Village of the damned created by ‘perfect storm’ of planning failures, says leading academic

A Brisbane shopping strip that has become known as the ‘village of the damned’ due to a run of business closures was created by a perfect storm of planning failures, according to a leading academic.

NUNDAH’S ‘village of the dammed’ eateries are the victims of a planning mess because unit dwellers had failed to ditch their cars, says a leading academic.

Griffith University urban and environmental planning lecturer Dr Tony Matthews said the parking woes facing Nundah Village are the result of the council’s best intentions going awry.

Griffith University urban and environmental planning lecturer Dr Tony Matthews said the last census showed car ownership among apartment dwellers was basically on par with households. Picture: Griffith University

He said the idea behind a transit-orientated development, like Nundah, was for unit dwellers to be less dependent on vehicles, but that’s has not been the case across Brisbane.

“What we saw in the last census was that car ownership among apartment dwellers was about the same as suburban households,” Mr Matthews said.

“When you approach an urban design like Nundah, with the philosophy of reducing car ownership and realise that’s not going to work, and on-street parking has to soak up the difference, it causes businesses to struggle and you then have the perfect storm.

“It’s starts a good idea and ends up a mess.”

Cafe Be Bold recently closed and rising rents and lack of parking are some of the reasons being blamed on eateries closing down in the "Village'. Picture: Darren Cartwright

About a dozen vacant premises punctuate the ‘Village’, that stretches along Sandgate Rd, from Wood St to Buckland Rd, and at least half used to be occupied by eateries.

The Village should not be confused with the boutique shopping centre Nundah Village on the corner Buckland and Sandgate roads.

The latest to bite the dust are Be Bold cafe, the hugely popular Nundah Kitchen and The Coffee Club while others like Earth ‘n’ Sea have been long gone.

Local real estate agent James Clark said parking woes and higher rents had caused too much pain for local businesses.

He pointed out on Wednesday that the urbanisation of Nundah, through multi-level apartment complexes, did not include enough off-street parking and now on-street parking was at choking point.

The Nundah Kitchen appears it will soon reopen as another eatery after it closed on August 31. Pic: Darren Cartwright

It certainly hit a chord with The Courier-Mail’s readers online and social media.

“It’s very hard to park at Nundah so we don’t go there unless we have to. Prefer Nundah to Toombul but go to Toombul because we can park there,” Carol said at www.couriermail.com.au.

Melinda Taylor wrote that she recently took her daughter to Nundah to go to the sushi trains and after 15 minutes of looking for a car park, “decided it was all too hard so we left. Shame”.

Another reader wrote, “no parking options … plain and simple”.

It was only last year that the Brisbane City Council amended its planning guidelines to require developments to have at least two car spaces for two and three bedroom units and increase visitor parking to increase.

The shell of a former Earth ‘n’ Sea restaurant is for lease. One of about half a dozen stores that were former eateries that are vacant. Pic: Darren Cartwright

Parking Australia CEO Stuart Norman said parking limits needed to not only be in favour of retailers but heavily policed.

He also welcomed the council’s parking amendment even if they could have come a bit sooner.

“There’s definitely a link between parking and retail, however you would think that with a greater volume of people in the area there would be more people within walking distance for retailers,” Mr Norman said.

“The more parking, the better because the more residents, then the more parking needs to be provided off-street otherwise the streets will be clogged.

“You need time limits and churn and a cafe owner wants it to be a timed period to encourage that churn.”

He added that it was almost impossible for progressive areas like Nundah not to experience traffic congestion and parking difficulties following an increase in population density.

“You can’t have an influx of that amount of people and not have a flow on effect,” he said.

Local councillor Adam Ward said the council had consulted residents and businesses within Nundah Village on how best to ease parking issues.

More than 1400 responses were collected during a 2017 parking study that identified a number of key issues including improved markings and reviewing the location of accessible parking bays.

“Council is also developing an interactive parking map to provide greater information on parking in Nundah Village and this is expected to roll out by the end of this year,” Mr Allan said.

He said the State Government had a part to play by providing greater park ‘n’ ride facilities at Nundah station.