City
500-Stall Parking Garage Could Be Coming to Northgate
As part of Sound Transit's plan to bring light rail to Northgate, the agency could build a permanent parking garage with as many as 500 stalls, despite the fact that the rail project will only permanently displace a little over 100 parking spots.
Members of the agency's capital committee discussed the parking situation at Northgate earlier this month, but the issue has gone largely under the radar; at last week's meeting, only City Council member Richard Conlin and Mayor Mike McGinn raised concerns about the specter of a huge new garage at Northgate.
Sound Transit's agreement with the Federal Transit Administration requires them to replace all permanently displaced parking spaces on a one-for-one basis. That accounts for 117 spots at King County-owned lots, which is all Sound Transit is obligated to replace. (Northgate Mall would lose another 62 private spots). So why the need to build four times that many stalls when light rail opens?
[pullquote]"The idea is that if we have to replace temporary parking, we might as well build a permanent structure. I don't buy that logic."---City Council member Richard Conlin[/pullquote]
At the capital committee meeting earlier this month, North Link project manager Don Davis told the board that of the 1,522 mall and park-and-ride spots currently available at Northgate, 428 park-and-ride spots, and 451 private mall spots, will be temporarily displaced during construction. The board is looking at a number of different options for replacing that parking, including expanded transit access (to give nearby residents more options to get to the Northgate transit center without driving), temporary parking, shared parking with an existing facility that isn't using all its capacity, or permanent parking structures---the 500 new stalls.
Davis laid out the advantages of building a permanent garage, and doing so quickly, so that it would be ready before the light-rail station opened. "If we expedited the construction of the garage ... to provide replacement parking before construction begins, that would minimize the impact to transit users" and meet both temporary and long-term needs.
Conlin argued that it makes little sense to build a massive, 500-stall garage permanent parking spots to replace a little more than 100 spots that will ultimately be displaced. That's a net gain of nearly 400 spots, he noted, in an area where most future developments are supposed to be pedestrian- and transit-oriented, not car-dependent. Additionally, Conlin noted that Northgate will only be the northern terminus for light rail for a few years; by 2023, the agency plans to extend the line to Lynnwood. Expanding the park and ride at Northgate, he said, "doesn't make sense in the long term."
"The idea is that if we have to replace temporary parking, we might as well build a permanent structure," Conlin tells PubliCola. "I don't buy that logic."
However, Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy argued that whatever the city's long-term development goals may be, commuters will need new parking to replace the parking they'll lose when construction starts. "My concern is the here and now---about 879 stalls that would be displaced during this construction, and the rubber meets the road when you close things down and all of a sudden people say, 'I don't have a place to park.'" Conlin responded more than half of those spaces (the 451 Northgate spots) are busy on nights and weekends, whereas park-and-rides are packed during the day.
Conlin and McGinn have argued that a better solution, one that didn't get discussed much during the capital committee meeting (except when a suggestion that Sound Transit could share spaces with North Seattle Community College was dismissed out of hand), would be to figure out a way to share parking spots with a nearby facility that has extra space. Sound Transit is looking at four such facilities.
Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick says the board plans to spend two or three months discussing the parking issue---including the possibility of petitioning the FTA to remove the one-for-one replacement requirement---and plans to move forward some time around June.
If you want to weigh in on parking, transit service, bike access, or any other issue related to the Northgate light-rail development, tonight's your time: Sound Transit is holding an open house on the project from 6 pm to 8 pm tonight at Olympic View Elementary School, 504 NE 95th St.
Members of the agency's capital committee discussed the parking situation at Northgate earlier this month, but the issue has gone largely under the radar; at last week's meeting, only City Council member Richard Conlin and Mayor Mike McGinn raised concerns about the specter of a huge new garage at Northgate.
Sound Transit's agreement with the Federal Transit Administration requires them to replace all permanently displaced parking spaces on a one-for-one basis. That accounts for 117 spots at King County-owned lots, which is all Sound Transit is obligated to replace. (Northgate Mall would lose another 62 private spots). So why the need to build four times that many stalls when light rail opens?
[pullquote]"The idea is that if we have to replace temporary parking, we might as well build a permanent structure. I don't buy that logic."---City Council member Richard Conlin[/pullquote]
At the capital committee meeting earlier this month, North Link project manager Don Davis told the board that of the 1,522 mall and park-and-ride spots currently available at Northgate, 428 park-and-ride spots, and 451 private mall spots, will be temporarily displaced during construction. The board is looking at a number of different options for replacing that parking, including expanded transit access (to give nearby residents more options to get to the Northgate transit center without driving), temporary parking, shared parking with an existing facility that isn't using all its capacity, or permanent parking structures---the 500 new stalls.
Davis laid out the advantages of building a permanent garage, and doing so quickly, so that it would be ready before the light-rail station opened. "If we expedited the construction of the garage ... to provide replacement parking before construction begins, that would minimize the impact to transit users" and meet both temporary and long-term needs.
Conlin argued that it makes little sense to build a massive, 500-stall garage permanent parking spots to replace a little more than 100 spots that will ultimately be displaced. That's a net gain of nearly 400 spots, he noted, in an area where most future developments are supposed to be pedestrian- and transit-oriented, not car-dependent. Additionally, Conlin noted that Northgate will only be the northern terminus for light rail for a few years; by 2023, the agency plans to extend the line to Lynnwood. Expanding the park and ride at Northgate, he said, "doesn't make sense in the long term."
"The idea is that if we have to replace temporary parking, we might as well build a permanent structure," Conlin tells PubliCola. "I don't buy that logic."
However, Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy argued that whatever the city's long-term development goals may be, commuters will need new parking to replace the parking they'll lose when construction starts. "My concern is the here and now---about 879 stalls that would be displaced during this construction, and the rubber meets the road when you close things down and all of a sudden people say, 'I don't have a place to park.'" Conlin responded more than half of those spaces (the 451 Northgate spots) are busy on nights and weekends, whereas park-and-rides are packed during the day.
Conlin and McGinn have argued that a better solution, one that didn't get discussed much during the capital committee meeting (except when a suggestion that Sound Transit could share spaces with North Seattle Community College was dismissed out of hand), would be to figure out a way to share parking spots with a nearby facility that has extra space. Sound Transit is looking at four such facilities.
Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick says the board plans to spend two or three months discussing the parking issue---including the possibility of petitioning the FTA to remove the one-for-one replacement requirement---and plans to move forward some time around June.
If you want to weigh in on parking, transit service, bike access, or any other issue related to the Northgate light-rail development, tonight's your time: Sound Transit is holding an open house on the project from 6 pm to 8 pm tonight at Olympic View Elementary School, 504 NE 95th St.
