VicRoads Ringwood: No public parking at new Maroondah Hwy centre

A busy hub for key VicRoads operations is set to open in Ringwood’s tallest building — but you’ll never guess what it’s missing.

A $100m tower home to VicRoads and the Department of Transport will have no spots for visitors to park their car, with locals concerned access to the new building could lead to a traffic “disaster”.

VicRoads’ Ringwood customer service hub will open on Monday, July 18, at the 11-storey EastCo tower on Maroondah Highway, which is Maroondah’s tallest building.

The hub, on the ground level, is designed for customers needing quick, walk-in transactions, and compliments VicRoads’ license testing centre which opened on Heatherdale Rd in April.

The $100m building, built on land owned by Eastland shopping centre owners Queensland Investment Corporation, will also be home to up to 1000 workers from the department.

Despite having four levels of parking above the hub, Leader understands the spaces are reserved for department workers working in the offices, and VicRoads’ fleet cars.

VicRoads is instead directing visitors to use Eastland’s parking facilities across the road or take public transport, including trains to Ringwood railway station next door.

Readers were underwhelmed at the plans on Maroondah Leader’s Facebook page, with Carolyn Gray saying it was the “wrong building in the wrong place”.

Peter Vulic wrote: “It’s VicRoads, who the hell thought ‘yeah nah this business doesn’t revolve around vehicles, they can all just use the train.”

Sebastian Moon wrote: “Congestion is already bad enough around there, and with limited parking it’s going to be a disaster.”

Darren Potter feared the centre’s opening would make Maroondah Highway “much busier” for pedestrians, and Eastland’s carparks were “about to get much more busier and richer for the centre”.

Eastland general manager Greg Balmforth said the centre’s carparks were “designed to be used as convenient parking for the Ringwood CBD” and was not concerned about a potential rise in usage with the hub’s opening or a lack of spaces.

“The VicRoads customer hub will join a range of other businesses whose customers park at Eastland during normal business hours, including Maroondah Council, Realm, and Ringwood Magistrates Court,” he said.

“These businesses operate within weekday business hours, which do not overlap with what are

considered peak shopping times at Eastland.”

Mr Balmforth said Eastland had no plans to increase its paid parking rates in the near future, which begin at $3 for stays longer than three hours.

A Department of Transport spokesman said the hub was “the final step in bringing all VicRoads registration and licensing services to the heart of Ringwood’’.

The spokesman said customers undergoing licence testing would not need to visit the customer service hub, with 50 spaces available at the dedicated Heatherdale Rd facility.

“The modern, state-of-the-art hub will deliver all registration and licensing transactions and services, other than licence testing and vehicle inspections, to VicRoads customers in the local area,” he said.