City to charge for parking in library garage during Classic Car Show event, July 18

By on July 8, 2010 in Archived, Government, Headlines

Event Pay Parking at Peter Kirk Municipal Garage for Downtown Events, July 18

$5 all-day parking begins at 8:30 a.m.

As a pilot project to mitigate anticipated traffic impacts and congestion from the Classic Car Show and Kirkland Uncorked events being held on Sunday, July 18, parking fees will be instituted at the Peter Kirk Municipal Garage.  A parking fee of $5 will allow for unlimited parking during the day.  Pay parking will be in effect from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Garage is located at the corner of Third Street and Kirkland Avenue and is owned and operated by the City of Kirkland.  Parking control personnel will be onsite the day of the event to accept fees and direct traffic.  Due to construction of the Kirkland Transit Center, access to the Garage is only available from Kirkland Avenue (Kirkland Library).  For more information about the July 18 fees and downtown parking, visitwww.ci.kirkland.wa.us/parking or call Kirkland Public Works Department at 425-587-3800.

In June, the City’s Parking Advisory Board proposed to the City Council that pay parking be instituted for these events as a pilot project and be managed by a professional parking operator.  At its July 6 meeting, the City Council approved the pilot project and requested a follow up report.

The Classic Car Show, sponsored by the Legends Car Club (www.legendscarclub.net) and supported by Kirkland Downtown Association, will be located on Lake Street, at the Lake (Street) and Central (Avenue) Parking Lot, the Park (Lane) and Main (Street) Parking Lot and on several downtown streets in the Central Business District.

Kirkland Uncorked (www.kirklanduncorked.com), produced by Bold Hat Productions, occurs Friday, July 16 (5 to 10 p.m.), Saturday, July 17 (1 to 10 p.m.) and Sunday, July 18 (1 to 6 p.m.) at Marina Park.

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  • Bonnie

    Would someone from the Parking Advisory Board please explain how charging for parking “mitigates traffic impact and congestion”? Just be honest. You are charging for parking because it will be in demand and with the two events you will be able to sell your parking spots. There is nothing wrong with admiting you want to make a buck but don't pretend it will mitigate traffic and congestion. Thank you. Bonnie McLeod (former PAB member)

  • Eastside Sun

    Hey, here's an idea…

    Free parking on Friday at the Library
    Charge for parking on Saturday & Sunday so that Kirkland Winefest & Car Show are treated equally
    First 30 minutes are free.

    Bring back Moss Bay Days !

  • Mavisdavis

    As a taxpayer and library patron, I find it sad that the garage that is typically FREE for all Kirkland events and library patrons, now have a pilot program to mitigate congestion and parking.

    What about the Kirkland taxpayers that pay all year long for the library parking? Today I had no place to park to return my library books nor to check out new ones, due to this revenue generating experiment.

    I do not appreciate seeing this sign to pay $5 when the library parking has been touted for years as 4 hour FREE parking.

    Please reconsider this type of event parking fee for the next event that draws people from all over Seattle to Kirkland. Why make them pay?

    What is the incentive to come to Kirkland waterfront, if we are acting like Seattle Center or downtown?

    In addition, the Kirkland Advisory Board should be the ones collecting money for the parking instead of hiring a 3rd party to do it, and they of course, get paid, too.

    Thank you.

  • bigyaz

    I assume you just want to complain and you didn't actually go, or you would know that the library parking lot was free. You only had to pay to go down into the garage.

  • bigyaz

    I took the bus downtown because I didn't want the hassle of finding a parking space and didn't want to pay $5. I do the same when I go to Mariners or Sounders games or other events in Seattle, rather than pay $15-20 to park. A lot of other people do the same.

    So yes, parking fees can and do mitigate traffic and congestion.

  • Book_Reader

    The library upper parking lot was full of parked cars, there was no parking spots open.

  • The Ghost of Peter Kirk

    The upper lot was available for library patrons at no charge all day, and there were rarely no spaces available. The Diamond Parking attendants who staffed the parking garage said there were only a couple library patrons that could not find a space when they arrived.The head librarian was also monitoring the situation.

    If there had been free parking and no attendants, as was the case last year when the same two events took place on one Sunday, one would think that the lower garage and the upper lot would have both been filled, forcing anyone to hunt throughout the garage for space.