Mukilteo waterfront parking on hold until early 2023

It’s apparently going to be a while before we see more parking spaces at Mukilteo’s waterfront.

The Port of Everett paid $3.5 million for the former ferry holding lanes, where drivers queue up before boarding the ferry. One hundred new parking spaces were supposed to be opened by Labor Day, but are now being held up in the permit application process.

Officials are now hoping that the new lot can be open by late January or early February.

The waterfront is home to Lighthouse Park, Diamond Knot, the Sounder commuter rail station, the ferry terminal, and Ivar’s restaurant – making the area a popular destination for tourists and residents alike, often causing parking to be difficult.

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The only thing holding up the new lot’s usage is the permit application process, which includes a land use change application with the city and a traffic survey to evaluate the impact on drivers commuting through the area.

“The process to get this lot open has taken longer than we had hoped as we did end up having to go through a full change of use process, which we had not originally anticipated,” Port spokesperson Cat Soper wrote in an email to the Everett Herald.

Once opened, people will be able to pay to park through an app.

The lot will have 63 spaces for hourly and overnight visitors, 23 stalls for monthly parking, and 13 stalls reserved for waterfront employees, according to permitting documents.

The city charges taxes of 10% for sales and 25% for parking at the lot. Those taxes will show up in addition to the fees, which signs at the lot list starting at $2.50 an hour, with parking 10 to 24 hours for $28 and monthly rates at $300.

The need for more parking is usually heightened in the spring and summer months when residents mix with tourists to take advantage of the scenic area.