Melbourne councils say land has become so expensive that they cannot afford to provide enough open space for their residents, with Yarra Council calculating it would need to find $894 million to adequately accommodate its residents.

Melbourne, Yarra, Moonee Valley and Port Phillip councils on Monday addressed a Victorian parliamentary committee hearing on community access to parks, open space and sporting fields.

Cambridge Street Reserve in Collingwood, which has very little open space and a growing population, on a rainy Monday.Credit:Eddie Jim

Melbourne City Council told the hearing there was a shortfall of at least 40 hectares, despite between $60 million and $70 million in open space payments from developers yet to be spent.

Developers are compelled to make open space contributions in order to offset the demand they create by bringing in residents and other park users.

Burwood MP Michael Fowles, a member of the Legislative Assembly’s environment and planning committee, said it would cost “some gargantuan number that is beyond the means perhaps even of the state government” to meet the shortfall in the CBD.

Melbourne City Council was unable to provide a figure on how much it would cost to provide another 40 hectares of parkland.

Fiona Finlayson, an open space planner at the council, said appropriate land rarely came on the market, and those sites were often suitable for housing or apartment developments.

“So the competition, or the conflicting potential uses for those sites, really precludes being able to purchase a decent sized open space,” she said.

Ms Finlayson said the planning scheme should be amended to require open space contributions from all developments, including student housing and commercial buildings. Melbourne Council sets open space contributions at 5 per cent of the value of the land being developed, or 7.06 per cent in high-growth areas.

Yarra Council did put a figure on the shortfall of open space on its inner suburbs: $894 million.

Cambridge Street Reserve on Monday, one of the many “pocket parks” in Collingwood.Credit:Eddie Jim

Collingwood, largely serviced by pocket parks, had just 0.34 hectares of open space in 2016.

Yarra is proposing to increase the rate of its open space levy – currently set at 4.5 per cent but only applying to residential subdivisions and raising between $1 million and $3 million a year – to 10.1 per cent for all subdivisions. The council also plans to set a preference for land rather than payment for developer contributions.

Monday’s hearing comes after residents in different pockets of Melbourne complained that open space wasn’t being properly catered and planned for.

Last week, Port Phillip Council agreed to continue allowing students from the Albert Park College to use the Gasworks Park despite opposition from residents.

Claire Ulcoq, an open space planner at Port Phillip Council, said it was a good example of disputes in the council over open space.

“The challenge is, how do we provide the space for all these user groups and all these uses, and how do we prioritise these user groups ahead of each other? Or how do we plan so they can use the spaces at the same time?”

Ms Ulcoq said sporting facilities required greater financial and policy support from the state government.

“I think it definitely requires an increased focus from all levels of government, both policy and financial,” she said.

Port Phillip’s biggest park, the Albert Park Reserve, managed by the state government, is normally shut for about three months of the year for the Grand Prix.

Contests over green space intensified during Melbourne’s harsh lockdown last year.

Residents had come to depend on their local amenity more than ever, and local parks allowed for small groups to socially distance outdoors in the early stages out of lockdown.

The Victorian government has committed to creating more than 6500 hectares of parkland across Melbourne.

Councils told the inquiry they valued investment from the state government to create pocket and dog parks under the suburban parks program.

The inquiry into environmental infrastructure for growing populations will hear from more councils this week.

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