The Metropolitan King County Council today unanimously approved a revised lease agreement that consolidates all Northgate-area transit commuter parking near King County’s Northgate Transit Center and increases total parking capacity for local transit users.

The agreement is part of a legislative package approved last year that includes the sale of the Northgate Park and Ride Lot—just north of the mall—to the city of Seattle. The city plans to convert the parcel into a park for the Northgate community. Current parking spaces at the Northgate Lot will be replaced by those to be provided near the Transit Center resulting in the net increase of 80 parking stalls available for transit users.

“This ensures implementation of the Council’s plan to create an urban center with easy transit connections to destinations throughout the region,” said Councilmember Dow Constantine, chair of the Council’s Capital Budget Committee. “Concentrating parking in this centralized location also opens the door to a new community park on the former Northgate Park and Ride lot.”

“As the councilmember who represents the Northgate neighborhood—and a daily user of the Northgate Transit Center—I know the construction already taking place at Northgate is the first step in revitalizing this region’s oldest shopping center and its surrounding community,” said Councilmember Bob Ferguson. “This agreement guarantees a critical element needed to tie together essential neighborhood attractions and components—including new green spaces, a new library and community center, a new and attractive shopping mall, an urban salmon stream, and attractive housing.”

In May 2006, the Council approved two separate lease agreements for 630 parking spaces near Metro Transit’s Northgate Transit Center, located south of the mall, consolidating all Northgate-area transit commuter parking near the Transit Center. Due to factors not related to the original agreement, Lorig, the company that owns the property near the Transit Center, withdrew from the lease agreement in July 2006.

The revised agreement, negotiated by the County and approved today by the Council, amends the original agreement, ensuring that the parking spaces provided in the original agreement would still be available near the Transit Center. Completion of 280 stalls is expected in spring 2007, with the remaining stalls becoming available in 2009.

Read more about this legislation on the King County Council’s LEGISEARCH system.
Type in “2007-0013” and “2007-0014”