Published on Thursday, 5 September 2019 at 3:03:08 PM

We are turning the Brisbane Street car park into an urban forest by planting 71 additional trees and remaking the garden beds with a water sensitive design that harvests the rainwater runoff from the carpark.

The design keeps the existing car park configuration but maximises opportunities for tree planting and improved garden areas. The existing mature trees in the carpark will be retained and added to with surrounding garden, including Cape Lilac trees that are regularly visited by red-tail black cockatoos.

“It was time for us to upgrade our Brisbane Street car park and this presented a great opportunity for Vincent to try a new approach. This is a smarter and more environmentally friendly design that boosts our tree canopy cover,” said Mayor Emma Cole.

“When it is finished, the car park will be environmentally friendly, more attractive for parkers and those passing by and much cooler during our hot summer months. It will also be safer with lighting upgrades included in the design.”

The carpark will achieve 60% canopy coverage when the new trees grow to maturity. Our Greening Plan has a target to increase the tree canopy in the City to 20% by 2050. We aim to achieve this by planting more trees on public land, encouraging residents to plant and retain trees and for developers to include trees in their designs.

“Designing 71 new trees into existing hard stand infrastructure helps us increase our tree canopy cover and also provides so many benefits to our local community by providing shade, combating urban heat and supporting biodiversity. Interestingly, the shade from trees also helps preserve the life of asphalt, with less maintenance costs, so it’s a good investment,” said Mayor Cole.

Works on the car park started on 27 August and are due for completion in early December. To upgrade the car park, sections of it will be closed in stages until November.

Greening Plan

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