STREET parking will be removed along some of the city's busiest roads to make way for bicycle lanes and public transport.
Hundreds of on-street spaces could go as Melbourne City Council plans to spend $3 million including $1.4 million which has been set aside for Flemington Rd bike lanes.
A dedicated bus lane will be built along Victoria Parade resulting in 202 fewer parking spaces. Announcing the council's draft budget, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said it was "One of the costs of a very busy city".
"Undercover car parking will become an option for people," Cr Doyle said.
"While you might see some reduction in on-street spaces remember in the overall picture it's only about 3000 spaces in total, so I don't see that as any great effect overall on spaces in the city."
Cr Doyle also lashed out at Occupy Melbourne protesters after revelations that the City of Melbourne paid more than $554,000 to Hunt & Hunt Lawyers since 2011 after activists sued.
A further $71,000 was spent on emergency barricades and to clean up the area and remove graffiti, according to Freedom of Information documents.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said he despaired at recovering costs.
"Would I rather have that money at my disposal in this budget to do more? Absolutely I would," Cr Doyle said.
"Therefore for me ... I find it very frustrating. Not just that we were taken to court, that we won, we had costs awarded to us. But we're not going to see in all likelihood those costs."
And now we're also being taken to the Full Bench of the Federal Court which will incur further costs and that's why we have made an application in that Federal Court action for security of costs.
"Would I prefer to have that money ... to actually spend on the taxpayers on sustainability, on livability, on developing business, you bet I would."
The councils plans to spend about $1 million to kickstart the Queen Victoria redevelopment under an ambitious capital works program over the next year.
Rates will rise by 3.6 per cent in 2014/15 but the council expects only a small increase in revenue from parking fees and fines after a massive hike in on-street parking fees last year.
About $100 million was set aside for major works and includes $7 million for new and improved parks./ppQueen Victoria Market will get $942,000 for master plans and community engagement under its $250 million redevelopment which is expected to take a decade.
Ratepayers will fork out $230 million in rates while revenue from fees and charges will rise by $835,000 to $110 million over the next year.
Finance and Governance chairman Cr Stephen Mayne said revenue was parking fees and fines was expected to remain flat.
"We appear to have reached the peak of parking revenue in the City of Melbourne and we can no longer rely on compounding growth in parking fees and fines revenue," Cr Mayne said.
The budget included a $6.5 million underlying surplus.
John.masanauskas@news.co.au
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