POULSBO — Paid parking on Poulsbo’s waterfront is on hold until at least next summer.
After more than an hour of public comment from downtown merchants, workers and residents, the Poulsbo City Council voted 7-0 Wednesday night, Nov. 4, to suspend the city’s paid parking program effective immediately through May 31, 2027. The motion also directs Mayor Ed Stern to cancel the city’s parking vendor contracts “at the earliest possible date.”
Paid parking began Aug. 15 in the two Anderson Parkway waterfront lots, at $3 an hour in peak season and $1 an hour from Oct. 16 through April 14. Since October, downtown merchants have been telling the council that their sales dropped about 30% after it started.
In a news release issued after the meeting, the city said three-hour time-limited parking will return to the Anderson Parkway lot during the suspension. “The clear message tonight is historic downtown Poulsbo waterfront district is back open for business with no payment requirement,” Stern said in the release.
‘This parking is killing us’
About 20 people spoke during public comment, and every one of them urged the council to end or suspend paid parking.
Tray Gers, who owns Details Home and Garden, said his store’s Christmas open house Nov. 1-3 was down $6,000 from every previous year. “Look at that parking lot. It’s empty,” he said. “Right now is the time that we make our money for the entire season.”
Megan Martin of Indigo Plum said she has had days in the past three weeks with sales as low as a typical January or February. Kristin Jagodzinske, who has owned Flicka Boutique for 14 years, said her fall merchandise is still sitting in boxes. “Last time I was here a couple weeks ago, I was still hopeful for my business,” she said. “Now I’m worried about my own family.”
Sandy Kolbeins, who owns The Loft at Latitude Forty Seven Seven and Valhöll Brewing and leads the Historic Downtown Poulsbo Association’s parking committee, asked for “a clean thing to suspend paid parking” and for the city to work out the details later with merchants, the Port of Poulsbo, the Sons of Norway and downtown residents.
Matt Hoffman, speaking for the Poulsbo Sons of Norway lodge, said the lodge sees paid parking as “a grave threat to our existence.” He noted the lodge has about 2,000 members and said they “will remember” how councilmembers voted. Port of Poulsbo Commission Chair Jay Lawrence said the port had sent the council a letter and was ready to work with the city.
Nico Jensen of Longship Marine criticized an opinion piece Councilmember Michael Fitzpatrick wrote for the Kitsap Sun that described her business as struggling. Fitzpatrick apologized from the dais later in the meeting, saying he had meant to celebrate the business and had believed what he wrote was public knowledge.
A mayor’s statement, and a point of order
Before the debate began, Mayor Ed Stern handed out and read a document titled “Ending the Paid Parking Program,” which he called a mayoral directive to the council. It said paid parking this summer brought “confusion, consternation, frustration and a measurable and economically damaging drop in visitation” to the downtown waterfront. It found the program’s net revenue “negligible to the harm and damage incurred to the community” and called for an in-house enforcement program “without a Paid Parking component,” which it described as “a free for users time-limited parking program” paid for largely with existing city money. It closed with “Velkommen til Poulsbo.”
Councilmember Rick Eckert raised a point of order, saying a mayoral directive can only go to staff. “The council does not work for the mayor. The mayor does not work for the council,” he said. He said the document should have been called a proclamation or a statement. Stern, who votes only to break a tie, read it anyway.
Seasonal parking or a full pause
Councilmember Pam Crowe presented a revised version of her plan to suspend paid parking and keep enforcing time limits. Her written motion had the suspension starting Friday, Nov. 6, and running through Feb. 1, 2028.
Councilmember Doug Taber, who attended remotely, proposed keeping paid parking only from Memorial Day to Labor Day, about 99 days a year, with year-round enforcement. He said enforcement without a revenue source means asking the city’s roughly 13,000 residents “to subsidize our downtown businesses,” and that 85% to 90% of downtown visitors in peak season live outside city limits. Deputy Mayor Britt Livdahl, who attended three weeks after giving birth, said she leaned toward a seasonal approach and worried that a suspension running into 2028 would tie the hands of a council that could change in next year’s elections.
Eckert said he could not support paying for enforcement out of the general fund. He said he would rather fund another police officer. Councilmember Doug Newell said the council should keep it simple, pause paid parking now and have the downtown groups build a plan.
Councilmember Leighton Thomas proposed a suspension with a set date to come back in May 2027, modeled on how the council handled downtown streeteries, and bringing a lighter enforcement program in-house. Fitzpatrick said the city’s own data shows the average car stays 80 to 90 minutes, so downtown has a capacity problem, not a turnover problem. He said Bainbridge Island runs its parking enforcement with one city employee for about $75,000 a year. Taber put the cost of the current enforcement setup at $340,000 to $380,000 a year.
City Administrator Rob Gelder said the city’s contracts with its two parking vendors require notice periods and carry financial obligations, so ending them immediately would mean added costs between now and the end of the year. He said he could not yet give an amount. On Thursday, Gelder told West Sound News he had notified both vendors, ParkMobile and LAZ Parking, to suspend payment and enforcement, and that the city is starting to terminate the contracts. He said ParkMobile will probably have limited costs, but the city will need to work through what it has paid LAZ so far, including for a vehicle and equipment. “There will be some cost,” he said. Gelder said he is still compiling what the city has spent on the program and collected from it, and will give those figures to the council.
How the vote came together
Eckert first moved to rescind both parking resolutions, No. 2025-03 and No. 2026-05, outright. Thomas seconded. Livdahl warned that rescinding them would wipe out enforcement entirely and bring back long-term parking by downtown residents and employees. “It can be the Wild Wild West again,” she said.
The council then amended the motion, 6-0 with Taber briefly offline, to suspend both resolutions through May 31, 2027, instead. Eckert argued against a set end date, saying it would feel like “kicking this down the road.” Taber said he would have preferred a fall timeline but would support it. Thomas said the date gives the council “guardrails” and can be extended.
Crowe then made the final motion, which passed 7-0 at about 8 p.m.
What happens to enforcement
During the debate, several councilmembers said the vote would pause time-limit enforcement as well as paid parking. Fitzpatrick described it as directing the mayor to have the police chief suspend both enforcement and paid parking the next day, and said there would be a period with no enforcement until a new in-house or contracted program is set up. Thomas said the goal is to bring a less aggressive enforcement program in-house.
Gelder confirmed Thursday that enforcement is suspended. He said the three-hour signs going back up in the Anderson Parkway lot give people “an indicator of, you know, suggested duration of parking there,” but that “the additional direction from council was to suspend enforcement at this point in time” while the council works out next steps.
What’s next
The Sons of Norway is hosting a community meeting on downtown parking Thursday, Nov. 5. Councilmembers said the city will work with the HDPA, the Port of Poulsbo, the Sons of Norway, the Chamber of Commerce and the North Kitsap Senior Center on a revised program before the May 31 deadline.
The council does not meet Nov. 11 because of Veterans Day. Its next meeting is Wednesday, Nov. 18, at Poulsbo City Hall, 200 NE Moe St.
Previously: “Poulsbo council could vote Nov. 4 on downtown paid parking” (Oct. 29) and “Poulsbo business owners urge council to suspend downtown paid parking” (Oct. 27).
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