MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Taylor Mathena, 19, never had many early-morning customers at the Shell gas station in downtown Mountlake Terrace.
That changed quickly when the Mountlake Terrace park-and-ride was closed for construction.
Work crews recently broke ground on a new park-and-ride parking garage, which is expected to be the centerpiece of the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center. The transit center is scheduled to be finished by spring 2009.
Until then, commuters are leaving their vehicles downtown in parking lots leased by Community Transit.
“We’re getting a lot more business here,” said Mathena, whose station is at 56th Avenue W. and 236th Street SW. “We sell Community Transit passes here, and the coffee stand next to us is always slammed.”
The $19.4-million Mountlake Terrace Transit Center is expected to feature more parking, new transit shelters and possibly new bus connections, Community Transit spokesman Tom Pearce said.
The center is also planned to feature a pedestrian bridge connecting the parking garage to Sound Transit’s planned bus station in the I-5 freeway median at 236th Street SW. When completed, people who live in Mountlake Terrace will no longer have to go to Lynnwood to ride a Sound Transit bus into Seattle, Pearce said.
The parking garage is planned to be big enough to hold 685 vehicles, with space for another 205 parking places outside at the transit center. That’s a total of 890 parking places, up from 390 spaces at the park-and-ride before construction started.
“The demand for park-and-ride spaces is very high,” Pearce said. “That demand is going to probably double in the next 10 years. It’s getting harder and harder to find land to buy to build park-and-rides, so going up may be the way to go, putting garages on existing facilities.”
Workers have already torn out the lower parking lot at the park-and-ride, where the garage is planned to be built.
Maria Ellis of Marysville co-owns the Espresso Break coffee stand on 56th Avenue W. in downtown Mountlake Terrace. Her property is one of several in the city that has been leased by Community Transit to provide temporary commuter parking.
The influx of people into downtown has been good for businesses, and commuters have not caused any parking problems, she said.
“Everybody in the downtown area has really made sure there’s plenty of parking,” Ellis said.
Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.
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