SUMMARY: 

The land on the very narrow public foreshore reserves around Port Phillip designated for the general public's parking and vehicle access should be greatly reduced to decrease the environmental impact of vehicles on those reserves. Alternative provision should be made further inland if necessary. All  land where public vehicle access is prohibited should be protected by unobtrusive barriers, mounds or moats to prevent such access to it. No additional area of foreshore land should be established or allowed for such vehicle parking or access, nor should existing areas where it is allowed be extended. There should be no underground car parks, which intensify visitor pressure and urbanization. 

DETAIL: 

Special Parking: Parking for vehicles carrying disabled persons, or for authorized service, delivery, management, police, fire, or emergency purposes should be provided only to the minimum extent justifiable. Foreshore access should only be available to bikes, cars, coaches and boat trailers, except where individual exemption is obtained. 

Priorities:      (a) The first priority in control of access and parking should be the marking on gazetted management plans for all public foreshore reserves of all the areas for which unauthorized vehicle access is prohibited. 
                     (b) The second priority should be for the Port Phillip level management authority to determine the priorities for the provision of physical restrictions to such access and implement them. 
                    (c) The third priority should be to determine the priorities of the areas of foreshore vehicle parks to be reduced, and any related alternative provision of parking. The highest priority should be given to the reduction, preferably total, of unpaved parking areas as their use is generally less entrenched than that of paved areas, they still tend to be in areas with more remnant indigenous vegetation and alternative inland sites, and they can be revegetated more cheaply and with less overall environmental disturbance, including the disposal of the paving, than paved areas. No parking areas that are presently unpaved should be paved. The lowest priority for reduction of parking areas could apply to areas presently allocated for the parking of boat trailers that complement existing boat ramps, but new boat trailer parking areas should not be part of any present public foreshore reserve. 
                    (d) The fourth priority should be to restructure the areas with the lowest priority for removal, to reduce their environmental impact, both when full and empty, including screening with indigenous planting. 

Control of demand: Timed meter parking is desirable at all foreshore vehicle parks, with substantial fines for non-compliance, and a suitable percentage of the spaces, other than for boat trailers, being subject to a short maximum period of uninterrupted occupancy. The hourly fee should be set high enough to discourage too much long-term occupancy, to maintain a fair and equitable usage pattern. The foreshore vehicle parking fees obtained should be placed in a fund for the eventual purchase of alternative vehicle parking areas inland of the public foreshore, rather than being used to offset costs of providing and operating the vehicle parks. 

Minimizing area of year-round vehicle parks: Most areas reserved for vehicle parking exhibit long established seasonal patterns of occupancy. These should be divided into core areas that are available year-round, and overflow areas, connected by an officially lockable gated access, with the surface of the areas being well-drained, and stabilized for occasional parking use by, preferably indigenous, non-infesting ground cover vegetation not requiring mowing, these overflow areas thus being enhanced for other foreshore activities and landscape value. 

ADOPTION: 

This Revision No. 1 of PPCC Inc. Policy Statement No. 9 was adopted by a General Meeting of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. on 30th April 2001.