MecLoYGRaUP 28 August 2018 Major Projects Division Department of Planning GPO Box 39 SYDNEY NSW 2001 Dear Sir/Madam, RE: Submission to Department of Planning ~ University of Newcastle — Proposed Honeysuckle City ‘Campus OUR REF: 18391 ie Summary KOC Pty Ltd were engaged by the McCloy Group to prepare a submission outlining concerns with the proposed cat patking to be provided for the University of Newcastle's (UoN) Honeysuckle City Campus Development for the McCloy Group. The submission is to be made to the NSW Department of Planning as a response to the public exhibition of the State Significant Development (SSD) Application for the UoN Honeysuckle City Campus, Newcastle. ‘The UoN SSO is described on the Department of Planning's Major Projects website as: A concept development application for the University of Newcastle, Honeysuckle City Campus, comprising: © building envelopes for seven new buildings for academic and ancillary uses, including student accommodation ‘9 @maximum gross floor area of 62,573 sqm © maximum buiiting heights ranging between 23 m and 34.9 m, (approximately four to nine storeys) design excellence strategy and design guidelines to inform future design of the built form. In simple terms the car parking rate set by Newcastle City Council's Development Control Plan (section 7.03 Traffic Parking and Access) sets a concessional parking rate at 1 space per 60sqm of GFA (for commercial uses) ‘which equates to 1,042 parking spaces being requited for the total proposed floor area. The EIS notes that the development proposes a maximum gross floor area of 62,573 sqm and that 12 car spaces will be made available for the development. ‘The EIS further notes (p26) that "The development will allow for specialised parking including drop off zones, loading and service areas, accessible parking and bicycle parking. A small amount of specialised parking is to be provided for accessible parking, bicycles, drop off and pick up areas and loading and service areas” indicating that the spaces are not likely to be available for general parking. In support of this limited parking provision for the Honeysuckle City Campus the SSD is supported by a number of professional reports. Specific to the parking and access proposals are: ‘© Concept Plan Submission by Cox Architects dated June 2018; © Honeysuckle City Campus Development ~ University of Newcastle Traffic and Parking Assessment by SECA Solutions dated June 2018. © Honeysuckle City Campus Development - University of Newcastle Transport Access Strategy by SECA Solutions dated June 2018, This submission has reviewed these documents and has been augmented by a community survey undertaken during the public exhibition period on community behaviours and opinions of parking in the CBD of Newcastle around the University proposal. 18391_UoN Submission McCloy Group_August2018 1MeCLOYGROUP The submission concludes that the supporting documents fail to justify the significant parking space shortfall ‘The traffic and parking studies rely on assumptions that cannot be sustained. At its simplest level the documents assume that 100% of staff and students attending the campus will do so by alternative transport modes to private car. This assumption relies on some 3,510 residential rooms being available within convenient walking distance to the site, The assumption is unrealistic, As a result the assumption that a large number of staff and students live in the Active Travel Zone cannot be supported nor used as a rationale to support the car parking shortfall for the City Campus SSD. Merely 8% of survey respondents identified as living within the CBD or CBD suburbs and only 41% living in the next zone between Charlestown and the balance of the Newcastle LGA. ‘The survey results clearly show that 52% of students access the CBD campus by car now and that they travel to the CBD in their cars between 3 and 5 times per week. There is no evidence provided in the professional studies that counters the survey findings and therefore the assumption that 100% public transport usage will be achieved for students and staff living outside the Active Travel Zone cannot be sustained. Likewise, to assume that none of the students or staff staying/living on campus will own a car cannot be sustained. Overwhelmingly 83% of survey respondents do not think that there is adequate parking in the CBD for UoN staff and students. While 85% of all respondents (and 93% of students and staff respondents) believe that 12 parking spaces will not be adequate for the 6500 proposed staff and students of the Honeysuckle city campus. Finally 82 per cent of participants agreed that student parking already has an impact on CBD parking which makes it difficult for visitors to CBD businesses to find parking. “The