I’m a week late with this month’s column and chose a topic that will undoubtedly offend some for many reasons, which I’ll leave to your imagination.

The topic is transportation, parking, and safety at Mukilteo’s waterfront area. But this time my emphasis is on the workarounds and how we get through this summer season because, frankly, the plans to improve the situation either won’t be implemented until after summer or simply aren’t working.

We knew there was a problem last year when the expanded ferry holding lanes opened, resulting in more pedestrians out of their cars at the ferry dock intersection, which in turn competed with the flow of traffic. Add to that the increased popularity of Lighthouse Park and, without any kind of mitigation, the result wasn’t pretty.

Unfortunately, the end result was the shorter ferry holding line up the hill was replaced with more congestion in the main line. In other words, the increased size of the ferry holding area resulted in making it more difficult to get to the waterfront area and Old Town. Mitigation was an afterthought, and we’re living with the consequences. It will get better, but will never be good.

Let’s start with the Farmer’s Market, a wonderful weekly market on Wednesday’s between 3 and 7 p.m. at Lighthouse Park. Last year was the first year the market was at Lighthouse Park, and the parking as well as the congestion at the ferry dock intersection was a huge problem for the market.

One of the biggest efforts in the Waterfront Wednesdays collaboration with the Farmers Market was to help address the known problems. Unfortunately, although we have approved solutions that will help, the schedule and implementation of those solutions has all but fallen apart for this year.

We’re seven weeks into the market, and the parking at Lighthouse Park fills up completely and the traffic on the Mukilteo Speedway frequently is backed up past 5th, often past Goat Trail, and sometimes much worse.

Last week, I was coming down the hill and got stuck in the congestion between 5th and Goat Trail. Cars in front of me were making U-turns and heading back up the hill. I made a U-turn and took the alternate route that has become all-too-common for residents who live in this area.

The good news is, the alternate route will get you to the waterfront area if you’re able and willing to walk down the bridge. After you turn at Goat Trail, turn left on Washington. This allows you to bypass the congestion on the Speedway and will bring you down Lincoln at 5th.

Cross 5th and turn right on 3rd where there’s ample parking on the street and in the Community Center parking lot. This is the perfect parking location if you’re coming down to enjoy Open Mic night at the Red Cup café Wednesday evenings from 6-8 p.m.

It’s very easy to park in this area and walk down to the Farmer’s Market or the Art Building where there are also art studio tours and glass blowing demonstrations Wednesdays late afternoon/early evenings.

If you’re coming to Lighthouse Park at a time when the traffic isn’t backed up too far or is moving reasonably well, yet there’s no parking at Lighthouse Park, there’s usually parking in the Sounder parking lot, which is on the opposite side of the ferry holding area around the corner from the Art Building. As long as it’s not during the day on weekdays, I’m “told” it’s OK for non-Sounder patrons to park there.

The Mukilteo Art Festival was this past Saturday at Lighthouse Park. It was a great event, but parking at Lighthouse Park was full most of the day. Many people parked at the Sounder lot, and others parked up above and walked down. Unfortunately, many chose not to deal with it and turned around and left.

There were some interesting parking events that exasperated the problem. There was a person with a boat trailer who instead of parking in the boat trailer parking area chose to park in the regular parking area, crosswise, taking up at least six parking spaces.

To make matters worse, the Mukilteo Police, who are now more actively patrolling Lighthouse Park, said there’s not much they could do about it. This is kind of baffling to me because the council recently approved some park rules that gave the police the authority necessary to enforce fires in fire pits only (although I frequently see fires outside of the pits, probably because the signs say no beach wood fires and don’t distinguish that there are to be no fires outside of the fire pits). I would think we’d be able to enforce parking rules at the park.

And finally, a bit a preparation for the Lighthouse Festival in September. Keep in mind nothing has changed to ease (pedestrian) access to Lighthouse Park, and there is no parking at the park during the festival. Everyone will have to pass through the ferry dock intersection.

If all goes well, next year the pedestrian underpass will be completed, which will ease the pedestrian congestion at the ferry dock intersection. For this year, try to take the bus if you can (it will be taking the “alternate” routes to avoid the Speedway), and if you need to drive, consider avoiding the Speedway by taking the “alternate” route mentioned above (although you may need to start the route further up the hill to avoid the Speedway).
 
The preceding feature is published the 2nd Wednesday of each month for The Beacon and is the opinion of Kevin Stoltz and may or may not represent the views of the Mukilteo City Council.