LYNNWOOD, Wash. — The parking constraints at the Lynnwood City Center parking garage will be tested even more than they have been during the first year of its operation.
The 1,700-spot garage is undergoing a project near the large, commercial dumpster, meaning the dumpster will be placed in one of the parking lots, closing 57 needed spots.
“I’m probably just going to be parking in the neighborhood more, or getting here earlier,” Riley Kwinn said, who rides the Link nearly every day.
Sound Transit and riders say the lots fill up quickly during the weekday mornings, especially in the middle of the week. It means 10 to 20 minutes of frustrating laps around the parking garage searching for a spot.
“You can kind of get an idea of whether it’s full based on how many other cars are also doing laps,” Nila Mohan, who also rides the link several times a week.
The ADA, ZIP and DART lots will not be affected by the closure. The south parking lot will reopen on Nov. 11 after the project is completed.
Sound Transit recommends people take transit to the Lynnwood Station to avoid parking struggles if they can’t show up earlier in the morning.
For Kwinn, that adds a lot of time to bus in from Snohomish.
“There’s at least one connection on the way here, so there’d be like multiple buses. I assume it wouldn’t be worth it,” he said.
While no decision is imminent, Sound Transit is considering options to mitigate demand, including opening up reservations for people who carpool or charging to park at the Lynnwood garage as the agencies public information officer David Jackson says, “the Lynnwood City Center parking garage remains very popular.”
“People are realizing that we have supply and demand constraints here and that we should maybe take some action to alleviate those.” Jackson said.
As a student, Kwinn isn’t sure if he’s up for paying for a spot.
“That would limit demand, but I wouldn’t want them to do that. It would definitely cut down on the benefits of this option.”
Mohan says it may be a necessary cost.
“I feel like the system overall meets my needs as it is right now. I guess if they were to make changes, I would pay for parking if that’s what it required."
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