MUKILTEO, Wash. — A controversial plan to start charging for parking along Mukilteo’s waterfront kicks off Monday morning.
Quick Facts:
- Meters at Lighthouse Park
- Park attracts 1 million people a year
- City Council wants people who live in the city to be able to use park
- Parking in peak months is $2 an hour
The bubble wrap had barely been removed from the kiosks and the first person to pay to park at Lighthouse Park in Mukilteo was swiping his card, no hard feelings.
“It’s a commodity around here so you've got to pay for everything,” says Eric Schuler of parking spaces. That’s the city’s point. Eric lives in Langely so he now has to pay to use the Mukilteo Park $2 an hour in the summertime, a dollar an hour October through April.
“A lot of people that use the park aren't from Mukilteo so I think it's fair they should chip in for parking to use the park also,” explains Jim Cronin, a 20-year Mukilteo resident. He’s exempt like everyone who lives in the city, as Jim says they should be.
“We're not using it for free; we're paying taxes,” he tells us.
He has a permit; the city will give them out for free to Mukilteo residents and so far 900 people have taken advantage of that. The idea is to encourage turnover in a lot always crowded by tourists—and commuters.
Prior to the paid parking city workers tell us about half the park lot would be full of just people commuting to Whidbey Island on the ferry. They have another option, a lot adjacent to the park that's owned by the city but it's only 100 spaces and there's a waitlist.
“We're really at a loss of what to do,” says Tim Greene. He says he now has no idea how his girlfriend—who lives in Lynnwood and doesn’t qualify for a free permit—will catch the ferry to work. Monday he dropped her off but he has to get to work too—in Seattle.
“Obviously it's a huge inconvenience for us and you're really penalizing all the commuters that use the ferry to go up to the island and back,” Tim tells us.
By the fifth year, the city expects to generate nearly half a million dollars in revenue from the metered parking. They'll be giving out warnings-- not tickets-- for a month.
KIRO
