Grand's city block plan

This is despite the $400 million development -the brainchild of WIN TV boss Bruce Gordon - including a 10-screen cinema complex, 600-person capacity music venue, a fitness centre and pool open to the public as well as restaurants, cafes and shops.

Instead, the public will be required to make use of existing car parking, such as Wollongong Central across the road or finding a space on the street.

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"The proposed basement car park provides for residents and their visitors and commercial/ retail tenants only," the development's transport impact assessment stated.

"No publicly accessible on-site parking is proposed."

This, the application stated, was in line with Wollongong City Council's own plans to reduce car commuting into the CBD.

The bulk of the spaces - 380 - are reserved for residents of the planned 402 apartments.

The remainder is taken up by 41 spaces for visitors to the apartments and 48 spaces for commercial use which lessees may allocate to staff or customers.

The development's statement of environmental effects claimed the peak periods for the cinema, gymnasium, pool and exhibition space was expected to be after 5pm and would result in a maximum of 105 parking spaces required.

"Such demand would need to be accommodated in the surplus of public car parks in Wollongong CBD, further facilitating a vibrant, modern and revitalised CBD with an active evening economy," the statement read.

"It is understood that there is adequate capacity in the surrounding paid car parks, including those associated with Wollongong Central.

"The obvious convenient car park is the southern Gateway Wollongong Central car park given its close proximity immediately south of the site.

"Demand in this car park is understood to be moderate, especially outside peak periods - and into the evening."

A WIN spokeswoman said the businesses on the site now offered "limited to no private or public parking" noting owners, tenants and visitors were already accounted for in city parking numbers.

"As a result of the above, the replacement of the existing commercial space, with slightly lesser commercial floor space, is considered to generate relatively little incremental visitation," the spokeswoman said.

"Notwithstanding the above, the project does forecast some incremental visitation, principally as a result of the change in mix of commercial uses.

"However traffic demand modelling indicates this to be relatively small, and that it primarily occurs outside of core business hours when there is excess parking capacity in the city centre, and in particular, immediately adjacent to the site."

Providing no customer parking was a deliberate decision, according to the development application documents - it was part of a plan to reduce the reliance on the car to get into the CBD.

There is also the promise of a "Green Travel Plan" that would be created after construction was completed, which would "put in place measures to raise awareness and further influence the travel patterns of people living, working or visiting the site".

This includes the provision of 210 bicycle parking bays in the site and adding public transport information boards.

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