Ideas for free parking, no outdoor-dining fees under new vision for Adelaide CBD

City visitors would enjoy free parking, while outdoor-dining fees would be scrapped for some eateries, under Adelaide City Council’s “new vision” for the CBD and North Adelaide.

• Council counting the cost of fixing the Aquatic Centre

City visitors would enjoy free parking, while outdoor-dining fees would be scrapped for some eateries, under Adelaide City Council’s “new vision” for the CBD and North Adelaide.

Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said the initiatives – among a raft to be discussed at a council meeting on Tuesday night – would help small businesses and make the city more liveable.

“This is a new council that has a new vision for Adelaide,” she said.

“We have new councillors who have energetic ideas for the city,” Ms Verschoor said.

“I think these measures will make the city a lot more appealing to business, residents and visitors.”

Allowing people to park their cars in the middle of Rundle Rd, between East Tce and Dequetteville Tce, is another idea that will be debated at the meeting.

Adelaide City Council will explore the idea of parking along the middle of Rundle Rd.

Ms Verschoor said the proposals were a step in fulfilling pledges she made during last November’s election campaign.

Deputy Lord Mayor Houssam Abiad is proposing the council investigate an automated system for UParks to allow city and North Adelaide businesses to validate customers’ parking tickets.

He said businesses would basically pay for the first hour of parking in the council-run UParks for their customers.

“This will give an opportunity to businesses to access cheaper parking and provide their customers with packaged deals and free parking,” he said.

He said this, alongside removing outdoor dining fees for complying businesses, would help improve Adelaide’s “beating heart”.

“We need to rethink how we do business as a council,” he said. “We need to work alongside business, not against it.”

Outdoor dining in Peel St. Deputy Lord Mayor Houssam Abiad wants council to consider removing outdoor dining fees for complying businesses.

Cr Abiad said his proposals would set the council up for an exciting term.

“I’m 100 per cent behind the Lord Mayor and her leadership to affect change,” he said. “I’m excited about what the next four years will hold.

“This budget is about delivering more for ratepayers and cutting costs for businesses.”

Other proposals that will be discussed at the meeting Tuesday night include freezing the rate in the dollar for a sixth-straight year, increasing the tree canopy in the southwest and northwest of the city to 20 per cent by 2021 and creating a centralised hub for frontline services.

A rate rebate for heritage properties could also be investigated, while Chinatown’s Moonta St might be enhanced as a multicultural hub.

Ms Verschoor said a new iteration of the Splash Adelaide program, which brought pop-up events to the city, would also assist in addressing some of the issues facing struggling areas, such as Melbourne, O’Connell and Hutt streets.

She said the council was already tackling cycleways, waste management and affordable and social housing.