{"id":725816,"date":"2026-06-09T20:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725816\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T20:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T20:00:15","slug":"toorak-village-traders-urge-compensation-over-car-park-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725816\/","title":{"rendered":"Toorak Village: Traders urge compensation over car park closure"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One day, business at Karlie Crow\u2019s Toorak Village clothing shop was booming. The next, she saw foot traffic plummet and sales drop.<\/p>\n

Crow decided to move her business away from Carters Avenue off Toorak Road after learning a Stonnington Council-owned car park opposite her shop would shut for three years during construction <\/a>on a new development from James Packer-backed Orchard Piper.<\/p>\n

\"ToorakToorak business owner Karlie Crow at the closed car park in Carters Avenue opposite her old shop on Tuesday morning.Joe Armao<\/p>\n

Even though Crow expected to take a hit when the 43 spots were fenced off in late April, she was still shocked by how quickly customers stopped popping in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had to relocate my business in order to survive,\u201d Crow said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe majority of my foot traffic at the old shop came from the car park, people parking their cars, seeing my store, coming in. Without that, I had zero visibility, I simply don\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crow has now fully moved Beach to Bar Wear to Toorak Road as she wanted to stay close to her existing customers. She is keeping her old premises as a storage space because her landlord reduced the rent, with plans for her to move back.<\/p>\n

She supports the One Toorak Place development, which will include luxury apartments and a Chris Lucas dining precinct, but said moving was expensive.<\/p>\n

George Tannous, owner of nearby Romeo\u2019s of Toorak restaurant, said parking had become a \u201creal nightmare\u201d and his lunchtime trade dropped once the car park closed. He was disappointed traders weren\u2019t consulted and fears the strip has not yet experienced the worst of the car park closure as it only happened a month ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople walk in at dinner at 7pm going \u2018Oh my god, we\u2019ve been driving around for half an hour looking for parking\u2019, so it\u2019s already evident. Meantime, we\u2019ve got 40 car parks around the corner, all fenced off, empty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these restaurants are the opening up, great for the village, long term it\u2019s fantastic. But right now, short term, where are these people going to park? Because they don\u2019t all catch Ubers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The council will receive about $345,000 for use of the car park in 2026-2027 financial year, a decision made by the chief executive Dale Dickson who said it was due to reasons including protecting public safety, ensuring the shortest possible construction time and minimising disruption.<\/p>\n

Crow and Tannous are among traders calling on the council to provide some form of compensation or financial assistance during the closure, with suggestions ranging from reduced permit fees for signs on footpaths, subsidies for paid spots or even rate reductions.<\/p>\n

Toorak Village Traders Association president Don Gurr said while at first glance 43 spots did not sound like a lot, Carters Avenue had up to five car turnovers per day which added up to a significant amount of money not spent within the village over three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling is \u2018it\u2019s Toorak, you people can afford it\u2019. Well no, it\u2019s just a shopping strip like anywhere else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people that own the shops and businesses pretty much do not live in Toorak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gurr said traders had also been impacted by construction works on two other nearby buildings, footpath refurbishments and pandemic-related closures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an accumulation of all these significant distracting events that\u2019s kept people away, then all of a sudden we get a clear run of it and that one car park goes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The loss of the Carters Avenue car park is a 17 per cent reduction in available public car parks in the area, with free spots over the other side of Toorak Road at Jackson Street, on-street and paid parking within the St Germain building and Tok H Centre.<\/p>\n

Crow said Jackson Street was primarily used by shoppers visiting Coles or Woolworths and was not big enough to support the wider Toorak Village filled with independent shops, service-based businesses and medical rooms which can attract elderly people.<\/p>\n

\"ToorakToorak business owner Karlie Crow at her new shop on Toorak Road.Joe Armao<\/p>\n

Deva Shoes owner Amanda Robinson, who also reported a drop in foot traffic since the Carters Avenue car park shut, said one-hour street parking on Toorak Road was a challenge for customers wanting to visit multiple places.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time they go to one appointment or do one thing, their hour\u2019s up if they\u2019ve got a spot. Otherwise, I\u2019ve got customers who are doing laps repeatedly and then give up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Toorak shopper Rhona Millar said finding a park near the retail centre had become increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis was my local for a long time but it put me off coming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tend to park way down the road because I\u2019m able to walk but if you look around the demographic seems quite elderly.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Anthony Borya, who can walk to the village from home, said he rarely needed to pay for parking when he drives to the shops.<\/p>\n

\u201cCar parks are plentiful in the village,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Dickson said the council understood the closure would be challenging for residents and businesses, but public safety was the biggest priority.<\/p>\n

He said Stonnington would consider measures to support businesses but shared use outside of construction hours would not be possible as the builder Cobild would be using the car park as a works staging zone and storage area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there will be some short-term disruption, this development will contribute to the ongoing vitality of Toorak Village through new housing, and dining choices, increased activity, and additional customers for local businesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\"RachaelRachael Ward<\/a> is a journalist in the City team at The Age. Contact her at rachael.ward@theage.com.auConnect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-725816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}