We've received significant community support for the continuation of outdoor parklets in Banyule. Council has decided to make five parklets permanent. Wider footpaths will replace the existing parklets and will continue to support outdoor dining and community gathering.

The parklets to be made permanent are:

• Parklet 1 (collective) - 195 – 209 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe
• Parklet 2 (collective) - 227 – 235 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe
• Parklet 3 - 92 Burgundy St, Heidelberg
• Parklet 4 - 138 – 142 Burgundy Street, Heidelberg
• Parklet 5 - 82 – 84 Silverdale Road, Eaglemont

The parklet in Burton Crescent, East Ivanhoe has been made permanent as part of East Ivanhoe Shopping Village Upgrade.

The existing parklets will remain until construction starts in mid-2026.

Background

In response to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the hospitality sector, the Victorian Government introduced a Temporary Outdoor Dining Initiative in 2020. This Initiative encouraged local councils to support the implementation of temporary extended outdoor dining spaces, including the installation of parklets and pop-up parks. Council built seven parklets and three pop-up parks through this initiative.

In April – May 2022 Council consulted the community to evaluate the success of the parklets and determine the next steps. Based on the community feedback Council decided to continue the parklet and ultimately to make the successful parklets permanent.

View the past engagement - April/May 2022 tab below for further details.

In April and May 2022, we spoke with community members and traders to determine next steps for the parklets and pop-up parks. A complete set of consultation findings can be found here.

Participation in the consultation included:

• 334 survey completions by 281 residents, 13 visitors to Banyule, 21 business owners and 19 workers
• 44 participants in community pop-ups, who provided 195 unique comments
• 11 telephone interviews with business owners located next to pop-up parks or dining parklets.

The consultation activities were promoted through social media, project flyers, signage and printed images of the parklets and parks.

What we heard...

Benefits of the pop-up parks

For a majority of residents, local workers and visitors to Banyule, the impact of the pop-up parks has been positive.

Most businesses reported that the pop-up parks had made positive impacts on their business. Of the 21 businesses who completed the survey, nine reported that dining parklets had a positive impact, two that they had no impact, five that they had a negative impact and five that they were too far away to have an impact.

Impacts of outdoor dining parklets

The residents, visitors and local workers were overwhelmingly positive about the outdoor dining parklets.

Improvements to outdoor dining parklets

Common themes:

In April 2021, we spoke to the community and traders to understand the impacts of the temporary outdoor initiative to determine if the parklets and temporary outdoor dining spaces should remain for a further 12 months.

Engagement activities involved:

• Telephone interviews with parklet traders
• Telephone interviews with a random selection of traders located near to the parklets
• Six community pop-up sessions at the three parklet sites
• Online stakeholder survey.

A total of 308 participants were involved in the engagement activities.

The findings showed a high level of support for the program from the community and in June 2021, Council approved the outdoor dining initiative through to 30 June 2022, waiving all permit costs for businesses associated with the Initiative.