Located on the northeast shores of Lake Washington, the city of Kenmore is home to more than 18,000 residents, hundreds of businesses – including the busy commercial strip along Bothell Way, and a major transit hub at the Kenmore Park-and-Ride.  

But, in the middle of all that urban development, sits one of the most amazing collections of wildlife in the Pacific Northwest – a heron rookery that hosts 30 to 40 nesting pairs of birds.

The Kenmore Park-and-Ride and the heron rookery have co-existed side-by-side for more than 20 years. So when King County recently expanded the lot, it worked with the city and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to follow a construction schedule and practices that were best suited to the birds’ habitat. Metro Transit also installed four cameras in the nesting area, so the public can watch the “heron cams” on a Website hosted by the WDFW.

“In adding more parking and more buses at the Kenmore lot, we had to be sensitive to our neighbors – including the neighbors with feathers,” said King County Executive Ron Sims. “We started off with detailed observations of the birds. This rookery has co-existed with our park-and-ride operations for more than 20 years, and video documentation seems to confirm that our buses do not bother the birds.”

Still, Sims said Metro worked closely with Fish and Wildlife to construct the expansion outside of the birds’ mating and nesting season. That is why park-and-ride changes were made now – instead of during the normal February service change.

King County has been working with the City of Kenmore for some time on plans to expand and consolidate transit service at the Kenmore lot. As a result, the county has closed the nearby Northshore Park-and-Ride and sold it to the city for redevelopment. Consolidating the Kenmore and Northshore lots creates better operating efficiency for buses and closer proximity to busy State Route 522 (Bothell Way) for bus passengers.

“This project has been a good example of how the county and a suburban city with an ambitious plan for revitalization can work together to reach common goals,” said Metropolitan King County Councilmember Carolyn Edmonds. “In this case, the goals were improved transit availability and a revitalized downtown business community.”

Edmonds said the Northshore Park-and-Ride was chronically underused for years. Of the almost 400 stalls, only about 150 were used regularly. But at the Kenmore Park-and-Ride, approximately 90 percent of the stalls are filled each weekday. Once Metro figured out a way to expand the Kenmore lot by 214 stalls without disturbing the heron, the county was able to declare the Northshore lot to be surplus to county needs and suitable for redevelopment as part of a revitalized downtown Kenmore.

That fit in well with the city’s plans.

"The purchase of the Northshore Park-and-Ride property provides the Kenmore community with the opportunity to achieve its vision for the future,” said Mayor Steve Colwell. “Although we do not have any specific plans for development of the property at this time, we do know that any development will be in partnership with the private sector to create an active, vibrant project for our downtown."

Kenmore has formed a Downtown Task Force that is working on the redevelopment process for the Northshore Park-and-Ride property and the adjacent Kenmore Village property. Now that it has the county property, the city plans to move forward with implementing the vision of its downtown plan. Kenmore paid King County $2.52 million for the Northshore lot.

The herons are currently not in residence, but should be showing up in the next few weeks for the mating and nesting season, which runs from February to June. The new heron cams can be viewed starting in February.

 In addition to the “heron cams,” the county has also installed some educational signs in the park-and-ride, so Metro passengers can appreciate the heron as they wait for their buses.

“The location of this rookery represents a unique relationship within urban King County,” said Sims. “But, as naturalist John Muir said: ‘When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world.’”

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