traffic reports suggest that there is up to 2,500 available car parks in the Newcastle CBD based The Newcastle Gty Centre Parking Strategy. The Strategy and the traffic reports do not acknowledge there is some 1,881 parking spaces no longer provided or available across the CBD due to previous approvals of Law Court Buldings, NewSpace and the removal for redevelopment of off-street spaces. Were you to include the parking space shortfall for this UoN proposal that no longer available number grows to more than 2,881 spaces. While support for the on-going revitalisation of Newcastle is widely supported including key such as this City Centre Campus it is neither reasonable nor fair that the University burden the local council and its community with added costs and infrastructure impacts by failing to provide adequate parking. To propose the development without any car parking will place a huge strain on the already reduced availabilty of parking in the Honeysuckle, Civic and Newcastle West areas. It is entirely likely that the result of proposing no on-site car parks in this development will be put further stress on the long-term street parking in the area and extend the on-street parking congestion in the area further into the residential areas of Wickham, Maryville, Cooks Hill and Hamilton South. 18391_UoN Submission_McCloy Group_August2018Ms MeCLoyi 2 Review of Proposed Parking Provision for Honeysuckle City Campus Development The SSD for the UoN Honeysuckle City Campus is supported by an Environmental Impact Statement and a series of professional discipline reports. The EIS notes (p20) that the development proposes a maximum gross floor area of 62,573 sqm and further notes that 12 car spaces will be made available for the development. At Section 3.9 of the EIS (p26) itis noted that "The development will allow for specialised parking including drop off zones, loading and service areas, accessible parking and bicycle parking. A small amount of specialised parking is to be provided for accessible parking, bicycles, drop off and pick up areas and loading and service areas’, In simple terms the car parking rate set by Newcastle City Council's Development Control Plan (section 7.03, Traffic Parking and Access) sets the parking rate at 1 space per 60sqm of GFA (for commercial uses) which equates to 1,042 parking spaces being required for the total proposed floor area. In support of this limited parking provision at the Honeysuckle City Campus the SSD are the following reports: ‘© Concept Plan Submission by Cox Architects dated June 2018; © Honeysuckle City Campus Development — University of Newcastle Traffic and Parking ‘Assessment by SECA Solutions dated June 2018. © Honeysuckle City Campus Development = University of Newcastle Transport Access Strategy by SECA Solutions dated June 2018. In reviewing these documents, itis noted that the approach taken is similar to the documentation presented for the NEW Space Development on Hunter Street which is also part of the University of Newcastle City ‘Campus. Having reviewed these documents there are a series of assumptions made that underpin the ‘argument to provide minimal on-site car parking in the Traffic and Parking Assessment and the Transport Access Strategy that are considered flawed and unrealistic. Thave reviewed the documentation for this project and as requested provide the following advice on the car parking impacts of the subject development for inclusion in a submission you are preparing on behalf of a client. ‘The basis of the traffic and parking assessment assumptions are: 1, That 100% of the 6500 staff and students on the campus will use alternative transport mode (walking, cycling, public transport) for trip making from their residence to the site each day; 2. That a large number of staff and students will ive within the Active Travel Zone; 3. That those not living within the Active Travel Zone will stil use alternative transport modes because that is state and local government policy; 4. ‘That car parking in the Newcastle CBD is underutiised as at anyone time there is 2,500 car parks available; and 5. Those staff and students living on campus within the residential component will not own a vehicle. Reviewing these individually the following comments are made for consideration by the Department of Planning when assessing the SSD application 1. 100% trip making within the new campus will be by alternative transport modes ~ 54% walking, 7% cycling and 39 % public transport. ‘According to the SSD documentation there will be 6,500 staff and students on campus. This assumes that: © 3,510 staff and students will walk to the campus from their residences; © 455 staff and students will cycle to the campus from their residence; and © 2,535 staff and students will catch public transport to the campus. 