Town Center Parking Plan

The Mercer Island City Council adopted Ordinance 24C-14 at first reading at its regular hybrid meeting on September 17, 2024. In short, Ordinance 24C-14 increases the citation fee for parking infractions from $20.00 to $54.00, and sunsets the Town Center Commuter Parking Permit Program.

The parking citation fee increase will become effective January 1, 2025. The Mercer Island Police Department will provide an education-first approach to improve compliance with parking regulations by initially providing non-fee warning notices, at the discretion of the Police Chief.

All existing Town Center Commuter Parking Permits will expire on December 31, 2024, effectively ending the program. It is important to note that the North Mercer Restricted Parking District (RPD) will not be affected by this change and staff will continue to monitor the RPD program.

To note, at the July 16, 2024, City Council meeting, City Council directed staff to implement an on-street parking system where a motorist would register their vehicle for two hours of free parking and have the option to extend this parking up to four hours for a paid fee. Staff work on this new parking program is underway and anticipated to be presented to the City Council for further review and consideration no later than Q1 2025.

The Mercer Island City Council will review the First Reading of Ordinance 24C-14 at its regular hybrid meeting on September 17, 2024. Once adopted, Ordinance 24C-14 would:

• Increase the citation fee for parking infractions from $20.00 to $54.00, and
• Sunset the Town Center Commuter Parking Permit Program.

The parking citation fee increase would become effective January 1, 2025. All existing Town Center Commuter Parking Permits would expire on December 31, 2024, effectively ending the program.

Agenda materials for the meeting are available here (Agenda Item #9). The September 17, 2024, hybrid meeting will be broadcast live on MITV Channel 21 and live streamed on the City Council’s YouTube Channel.

Mercer Island City Council received a presentation of potential actions related to Town Center Parking Regulations and provided feedback at its meeting on July 16, 2024. No action was taken at this meeting. Staff were given direction to return to Council later this year for approval to implement the following actions:

• Increasing the parking citation fee from $20.00 to $54.00.
• Sunsetting the Town Center Commuter Parking Permit Program.
• Implementing an on-street parking system where a motorist would register their vehicle for 2-hours of free parking and have the option to extend this parking up to 4-hours for a paid fee. When adopted, these parking restrictions would be in place 8:00am-8:00pm Monday through Saturday.

Staff will conduct additional research analysis on how to best implement these changes (mobile app, signage, etc.). All changes to Town Center Parking Regulations, when implemented, will be broadcast widely to the Mercer Island community. Follow along on Let’s Talk to get the latest information, share your feedback, and stay up to date on other ways to engage with this work.

Starting on May 13th, King County Metro will increase bus trips on Route 204. The route will have 10 more trips each weekday on Mercer Island. Service will start earlier in the morning and end later in the evening. Also, frequency will improve to every 30 minutes during peak periods.

To see what future travel will look like, visit Metro’s Trip Planner and enter a date of May 13 or later.

Staff from IDAX, a multimodal data collection firm the City uses for transportation data needs, will update parking data in and around Town Center. Data collection will take place in multiple locations on Thursday, May 9, and Saturday, May 11. Collection plans include occupancy of on-street parking, permit capture for the Town Center Parking Permit areas, and bike parking usage.

This work is being done on behalf of the City to continue studying Town Center parking needs and inform future parking/transportation improvements. IDAX conducted parking inventory and usage counts in June 2022 and June 2023.

New wayfinding resources are live on the City website on the Getting Around page. The new resources include:

• PDF and digital versions of the map of Free Public Parking Options in Town Center,
• Links to schedules for public transportation options provided by King County Metro and Sound Transit,
• Details about the Town Center and RPD parking permit programs,
• Images of the new Parking wayfinding signs installed in Town Center earlier this year,
• Information about the Mercer Island Park-and-Ride, satellite Park-and-Ride options at Mercer Village (south end QFC), and more.

City staff are actively working to improve the efficiency and convenience of parking in Town Center by adding highly visible and consistent signage at and near shared-use lots and garages to help drivers find available public parking. Ten signs, directing drivers to where parking garages are located, were installed on existing streetlights and metal signposts on 76th Ave SE and SE 27th St. Installation of the signs is part of the Town Center Parking Plan recommendation 2a, to improve awareness of and navigation to Town Center’s range of parking options.

The Mercer Island City Council adopted the Town Center Parking Plan on November 21, 2023. View meeting agenda materials here(External link). (Refer to item #4 on the Consent Agenda.) Thank you to all the local businesses, Town Center residents, and other community members who participated in the process to develop this Parking Plan!