Consider it fair warning: The cost to park at Port Orchard’s waterfront lots is going up.
Just how much or in what fashion was open for debate at the City Council work session July 19. Mayor Rob Putaansuu released a letter to customers who use the location for all-day parking and then access the Port Orchard-to-Bremerton foot ferry.
The current parking rate for all-day parking is $5, but Putaansuu said that fee would rise by $2 if council members agree at their July 26 meeting.“We’re getting ready to raise (parking) rates, so I felt it was appropriate to talk about it again and make commuters aware that change is coming,” Putaansuu said.
The mayor emphasized that a more economical option is available to commuters who park their cars all day at the waterfront lot. Those drivers who use the foot ferry can park their vehicles at one of two Park & Ride locations in the city — the Armory location at Mile Hill and Olney roads or the lot at Fire Lutheran Church on Mitchell Avenue. When commuters board the buses, they pay $2 to catch a ride to the waterfront and to board the ferry for a ride across Sinclair Inlet.
Those parking at First Lutheran can take either the No. 8 Bethel or 9 South Park bus, depending on where they want to board the ferry — either in Port Orchard or Annapolis.
From the Armory lot, commuters can board the No. 86 Southworth Shuttle to the waterfront, 9 South Park or 81 Annapolis Commuter to that dock.Putaansuu said the monthly pass program may be discontinued and modified into a weekly pass.
The change, he said, is necessary because the thermal paper dispensed by parking payment machines is easily bleached by the sun, rendering them unreadable. And that makes monthly parking difficult to enforce. The mayor added that he believes the hourly rate of $1 an hour likely will remain unchanged.
“We want to encourage people to come to our waterfront and stay for a short period of time,” he said, “but we’d prefer that we didn’t store cars there all day long.”
Creating more park space
Another change to the waterfront parking lot also is in the works. Putaansuu said one of his goals for the waterfront area is to remove 22 parking stalls next to Gazebo Park and use the space to enlarge the open green space available.
“It’s an opportunity to make it a much more inviting space,” he said. “There are some nice trees there now. It’d be just a matter of taking up some black top and put down some grass.”
Putaansuu said the city will be working with the Port of Bremerton, which he said has been receptive to the idea. “This is probably going to be a couple of years in the making.”
Some residents and business people have advocated transforming the waterfront parking area into commercial building space that would take advantage of the city’s prime viewpoint property.
But Putaansuu said that’s not in the cards.
“The parking lot space is not developable because it’s part of a Department of Natural Resources lease,” he said. “It can only be used as a parking lot or as open space.”
The mayor said the parking area is part of a mix of DNR space leased by the Port of Bremerton and port-owned property. “You can’t sell it off to be developed.”
An area now offering short-term parking bordered by Frederick and Sidney roads could be redeveloped, he said. Property owners own about half of that space.
