We plan to make some improvements to Dickins Corner shopping strip, located at the busy intersection of Doncaster and Burke roads in Balwyn North. The aim is to:

  • enhance the shopping strip’s appearance
  • add more greenery while minimising any loss of car parking
  • improve accessibility and safety for pedestrians.

About the improvements

These improvements include:

  • upgrading the footpaths using asphalt
  • installing public furniture like seating, bins and bicycle hoops
  • greening the shopping strip by installing garden beds and stainless-steel climbing frames for Jasmine plants to grow on
  • adding more shade to the shopping strip and car parks by planting 11 new trees (shown as pink circles on the plan below)
  • making some kerb and level adjustments to the north side of Maud Street near Burke Road to create more separation between the car parks and the footpath.

Select the Hotspots below to view the plan. The green circles represent existing trees to be retained.

Base map showing Dickins Corner shopping strip.

Please note: All design elements shown are subject to change based on final budget review, authority approvals and site conditions.

Changes to car parking

As well as the improvements mentioned above, we are also:

  • proposing to change some of the car parking spaces in the Council-owned car park between Doncaster Road and Maud Street from 2-hour parking to 4-hour parking to encourage longer visitation
  • removing a 2-hour parking space in the Council-owned car park to upgrade the existing car parking space that complies with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
  • removing 2 car parking spaces from the north side of Maud Street near Burke Road to accommodate necessary level and kerb adjustments.

Trader permit parking

Traders and businesses in the shopping strip have made requests for additional permit parking spaces in the Council-owned car park.

To better understand the parking demand in this car park, a parking occupancy survey was undertaken in 2019. Further site inspections and spot surveys were also undertaken in 2023. The results showed that:

  • ‘Trader Permit Zone’, ‘4 hour’ and ‘Unrestricted’ parking are all being utilised at capacity
  • ‘2 hour’ parking has spare capacity with maximum utilisation observed at close to 60% of the capacity.

Based on the requests we received and our observations, we are proposing to convert 9 of the ‘Unrestricted’ parking spaces on the eastern boundary of the Council-owned car park to ‘Trader Permit Zone’ parking spaces.

The proposed parking changes are shown in the plan below.

Base map showing Dickins Corner shopping strip.

Have your say

From Monday 21 August to 5 pm Sunday 10 September 2023, community members, business operators and commercial property owners/landlords were invited to provide feedback on:

  • converting some car parking spaces into space for new trees.

In accordance with Council’s Parking Management Policy and Procedures 2017, business operators in this shopping area were also invited to provide feedback on:

  • changing nine 2-hour parking spots into 4-hour parking spots
  • converting nine of the ‘Unrestricted’ parking spaces on the eastern boundary of the car park to ‘Trader Permit Zone’ parking spaces.

We will consider all feedback and update our community about the outcome. Construction for the shopping centre improvements is expected to commence in the 2024-25 financial year.

Select ‘Follow’ at the top of this page to receive updates about these improvements.