Mukilteo to get tough on parking violations in Old Town

Published 11:13 pm Sunday, May 25, 2008

MUKILTEO — It’s an open secret: Mukilteo hasn’t been enforcing the parking rules in Old Town.

That could soon change.

Mukilteo leaders are planning to take a more aggressive stance against people who leave their cars on city streets to save time and money on ferry rides.

Although commuters have been doing this for years — some Whidbey Island residents keep one car within walking distance of each ferry terminal, so they can walk onto the ferry — hundreds of commuter parking places are planned to be removed from Old Town, Mukilteo Mayor Joe Marine said.

So the city needs to beef up its parking enforcement, Marine said.

“We’re changing the waterfront,” Marine said. “It’s not going to be ferry-centric.”

Many streets in Old Town are designated as four-hour parking zones. Violating those rules would result in a $20 ticket.

Changes to Old Town’s parking situation would affect people like Dylan McDanniel, who commutes from Whidbey Island to Lynnwood, where he co-founded an Internet marketing company.

McDanniel’s commute would be several hours longer if he couldn’t keep cars on both sides, he said.

“In theory, I could catch a bus (in Mukilteo), but I don’t want to be at the mercy of the bus schedules,” McDanniel said.

Police haven’t been enforcing the rules because there is usually enough parking for everyone, Marine said.

However, by the summer of 2009, the city plans to remove roughly 430 commuter parking places from Lighthouse Park and the Rosehill Community Center. More renovations are planned at the park, and the city plans to demolish Rosehill and build a new community center.

The Mukilteo City Council plans to begin discussing the parking issues in Old Town in early July.

Community Transit and Everett Transit have bus routes with stops at the ferry terminal. Community Transit has routes from the terminal that take riders to Boeing, the Lynnwood Transit Center, the University of Washington and downtown Seattle.

Also, Sounder trains are scheduled to begin stopping at the new train platform in Old Town — just a short walk from the ferry terminal — in early June.

“(Commuters) have always had the option to walk on and catch a bus to wherever they’re going,” Marine said. “Now, they have the option to walk on and catch a train to where they’re going. How long do we want to let them leave their cars over here for their convenience?”

City officials are also talking with Community Transit about building a park-and-ride for ferry commuters, possibly using a shuttle bus to connect the lot with the ferry terminal.

Community Transit doesn’t currently have the money for a new park-and-ride, spokesman Martin Munguia said.

“We’re hopeful that we can find something in the near future,” Munguia said. “We do know that’s a need we have in that area, and we do want to do a better job of serving the terminal.”

Joe Aylesworth of Clinton isn’t worried about parking in Mukilteo. He already takes the bus to get from the ferry terminal to his job at Boeing.

More people have been riding the bus lately because of rising gas prices, he said.

“It’s great,” Aylesworth said. “It’s door-to-door basically. The buses are really full right now.”

Jay Morris, who lives in Old Town, said he supports enforcing the parking rules to keep commuter parking from spilling over into neighborhoods.

The new train platform will give people more transportation options, but it might also add to the parking problem, Morris said.

“I think the approach the city wants to take would be appropriate,” Morris said. “We don’t want a lot of cars parking in the street and taking our parking places away from us.”

Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.