Who owns and maintains park-and-ride lots? It’s complicated

Street Smarts reader Vicky Temple called with concerns about overgrown shrubbery at a T-intersection within the South Everett Freeway Station.

The plants are nice, of course. But they were beginning to impede visibility again — for drivers entering the park-and-ride off northbound I-5 and those looking to exit the lot.

“I’ve been hit there before … so I’m very conscious of this intersection,” Temple said.

But whom to contact about it?

Temple recalled the soupy jurisdiction questions after her crash, when she said city police first responded, then turned it over to the Washington State Patrol. There was some waiting in between because it was non-injury.

Maintenance requests like these face similar jurisdiction questions. And there’s sometimes a bit of a wait.

The South Everett Freeway Station is owned and operated by Sound Transit. But Community Transit performs the actual maintenance.

We started our request with Sound Transit, which is the first step. But we later followed up with Community Transit on the specifics. Eventually the shrubbery was trimmed.

Park-and-ride lots can be confusing spaces. (And not just on the question of whether to hyphenate that phrase.)

For instance, in a past column we detailed where it’s OK to park to carpool versus where you can only park to ride transit.

With parking rules, it depends on who owns the pavement. But for maintenance requests, it depends more on who does the work.

Community Transit does the bulk of that work in Snohomish County, performing maintenance at many lots owned by other agencies, including lots owned by Edmonds Community College, the city of Gold Bar and Snohomish County. Community Transit also does maintenance at several jointly owned properties, and its staff pass on comments or concerns that are outside its scope, spokesman Martin Munguia said.

Sometimes maintenance requests still need to go through the owning agency.

Here’s the simplest breakdown:

For Everett Station, contact Everett Transit at 425-257-7777 or ETMail@everettwa.gov.

For the Eastmont Park and Ride or the South Everett Freeway Station, contact Sound Transit via email at main@soundtransit.org, Twitter @soundtransit, or call 888-889-6368.

And for all others, call Community Transit at 425-353-7433.

Park-and-Ride Lots

Here’s the full who’s who of park-and-ride lots in Snohomish County. See above for who to contact for facility maintenance requests or comments.

Arlington P&R: WSDOT owned, WSDOT and CT maintained

Ash Way P&R: WSDOT owned, CT maintained

Canyon Park P&R: WSDOT and ST owned, CT and ST maintained

Cedar and Grove P&R: CT owned and maintained

Eastmont P&R: WSDOT and ST owned, CT maintained

Edmonds CC transit loop: EdCC owned, CT maintained

Edmonds P&R: WSDOT owned, CT maintained

Everett Station: City of Everett owned and maintained

Gold Bar P&R: City of Gold Bar owned, CT maintained