#27758
Sir Humphrey
Strataguru

    Also perhaps worth being aware of the Australian Standards on parking spaces. If the spaces are narrow they might only meet standards if the space to the sides are unobstructed. Eg. Spaces 2.4m wide only meet the standard if it is presumed that a car door can be opened wider by ‘borrowing’ some space from the neighbouring space.

    If a partition were put up between such spaces, then the spaces that previously met the standards would no longer meet standards. It might have been a condition of the scheme’s development approval that some number of standards compliant parking spaces be provided. 

    If the spaces are min. 2.7m wide after a partition goes up, they are OK. A space with a wall on one side and open at the other end (IE at the end of a row) should be wider than one in the middle of the bank of spaces or if there is no wall at the end and a door could swing over, for example, a kerb. 

    A space can be narrower where it is presumed that a car’s bonnet would be than in the middle of the sides where it is presumed the doors will be. So, it might be OK to place an obstacle against the boundary if it is only in the bonnet region. The standard, which I don’t have here, I am relying on memory, has a complex diagram of what can be where along the sides of a space. This is to accommodate posts and columns that might support roofing, bollards and the like. 

    My point is that getting a DA for a free-standing, removal storage unit might be a furphy but there might nonetheless be a DA-related requirement to remain compliant with standards that were relevant to the original DA of the scheme.