For the time being, the city of Kirkland intends to make more efficient use of the parking currently available in downtown as they further examine long-term options for increasing the supply.
The City Council approved recommendations made by the Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee during the May 4 meeting, including improvements on signage at parking locations in downtown, including City Hall, as well as maintenance, lighting and security at the library parking garage.
City staff also plan to put two and four hour time limits along Market Street from Central Way to Sixth Avenue while extending the paid parking lot times at Lake Avenue and Central Way. Right now, drivers have to pay a parking fee between 5-9 p.m., the extention would have it from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The council also discussed possibly putting in some type of a validation program for the Lake Avenue and Central Way lot. Currently, merchants can purchase parking-meter tokens for 75 cents to give to customers, but this makes it hard for customers to use the tokens for that particular day, since they usually have already parked and paid for the spot.
The actions are based on prior recommendations made by city staff earlier this year based on feedback from residents at various community outreach meetings in February and March.
The council decided at its April 7 meeting to send the recommendations to the committee after councilmembers expressed their desire for not only more options but ways to implement them as quickly as possible.
An additional strategy the city plans to carry out is to facilitate cooperation between downtown employers and property owners, such as local churches, who have parking space available during the week for employees.
One of the long-term solutions considered is turning the city’s property south of City Hall into a public parking lot which, if simply converted into a gravel lot, would provide a low-cost alternative.
Other long-term proposals recommended by the Kirkland Chamber Commerce, which also supported time limits along Market Street, include opening up Lake Avenue West for downtown employees to park and building an underground parking garage underneath Peter Kirk Park and Lee Johnson Field.
The economic development committee offered no recommendation on the underground parking garage but advised opening up Lake Avenue West to timed or employee parking.
The street currently does not have sidewalks and is one of the few in the city that require a permit to park.
The council ultimately deferred on both issues until June.
Yet, as the city looks to take action, some residents attending the meeting warned about the possibility of spillover traffic into the adjacent neighborhoods unless new parking space is added.
In their study of downtown parking, Rick Williams Consulting found nearly all the stalls are filled for most of the day and recommended adding 150 new stalls, though Toby Nixon said they have since identified spaces not included in the report.
“If we don’t have near term plans for long term projects we’re never going to get anywhere,” downtown resident Rob Brown said. “All there are, are plans to help out us to get to the spaces we already have. We have to plan now or the long term will never occur.”
One potential problem with opening up Lake Avenue West would be how to do so in a way that is consistent with existing city policy articulated in the Public Works Department’s Pre-Approved 2015 Plans stating that “spill over” parking into other neighborhoods from the central business district be mitigated.
Because of this, Pat Wilburn, a board member of the Market Neighborhood Association, told the council that they should give preference to the options that will prevent such spill-over from occurring.
Concerning Lake Avenue West, Councilmember Toby Nixon said, “We should not be treating it in isolation in regard to this policy. There is existing written policy that we will protect the neighborhoods downtown from overflow. We need to manage it as a policy for everybody. A consistent policy for everyone in place.”
