South Australia is proposing laws that will force developers to build bigger garages in new homes, in an effort to stop cars too big for standard off-street parking from crowding suburban streets.
Under the plan, which is still in the consultation process, residential car park sizes will have to be half a metre wider and 60cm longer to accommodate big cars and dual-cab utes. The size of a single car park, under the proposed changes, would be 3.5m wide and 6m long.
The state premier, Peter Malinauskas, said people were “sick of seeing their suburbs being overrrun by cars often double-parked on otherwise quiet streets” because vehicles could not fit in current garages.
He also announced on Monday that new one-bedroom homes must have at least one parking space, and homes with two or more bedrooms must have at least two.
Malinauskas said it was “ridiculous that many modern garages are not built big enough to fit the most popular cars sold in our country, from dual-cab utes right down to SUVs”.
“We’re going to fix it – by bringing our planning laws up to date.”
While there would be some exemptions, developers generally who did not meet the criteria would have to pay up to $45,000 into a fund that would go towards public parking and bike parking.
Larger vehicles have soared in popularity in recent years, particularly since tax perks such as the instant asset write-off were introduced.
Ford’s Ranger ute was the most popular new car last year, according to statistics from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. The top 10 spots on the list were all taken by SUVs and utes, with the exception of the Toyota Corolla.
The Ford Ranger is about 5.4m long and 1.9m wide.
SA Greens transport spokesperson, Robert Simms, called the state proposal “absurd” and that the answer to congestion was investment in public transport and cycling infrastructure, and that bigger parking spaces would make new homes more expensive.
“It’s absurd that in the middle of a climate crisis, the state government would be forcing developers to build bigger garages. All this will do is entrench South Australia’s reliance on car travel,” he said.
“Surely the answer here is to boost the investment we need in public transport and cycling infrastructure to offer real alternatives to car travel? Why not make public transport free, to reduce costs for families and make public transport a more attractive option?
“Bigger garage spaces could add tens of thousands of dollars to the costs of a new home in the middle of this housing crisis.”
SA Liberal leader, Vincent Tarzia, said congestion on streets caused by parked cars was a “pressing issue”, but that anything that pushed house prices up further was “of great concern”.
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Urban planning expert Dr David Mepham, author of Rethinking Parking, pointed out that in general, increased parking spaces in homes would not fix the problem.
“Just say, hypothetically we do this in new developments. So I go and buy the latest Ram [a pickup truck that can be over 6m long and 2.5m wide] and I put it into my huge car park … then I want to see my doctor in the city,” Mepham said.
“The car park in the city was probably built 10, 20 years ago, and I can’t get my car into [it] without seriously impacting on the car each side of me. I’ve completely filled up that car park. You can’t properly open the door.”
Standards Australia has previously recommended an increase to car park size on the street and in parking lots, and is due to finalise their updated recommendations in the first half of 2025.
But Mepham said increasing public car park sizes would mean fewer actual spaces, also making them more expensive.
Mepham said trends internationally were generally moving away from the idea of mandated minimum sizes for car spaces. Especially among ageing populations, he noted, people might be downsizing and no longer need a car – but be forced to pay for a space regardless.
He suggested quantifying the cost of car parks and passing that cost on to drivers was one way to get drivers to rethink buying big, environmentally unfriendly cars.
“We need to nudge back against parking, and the way we do that is make them pay the full price.”