18391_UoNN Submission McCloy Group_August2018 ele snide aisMe MeCLoYGROUP, Whilst it reasonable to accept that a University campus would generate a higher than usual use of alternative transport modes for trip making it Is unrealistic to expect 100% alternative transport mode trip making as the traffic reports have suggested. While the 39% public transport mode share is a laudable assumption given that public transport use by University students in Newcastle currently sits at 11% and the NSW Government strategy is to obtain 20 ‘% public transport use the assumption in this application is flawed in reality and reasoned expectation. For the assumption that 54% of staff and students will walk to the campus from their home to be correct that implies that there are 3,510 available residential rooms available within convenient walking distance to the site. Convenient walking distance is generally considered to be 450 metres. Even if a convenient walking distance was set at 1 km then the report is assuming that there are 3,510 available residential rooms currently available for rent by University students in an area that contains much of the most expensive real estate in Newcastle, ‘The assumption that 54% of staff and students would walk to the campus is unrealistic. Positively, the cycling target of 7% modal share is considered a realistic assumption. ‘That a large number of staff and students would live within the Active Travel Zone. ‘This assumption, like the assumption that 54% of staff and students would walk to the campus, can only be realistic if there are 3,510 affordable residential rooms within the Active Travel Zone. Whilst the Newcastle CBD is undergoing a strong reinvigoration and reinvestment in mixed use/residential developments and it can be reasonably expected that some of these new developments once completed would be available for rental accommodation these are not expected to be in the affordable rental capacity of the majority of University students. While Council is known to actively support and encourage affordable housing within the CBD, to date very few affordable housing projects have been developed in the inner Newcastle suburbs. ‘Asa result the assumption that a large number of staff and students live in the Active Travel Zone cannot bbe reasonably supported nor used as a rationale to support the car parking shortfall for the City Campus S80. ‘That those not living in the Active Travel Zone wil still use alternative transport modes because that is state and local government policy. ‘As much as Government’s would prefer that Government Policy be the reason for changed travel behaviours the reality is that students / staff are living outside the Active Travel Zone and their use of Public transport will be determined by the availabilty of public transport and the ease and safely of use, not by government policy Current NSW Government policy is to reach a target of 20% usage, yet this development is seeking 100% usage for those outside the Active Travel Zone. Existing public transport usage for the Callaghan campus of Uol is 11%. Currently, the Uoll Callaghan Campus has immense difficulty in meeting the on- site car parking demand and have in recent years expanded the on-site car parking areas on the campus with demand stil outstripping supply. There is no evidence provided in the professional studies with this application to suggest that the Honeysuckle campus will be any different and that campus parking demand will outstrip campus parking supply. It is well recognised that the low public transport usage to/from UoN Callaghan results from a lack of reliable and frequent service during peak and off-peak petiods, a lack of suitable commuter parking ‘areas around the heavy rail stations in the area, a perceived security risk by University students in using 18391_UoN Submission_McCloy Group_August2018 4Me MeCLOYGROUP: public transport especially buses and the lack of accessibility to the heavy rail network particularly for southern and western Newcastle suburbs, ‘There is no evidence provided in the professional studies with this application to suggest that these conditions have been addressed for those students and staff living outside the Active Travel Zone and itis neither practical nor appropriate to accept the assumption that 100% public transport usage for will be achieved for these staff and students. 