Times Past: April 4, 1984

At the time, NCDC commissioner Tony Powell, said the impact of large-scale development projects now underway and proposed for Civic would register dramatically on the availability of parking.

Mr Powell said the NCDC would intensify its efforts to wipe out free all-day parking in Civic.

"There is no good mincing words about that - the availability of parking will be significantly reduced and... the loss of parking will be an instant effect," he said.

Mr Powell said the prospects for Civic "are very good indeed and Civic's status as the central business district of Canberra is certainly not under any kind of threat".

However, the impact on parking would be dramatic.

"There are no clever solutions to that, so in the report we highlight the parking problem as the key issue over the next two or three years in relation to Civic's development, and a related aspect is of course the capacity of the public transport system to make up for the deficiency in the availability of parking," Mr Powell said.

"The commission has estimated that, over the next five years, the Government will have to build, or it will have to cause to be built by private enterprise, a minimum of four parking structures at an estimated cost of $40 million to $50 million.

"In addition, it will also be necessary to eliminate virtually all free parking in Civic."

See: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/12940143