MUKILTEO – More parking is needed on the city’s waterfront. It’s often overrun with people looking for parking at Lighthouse Park, downtown restaurants or other nearby businesses.
On Monday night, the Mukilteo City Council is scheduled to consider approving a study that will take a look at the options for building a parking garage with up to 552 parking spaces. It’s expected to face little opposition.
No city money is required to go ahead with the study. Instead, the $47,500 study will be paid for with $35,000 from Sound Transit, $10,000 from the Port of South Whidbey and $2,500 from Island County. Mukilteo will donate staff time to manage the project.
The study will examine four possible sites for the parking garage: property on the former tank farm near the Mukilteo ferry terminal scheduled to open in 2019; property near Lighthouse Park; a site on Second Street and Park Avenue; and one on the lower parking lot of Rosehill Community Center.
“It’s always been part of the plan to provide more parking when the tank farm was redeveloped,” said Mayor Jennifer Gregerson. In February the Mukilteo City Council approved the transfer of seven acres in and around the former tank farm from the port to the city.
People are coming to the waterfront area for a number of reasons, she said, including Sound Transit commuters who want to park and take the train, ferry users and Island County ferry commuters who want to walk on and pick up their parked cars in Mukilteo, and visitors to the beach and nearby businesses.
“Everybody has their reasons for visiting,” she said. “It makes sense to focus that parking so there’s not cars all over the waterfront.”
Plans for how the former tank farm property would be used have included a proposal for parking next to the new ferry terminal on property that will be owned by Sound Transit, she said.
The study is expected to take nine months to complete. Sound Transit has money set aside for construction of a garage, Gregerson said.
The garage could open by 2019, when the new ferry terminal is scheduled to open. “Some of the other sites not on the tank farm could happen sooner,” Gregerson said.
It’s possible that a second garage might be built as phase two of the project.
Island County Commissioner Helen Price Johnson said money from two sources in her county was put into the garage site study because increased parking in Mukiteo is key to people making transportation connections to and from Whidbey Island.
Areas that used to be used for overnight parking in Mukilteo were significantly decreased by the development of Lighthouse Park, she said.
“Our commuters present challenges for them,” Price Johnson said. “I know the ferry lines extending up into the reaches of their city is a cause for concern. It’s one of the things we’re trying to address by getting this parking garage.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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