4. That car parking in the Newcastle CBD is underutilised as at any one time there is 2,500 car parks available, “The traffic reports broadly identify that there is up to 2,500 available car parks in the Newcastle CBD based The Newcastle City Centre Parking Strategy. Given the changes in parking capacity in and around the Newcastle CBD of recent times this is now considered an outdated report. In recent times the CBD has lost the following available car parking spaces with the result that the parking demand has shifted to on-street parking: ‘© David Jones Car Park demolition (2018) ~ 386 spaces no longer available; ‘© UoN New Space Campus was approved by the NSW Government (2015) with just 2 on-site spaces when 208 spaces were required by Council's DCP. The UoN subsequently leased 60 spaces from a private car park operator to address staff dissatisfaction with the lack of readily available parking in proximity to the NewSpace campus. 0 The NSW Law Courts was approved by the JRPP (2012) with a 115 car space deficiency . ‘© AtHoneysuckle the recent closure for sale/development of both Lee Wharf and Throsby Creek car parks resulted in a loss of 252 parking spaces and 370 parking spaces respectively. ‘©The construction of the Newcastle Light rail system has also effectively removed 350 car parking spaces from Hunter Street and adjoining lanes. ‘© The current Uo proposal will result in the loss of the Wright Lane car parks which currently supplies approximately 200 car parks for workers and visitors to the CBD. That is a total of 1,881 parking spaces no longer provided or available across the CBD. If the parking space shortfall for this UoN proposal is supported that number grows to more than 2,881 spaces no longer provided or available across the CBO. Interestingly the supporting traffic report states ‘7here is generally a high demand for parking in the locality of the site, both on-street and off-street! By way of comparison the parking rates set out by Newcastle City Council DCP, and allowing that student housing will benefit from parking rate reductions under the SEPP (Affordable Rental Housing) 2009, the City Campus SSD, with a non-residential GFA of 50,746 m’ and residential accommodation, would require a total of 1,004 car spaces. To propose the development without any car parking will place a huge strain on the already reduced availability of parking in the Honeysuckle, Civic and Newcastle West areas. Fundamentally, to propose a development with a car parking deficiency of more than 1,000 parking spaces is considered irresponsible and imposes an unfair and unacceptable burden on the community of Newcastle. ‘Those staff and students living on campus within the residential component will not own a vehicle Car ownership rates in Australia remain relatively high with average household rates above 2 per house, with Newcastle averages slightly higher than the national norm. This suggests that car ownership amongst the predominate age group attending University would still be relatively high ~ it is not zero. To propose none of the students or staff staying on campus will own a car is not reasonable. 18391_UoN Submission_McCloy Group_August2018 5Me MeCLOYGROUP Itis entirely likely that the result of proposing no on-site car parks in this development will be put further stress on the long-term street parking in the area and extend the on-street parking congestion in the area further into the residential areas of Wickham, Maryville, Cooks Hill and Hamilton South, Tt appears to be both unreasonable and inconsistent to require other developments both existing and future within the Honeysuckle Precinct, to provide parking spaces within their developments and to support the proposed substantial shortfall in on-site car parking requirements. It is considered that the current documentation does not adequately support nor sustain the assumptions to enable the community to accept the proposed parking space shortfall proposed for the UoN Honeysuckle City Campus. The information submitted is not sufficient to enable an objective assessment of the parking space shortfall as the proposal is not supported by a detailed parking survey that would: © identify the likely real parking demand generated by the development and ‘© would identify where any available parking exists across the CBD, and, © if there is available parking is that parking sufficient to cater for the shortfall in parking supply proposed by the development. Having reviewed the professional reports submitted in support of the UoN SSD application itis recommended that the consent authority should not support the SSD application in its current form. As outlined insufficient information has been provided to undertake an objective assessment of the impacts of not providing on-site car parking on the road network, on adjoining businesses, on the availabilty of existing public car parking in the area and on the residential amenity of residents in the CBD and adjoining suburbs of Wickham, Maryville, Cooks Hill and Hamilton South, 3 Community Attitudes Survey to University of Newcastle’s (UoN) Honeysuckle City Campus Development and Impacts on CBD Parking In view of the assumptions made within the Trafic and Parking reports for the UoN SSD application regarding student and staff behaviour and attitudes to parking, traffic and access a survey of students and CBD visitors was undertaken during the public exhibition period of this SSD. The paragraphs below outline the results of that survey. ‘Survey Approach AA shor seven question questionaire was developed and entered an online survey platform. Specifically, closed ended questions were used to gather opinions from between 20 August and 27 August. The survey was open to anyone with the ur link to complete and four methods were used to distrbute the survey url These methods were: 1. Facebook 2. Linkedin 3, Face to face 4, Emall Details on the Survey method and questions are in Appendix 1. 18391_UoN Submission_McCloy Group_August2018 6MeCLOYGROUP, Survey Results ‘The survey was completed by 426 people. Not all people answered all questions which is why you will see that the sample size (n) is different for some questions, 3.1 Question 1 Participants were asked: "Which of the fallowing are you?” They were given six options to choose from. ‘As shown in Figure | university students and staff, and people employed on the university campus comprise of 30% of the survey participants, ‘The largest group of participants where people employed in CBD businesses (37%). ‘The second largest group of participants were those that selected “Other’ (35%). It is likely that this group comprises of CBD residents*, and people visiting the CDB, or people working in the CBD but not for CBD based businesses for example construction companies. This list of options is in the table below. * Ttis interesting to note that only 8 per cent of respondents to question 4 said that they lived in CBD suburbs. Figure 1 - Question 1 Results (n=425) Q1 Which of the following are you? (select all that apply): ti a vec» B- semarse | om 0% 20% son 40% som 6am 18391_UoN Submission McCloy Group_August2018 7MeCLOYGROUP 3.2 Question 2 Participants were asked "How often do you travel to the city campus or building of Newcastle University?". They were given six options to choose from. ‘As shown in Figure 2 the largest number of respondents travelled to the UoN city campus 3-5 days per week (32%), followed by 30 per cent of respondents who never visited the city campus of UoN. The significant number of people that indicated they never travel to the city campus of UoN Is not surprising considering that only 30 per cent of respondents were staff or students of UoN, Residents of the CBD or employees of CBD businesses would not be expected to be visiting the university campus or buildings. Figure 2 - Question 2 Results (n=425) Q2 How often do you travel to the city campus/buildings of Newcastle University? nll» 3.3. Question 3 Participants were asked: "How do you generally travel to the city?” They were given a list of seven options to choose from. Private car was the most frequently used mode of transport to the Newcastle CBD by survey respondents with 68 per cent of people saying it was the mode they mostly used. As shown in the next most popular mode of transport was public transport (15%). 18391_UoN Submission_McCloy Group_August2018 8Me; MeCLOYGROUP Figure 3 - Question 3 Results (n=425) Q3 How do you mostly travel to the city? ‘A more detailed analysis ofthe results for this question was completed to see if there was any difference between the way all respondents travelled to the CBD and the most commonly used mode of staff and students of UoN. Figure 4 shows the most commonly used mode of transport for staff and students of UoN and those people employed in businesses based on the UoN campus. This figure clearly shows that private car (52%) is the most commonly used mode of transport for the staff and students, followed by public transport (23%). Figure 4 - Most commonly used mode of transport of UoN staff and students visiting the CBD (n=122) Q3 Transport mode of UON staff and student to the CBD ark and Ride Park and Ride from then Ponte transport : | ‘ : 3 3 0% 10% = 20% 30% OH SOM GOH TO% BOK 18391_UoN Submission McCloy Group_August2018 934 Question 4 Participants were asked "What suburb or town do you live in?” Respondents to question 4 provided the name of the suburb or town where they lived. To enable analysis of this data the suburbs and towns were grouped into zones roughly relating to travel distance/time to the proposed Honeysuckle campus development site. A map showing the five zones can be found in Appendix 1, along with a list of the suburbs and towns assigned to each zone. The five zones are: Zone one ‘Suburbs within easy walking distance of proposed Honeysuckle