Alexander St carpark closure leaves Crows Nest businesses calling for a temporary solution

Businessman Jay Lansdown is calling on North Sydney Council to implement proposals to ease the pressure on carparking.

Crows Nest businesses are appealing for a parking solution as they say a major construction project is having a ripple effect throughout the area.

Woolworths and the adjoining Alexander Street carpark are being demolished to make way for a $40 million retail and parking development.

Businesses have noticed a drop in footfall and Jay Lansdown from the Constant Reader bookshop is appealing to North Sydney Council to swiftly implement its own suggestions to ease the pressure on parking.

“I think it would have been nicer to have it all set before the construction started,” he said.

“It would have been a bit smoother. If it can all be done as a matter of priority now it would be good.”

A loading zone on Willoughby Road.

Mr Lansdown is backing the development and pointed out that there are other carparks in the area but they aren’t as obvious. The Alexander St carpark closed on May 3 and demolition work began two days later.

The council released an action plan earlier this year detailing its proposals to deal with carparking during construction.

The plan included the following:

■ Signs to direct motorists to on-street parking and carparks in Hume and Holtermann Streets with LED signage to show the number of spaces available in the carparks

■ Angled parking spaces in Holtermann and Burlington Streets with a proposal due to go before the council for consideration in May

■ Public transport access guides available from council and Crows Nest businesses

North Sydney Council told the Mosman Daily that signs will be installed in the next fortnight to direct motorists to the Holtermann and Hume Street carparks.

A report on the proposal for angled parking will go before the next council meeting tonight.

And it said that the transport access guides are currently being developed by traffic engineers and will be available this month.

Woolworths is being demolished to make way for a multi-million dollar development.

The development is expected to be completed in mid to late 2015 and will bring parking from 130 to 294 spaces.

There are 205 spaces in the Holtermann St carpark, a mix of permanent and public in the 125-space Nicholson St carpark, and 345 spaces in the Hume St carpark.

Lauren Moore from the Crows Nest Mainstreet business group stressed that they are looking forward to the new carpark but that two years is a lifetime for small companies. She is hopeful that the loss of the carpark during construction will not crush local businesses.

Construction work at the Alexander St carpark.

She is appealing for a temporary carpark and has pinpointed an empty site that she believes would be suitable for this purpose.

“If we put temporary car parking around the area it will alleviate the problem,” she said.

However, North Sydney Council stated that using this privately owned site as a temporary carpark would not be permissible from a “planning approvals/land use” perspective.