In last month’s column, when referring to some of the changes at Mukilteo’s waterfront, I mentioned the plan to eliminate paid overnight commuter parking and how dealing with it would have to be the subject for a future column.

Well, I said it and the future then is now so I guess I’ll deal with it.

 

Construction of the new community center is in full swing and has resulted in the elimination of 131 paid parking spaces. Eliminating the parking lot for construction not only displaced overnight commuter parking and eliminated the associated parking revenue source to the community center, but it also displaced employees of nearby businesses who paid to park thereby allowing the parking spaces near the businesses to remain available to patrons.

Now that the new lower parking lot for the community center is open, the surrounding businesses are able to use it, at least for now.

 

The temporary solution to address the loss of revenue and overnight parking is by increasing the number of paid parking spaces at Lighthouse Park. During Lighthouse Park phase II construction, some of the parking has been re-striped for paid parking along with converting some of the boat trailer parking into regular paid parking spots.

 

However, with the popularity of Lighthouse Park during the summer, we need to have all the parking available for park users and although paid overnight parking is a revenue source for the city, it just doesn’t make sense to have a nice park with insufficient parking. Therefore, the current plan is come June 1, all overnight parking will be eliminated from Lighthouse Park.

 

So, now the challenge is to identify alternate locations for paid overnight parking to replace the parking being eliminated. Although the statement I often hear that it’s not Mukilteo’s responsibility to provide overnight parking for ferry commuters is technically accurate, doing nothing will actually take us back to a place we don’t want to be.

 

Some ferry commuters will start driving their cars on the ferry again resulting in longer lines and more congestion. Others will be forced to find alternatives including parking in the surrounding neighborhoods which is the reason paid overnight parking was originally implemented at Rosehill and Lighthouse Park (when it was the state park).

 

Although parking enforcement in the surrounding neighborhoods is an option that on the surface appears to make sense, in reality, it’s less effective than one might think.

If the parking infraction fines are too high, more infractions are contested and the judge is more likely to throw out infractions associated with high penalties. When one considers the cost to the city of enforcement combined with the court costs what seems like what should be a revenue source to the city actually becomes an added expense.

Therefore, penalties are kept lower than they really should be making it easier for a parking violator to take the risk and park illegally knowing the penalty may not be a valid deterrent.

Currently two solutions are being considered that could have a very positive effect at addressing the paid overnight parking issue.

The first is a Mukilteo park and ride located on Paine Field property just east of the Mukilteo Speedway at the intersection of Chennault Beach Road (Bernie Webber Drive).

A park and ride here is by no means a new idea although there is a slight twist to the idea and it now finally seems to have the “critical mass” support necessary to make it happen. The twist is that this will be a multipurpose park and ride which operates like a regular park and ride for Mukilteo during the day and operates like an overnight paid commuter parking lot at night.

Unfortunately, there’s just not enough time to make this project a reality by time the paid overnight parking goes away from Lighthouse Park in June.

The second solution is temporary paid overnight parking on the tank farm property and could, should, but very likely won’t happen by June.

The underlying reality is the transfer process is likely years away and unless the powers that be decide to accept that fact and make the interim use provided for in the transfer documents a priority, we’ll see no visible progress for years. Hopefully, we can change that but I’m not holding my breath, yet.

 

Kevin Stoltz

Mukilteo City Councilmember

 

The preceding feature is published the second Wednesday of each month for The Beacon and is the opinion of Kevin Stoltz and may or may not represent the views of Mukilteo City Council.