campus site. Zone Two: Suburbs within easy public transport or cycling distance Zone Three: Outer suburbs of Newcastle and north eastern Lake Macquarie Zone Four: Suburbs surrounding Newcastle Zone Five: All other locations. ‘As shown in The suburb where the highest number of participants lived was Mayfield (60 people) followed by Waratah (32 people). The furthest away locations included Wyong, Smiths Lake, Vacy and Wollombi Figure $ the zones where most participants lived were Zone 2 (41%) and Zone 3 (32%). Only 8 per cent of respondents lived in the inner city or CBD suburbs of Newcastle, ‘The suburb where the highest number of participants lived was Mayfield (60 people) followed by Waratah (32 people). The furthest away locations included Wyong, Smiths Lake, Vacy and Wollombi. Figure 5 - Question 4 Results by zone (n=416) Q4. Location of suburb or town lived in by zones ret A ox 2 zone SEE eens 2 2 ne I sox Pateaage of oor {6301 Uow Sitmizaon etl Grup_AugusdO18 DMs MeCLOYROUP 3.5 Question 5 Participants were asked: "How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement: There is currently adequate parking in the city for staff and students of University of Newcastle?” The majority survey respondents do not think that there is adequate parking in the CBD for UoN staff and students. As shown in Figure 6, a total of 83 per cent of participants elther disagreed or strongly disagreed with, the statement provided. ‘When this question was analysed to look only at the responses of staff and students of UoN the response was even stronger with 85 per cent of staff and students either disagreeing or strongly disagreeing with the statement in the question. Figure 6 - Question 5 Results (n=425) [Q5 How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “There is currently adequate parking in the city for staf and students of University of Newcastle?” swooravelf 18391_UoN Submission_McCloy Group_August2018 uwMe; MecLoyGRauP 3.6 Question 6 Participants were asked: "How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement: 12 parking spaces Will be adequate for the 6500 proposed staff and students of the expanded city campus currently being planned by the University for land near Honeysuckle.” As shown in Figure 7 the clear majority (85%) of respondents to question six strongly disagreed with the statement about the number of parking spaces needed for the proposed University development at Honeysuckle. The level of disagreement with the statement was larger amongst the staff and students of UoN as shown in Figure 8, which shows that 93 per cent of the staff and students strongly disagreed with the statement. Figure 7 - Question 6 Results (* 23) Q6 How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “12 parking spaces will be adequate for the 6500 proposed staff and students of the expanded city campus ‘currently being planned by the University for land near Honeysuckle.” Figure 8 - Responses to Q6 by staff and students of UoN only (n=121) Q6 Staff and students response to Q6 regarding parking spaces in Honeysuckle campus. development 18391_UoN Submission_McCloy Group_August2018, RMeCLOYGROUP: 3.7 Question 7 Participants were asked: "How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Students and staff of the university use parking spaces in the CBD. This makes it difficult for visitors to CBD businesses to find parking.” 82 per cent of participants either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement provided in question 7 (see Figure 9) Figure 9 - Question 7 Results (n= 423) 7 How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement: "Students and staff of the university use parking spaces in the CBD. This makes it difficult for visitors to CBD businesses to find parking.” 18391_UoN Submission McCloy Group_August2018 3BMe MeCLoYGROUP 4 Conclusion ‘The high number of participants in this survey in such a short amount of time indicates that currently, the issue of parking in the Newcastle CBD is highly topical with both UoN staff and students and the wider community. ‘The survey results clearly show that visitors to the Newcastle CDB believe there is a shortage of parking in the CBD and the number of parking spaces proposed for the new UoN campus development at Honeysuckle is considered inadequate for the staff and students of the University. ‘This report provides a very simple presentation of the findings from the survey. A more detailed analysis of the findings of this survey can be undertaken on request. This could include a greater analysis of similarities or differences between the different types of participants or the identification of statistical significances between respondents, Yours sincerely Un {e Jeff McCloy Chairman 18391_UoN Submission McCloy Group_August2018