Most of Barangaroo's public on-street parking would be abolished and the number of spaces allocated to private development significantly increased, under proposed changes to the area's concept plan.
The number of on-street car spaces within the 22-hectare precinct would be slashed from the approved 275 spots to just 40, if the modification is signed off by the state government.
At the same time, the 1166 car spaces for apartments would almost double to an estimated 2100 to 2205 spaces.
This is in addition to the 500 car spaces that Crown is seeking for its resort – up from just 156 spots allocated to the hotel approved on a pier over the harbour about five years ago.
"Having access to a modest level of car parking is absolutely essential to the day-to-day functioning of a globally recognised six-star hotel," a Crown spokesman said.
James Packer's company is also seeking an extra 110 car spaces for the apartments that comprise almost half the floors of its 275-metre tower.
Most of the proposed parking changes have been set out as part of the revised concept plan for Barangaroo South, known as "modification 8", which moves the hotel approved over the harbour in 2010 back onshore, incorporates Crown's significantly larger proposal, as well as Lend Lease's three residential towers.
The gross floor area being sought across Barangaroo is now more than double the 330,000 square metres set out in the original 2005 design brief.
Documents submitted by Lend Lease said the reduction in the number of on-street car spaces to 40 was due to the "design development" of two streets in the precinct, "and conversion of internal roads previously envisaged as vehicular thoroughfares to dedicated pedestrian routes".
"This should further discourage the use of vehicles as a mode of travel to the Barangaroo site," the environmental assessment report said.
The company's transport management and accessibility plan said modelling indicated there would be "little difference" to the performance of the road network due to the "very minor traffic increase" arising from the concept plan modification.
The final amount of residential parking is to be determined as part of the planning process for each building.
"It should be noted that the traffic generation rate for the residential component of the site is based on the number of dwellings provided, and is independent of the number of parking bays provided," it said.
Lend Lease's managing director for Barangaroo South, Andrew Wilson, said the company's objective was for more than 90 per cent of visitors to access Barangaroo by public transport, cycling or walking.
"With significant investment into new transport solutions and infrastructure, the precinct will be accessible and well connected to wider Sydney," Mr Wilson said.
The Crown spokesman said: "The vast majority of car movements to and from the hotel will be counter cyclical and in off-peak periods, so the hotel will not add to CBD congestion".
The 300 car spaces previously approved for a parkland public carpark would remain unchanged under the proposal, while commercial car parking has dropped by five to 647 spaces.
City of Sydney councillor and planning lawyer John Mant said the parking increases highlighted "the ridiculousness of permitting development of this density in this location".
