This land was made for you and me. But you’re going to have to pay to park.
The Mukilteo City Council last week approved a plan to charge for parking at Mukilteo Lighthouse Park. With an estimated 750,000 visitors each year, the park, with its beach on Possession Sound, is among the most popular parks in Snohomish County. That popularity has created a crunch for parking, and not just on the sunniest days. On weekends, cars often line up, waiting for an opportunity to get into the parking lot.
As reported by Herald writer Sharon Salyer, park visitors who are not residents of the city will pay $1 an hour, for up to four hours, between Oct. 1 and April 30, and $2 an hour from May 1 to Sept. 30. The parking fees are expected to begin June 1. Residents, whose tax dollars already support the park and the city’s other services and facilities, can request a free pass for parking.
Use of the park itself remains free, but with the limited parking available along the Mukilteo waterfront, there will be little choice but for most park users to pay a few dollars for each visit. Visitors also should expect Mukilteo to become a little more hard-nosed about parking outside of the park’s lot as people attempt to avoid the fees.
Mukilteo isn’t the first and won’t be the last to charge for parking at its parks. Snohomish County already charges a parking fee, $7 a day or $70 for an annual pass, at Wennberg and Kayak Point parks. And fees have been common for years at state and national parks. In fact, it’s likely visitors would have already been paying to park at the Mukilteo park if the state hadn’t transferred ownership to the city in 2003. Washington state’s Discover pass, $33 a year, is necessary to park at almost all state parks.
While most park users will stick with paying at the meter, Mukilteo should follow the lead of the state and the county and offer to expand its permit system to nonresidents willing to pay an annual fee. Even charging $35 to $40 for an annual fee could save families who make more than five trips a year to the park.
Nobody likes paying fees, but in a time of budget constraints when city tax revenue must fund a range of necessities, the appeal of user fees, such as for parking, is clear. And it’s simple to steer that fee revenue to the park itself, as Mukilteo says it will do.
The city intends to hire two park rangers to enforce parking and park rules, and the revenue from parking fees also can be used as Mukilteo completes the next two phases of improvements that it outlined it its 2004 master plan for Mukilteo Lighthouse Park, including improvements to Front Street and a public pedestrian pier. The master plan also suggests construction of a parking garage, which also should be given more consideration.
Mukilteo Lighthouse Park’s beach and open spaces provide a place for picnics, kite-flying, lying in the sun, turning rocks over to inspect sea life, watching ferries and general enjoyment of a nice day. It’s a gem among our parks, and it’s worth a few dollars to help Mukilteo keep it as such.
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