Thank you to everyone who participated in community engagement and consultation in April and May 2022 to work out next steps for our outdoor dining spaces (parklets) and understand visitor experience at our three pop-up parks.

On 27 June 2022, Council met to discuss findings from this consultation and agreed to:

• Continue the parklet program
• Shorten the parklet in Ivanhoe from 187-209 to 187-205 Upper Heidelberg Road
• Develop a Banyule Parklet Policy and Design Guidelines
• Extend outdoor dining permits and waive permit fees for the 2022/23 financial year.

View the full report.

If you want to know more about what happened at the Council meeting, check out item 7.1 in the Council meeting Agenda and Documents. Or watch the recording of the meeting on Facebook. The discussion on the outdoor dining spaces and pop-up parks starts at minute 11:32 and ends at minute 38:37.

Background

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

What is a parklet?

A parklet is a footpath extension that provides more space and amenities for people using the street, including outdoor dining.

What is a pop-up park?

Pop-up parks can last a day, many weeks or can become permanent. They are small green spaces, usually nestled in an urban area.

Banyule outdoor spaces

During Victoria's COVID -19 lockdown in 2020, we constructed parklets and pop-up parks around Banyule to alleviate the pressure of restrictions on traders and community. Parklets and pop-up parks were a relatively low-cost way to extend outdoor spaces, helping to overcome density limits and provide additional outdoor space for people using the street.

Here is a list of the parklets and pop-up parks installed across Banyule:

Parklet 1 - 187 – 209 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe - Café Strada, Woodfire Pizzeria and Cucina and Toyama Japanese Cruisine (collective parklet). This will be shortened to 187-205 Upper Heidelberg Road following the 27 June 2022 Council meeting.
Parklet 2 - 227-235 Upper Heidelberg road, Ivanhoe – Souva So good, Gotham Donuts and Cosi Duci (collective parklet)
Parklet 3 - 92 Burgundy St, Heidelberg – Sir Henry Barkley Hotel (individual parklet)
Parklet 4 - 138 Burgundy street, Heidelberg – The Alleyway café (individual parklet)
Parklet 5 - 57 Burgundy Street, Heidelberg – Elia Greek Tavern (individual parklet)
Parklet 6 - 48 Burgundy Street, Heidelberg – Little Black Pig & Sons (individual parklet)
Parklet 7 - 82/84 Silverdale Rd, Eaglemont - Eaglemont Cellars Wine Bar (individual parklet)
Pop Up Park 1 - Greensborough Walk, 1 Flintoff Street, Greensborough
Pop Up Park 2 - Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub, 275 Upper Heidelberg Rd, Ivanhoe
Pop Up Park 3 - Burton Crescent, East Ivanhoe

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.