SUMNER, Wash. — Jake Loden says he remembers just how bad it was getting around his neighborhood on Thompson Street because so many people parked there to take the train.
“It was actually worse in the afternoon as people got off,” he recalled. “This whole Thompson street was backed up all the way to Loyalty Park and it was impossible for neighbors over here to be able to pull out onto the street.”
The lack of parking has been an ongoing issue for riders looking to take the train at the Sumner station.
But Sound Transit says it’s moving forward on building a solution.
Back in 2008, voters approved plans to invest over $350 million into building three parking garages in Sumner, Auburn, and Kent, adding around 1,500 new parking spaces altogether.
Contracts for the design and construction of the Auburn garage were approved today in an initial committee vote by Sound Transit, and contracts for the Kent location are still being discussed.
However, since the pandemic, Sound Transit ridership has declined, and the city of Sumner has also set up parking zones with time limits in neighborhoods near the station to keep riders from leaving their cars there.
With these developments, Loden now thinks Sumner may not need the parking garage anymore.
“I’m not seeing the foot traffic I saw from pre-pandemic, so I can’t say for certain that it needs a parking garage,” he said. “But I don’t know when people start coming back and it becomes a problem again, we’ll be thankful it’s there. But it sounds like it’s already in motion at this point, so what can we do?”
Sound Transit sent KING 5 a statement saying, “The parking facilities and station access improvements planned for Sumner, Auburn and Kent were approved by voters in 2008. After the Great Recession and a global pandemic, Sound Transit is ready to deliver on these projects, which will increase the ability of South King County and Pierce County residents to access Sounder train service in the future and avoid the heavily congested I-5 corridor.”
Sound Transit says construction on the Sumner garage will begin by the end of the year and will be open to the public in early 2026.