Metropolitan King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer sponsored legislation approved today by the Council authorizing a joint agreement between the city of Auburn and King County to select a developer for a mixed-use development that would include a new park-and-ride lot along with housing and retail in downtown Auburn.

“This is an important first step towards offering more park and ride space for local commuters,” said Councilmember von Reichbauer. “This project will continue to spur the economic revitalization already underway in downtown Auburn.”

The nearest Auburn King County Metro park-and-ride lot is at 101 15th Street NE. The 367-stall, eight-acre lot is located near the Auburn Municipal Airport in a busy commercial district. The Sounder garage, two miles to the south, has 365 stalls for commuters with an additional 113 adjacent surface stalls, for a total of 478 commuter stalls serving Sounder rail, Regional Express, and Metro bus riders.

In the three years the garage has been open it has steadily attracted more bus and rail riders. By mid-2005, the garage had reached nearly 100 percent capacity and use of the 15th Street Park-and-Ride has steadily declined to approximately 60 percent.

Metro Transit and the King County Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) section evaluated the feasibility of consolidating all Metro park-and-ride use in Auburn near the Sounder garage. Currently, about 200 stalls are being used at the 15th Street lot. A current real estate appraisal of the 15th Street lot for highest and best use is being undertaken along with where in the downtown the replaced stalls might be located.

Working with city staff, the TOD team is looking for opportunities for shared- and complementary-use park-and-ride stalls in a mixed-use downtown development.

Read more about this legislation on the King County Council’s LEGISEARCH system.
Type in “2006-0414”