Port Townsend Plaza
Parking Policy
Port Townsend Plaza
Parking Policy
History of Parking Challenges
The current ownership group purchased Port Townsend Plaza in September 2022.
At the time of the acquisition in 2022, the previous owner had signs posted for decades indicating that the Port Townsend Plaza parking lot was private property and that parking was solely for the use of the tenants and patrons of the shopping center. Signs included warnings that parking violators would be towed.
During the acquisition process, the previous owner disclosed to us that despite the signs and warnings, over the years they had struggled during their ownership with blatant disregard by many violators using the parking lot for long term parking for various reasons, including by employees of other businesses downtown, ferry riders, tourists spending extended time in town, including overnight stays in hotels, and in some cases vehicles being abandoned in the parking lot. The previous owner went as far as to have a management representative on-site attempting to enforce the parking policy, but this proved too expensive to continue.
Since we purchased the property, we have witnessed this continuing pattern of disregard for use of our parking lot by non-patrons of the shopping center as we have observed people parking in the lot and walking downtown to shop or work or walking to board the ferry for extended periods of time. Along with insight from our tenants about this constant problem, our employees have monitored and documented parking violator activity and have determined we often have more violators using the lot than patrons using the shopping center at any given time. Additionally, there are often vehicles left in the parking lot overnight when all businesses are closed. Towing has been ruled out as a feasible option due to strict requirements in the State of Washington and lack of towing company operators willing to work with us on a regular basis.
This long-standing and on-going use of the Port Townsend Plaza private parking lot by non-patrons of the shopping center has caused a management burden for the respective property owners for decades.
Factors Affecting the Parking Burden
Port Townsend’s success as a popular commercial and tourism center attracts year-round visitors from all over the region and beyond with insufficient dedicated parking areas. This known parking problem in downtown Port Townsend has been a heavily debated local topic for the last few decades with some locals suggesting that perhaps a parking structure is needed for the future.
The Ferry Terminal has no dedicated parking despite being a very active and popular form of transportation.
There are insufficient parking options for local merchants and their employees, forcing them to park on public streets and on our property. Now that we have instituted a paid parking program for non-patrons, we have been approached by a number of businesses about whether we can offer a monthly parking program since there employees no longer have the ability to park in out lot without paying, further confirming that our private property is being used for free as long-term parking by non-patrons of the shopping center.
In March of 2024, the City of Port Townsend City Council voted to eliminate off-street parking requirements which allows for any proposed developments parking requirements to be “recommended” rather than “required”. This is the first policy of its kind for any jurisdiction in the State of Washington. The local city government of Port Townsend has effectively taken the position that there is no parking problem downtown and that new projects don’t need parking.
We believe this is an irresponsible policy that not only ignores the obvious need to address the existing parking problems but also paves the way for future development of projects that will not be required to provide sufficient parking to support their project while substantially increasing the burden on existing owners of private parking lots downtown.
On the heels of the City Council policy change regarding parking, the City has approved a proposed hotel project to be located directly across the street from Port Townsend Plaza. The project has been approved with 50 rooms and a restaurant open to the General Public that seats approximately 50 people, and only 10 parking stalls. The parking is woefully inadequate for this project. Hotel industry standards and most other city jurisdictions require at least 50 or more stalls for a comparable size project. Parking for this proposed hotel is barely enough to accommodate staff, leaving the majority of guests to source off-site parking for overnight stays, and for use of the on-site restaurant during the day.
Due to the “recommended” parking policy, the proposed hotel project is exempt from providing any traffic, parking, or other development impact, or environmental impact studies typically associated with new development projects in other jurisdictions.
We believe this is not fair that the City is allowing a project to proceed that will add a significant parking burden of up to 40 or more stalls needed daily for overnight guests directly across the street from our parking lot while continuing to maintain a position that there is not a parking problem in downtown Port Townsend. This is irresponsible on the part of City leadership.
We are currently engaging in a legal appeal of this project to a Washington State Hearings Examiner, and we encourage community members to voice their concerns as well.
Priorities of Ownership
1. We would like to highlight to everyone in the community that parking is a major issue that the City of Port Townsend governmental leaders are not acknowledging or addressing properly. Further, new development projects are being approved, without any supporting studies or data related to development impacts of the project on existing traffic and parking conditions in the downtown area.
2. We would like to enforce our private property rights in a more effective way than in the past. There is no reasonable solution to enforcing the long-standing policy of no parking for non-patrons of the center other than implementing a paid parking program. We’d like to note that it is within our rights to explore closing the lot altogether for non-patrons, however, we have elected to provide a solution for customers of the shopping center to patronize our tenants for free while shopping (with reasonable time limits) and also provide an option for the general public to park on our property for a nominal fee while enjoying downtown Port Townsend.
3. We would like to collect additional revenue for use in maintaining and operating the Port Townsend Plaza parking lot. This is not a public lot and there are no public funds available for payment of operational expenses, maintenance, repairs, property taxes and insurance. The costs of this are incurred by the property owner and we would like to use the funds to provide a return on investment that we must make to keep this parking lot operational, safe and available for the patrons and tenants of the shopping center who provide much-needed goods and services to the community.
Current Paid Parking Situation
Ownership and management acknowledge that we have had problems in the implementation of our paid parking methodology and that in particular the technology used to pay and enforce parking has not been user friendly for many of the users who frequent the shopping center.
We are working on sourcing and installing a more user-friendly methodology to manage an on-going paid parking program that allows for a more efficient and comfortable process for customers and the general public.
About the Owner and the Future of Port Townsend Plaza
Port Townsend Plaza is owned by an investment group comprised of individuals and families and is managed by Hall Equities Group, of Walnut Creek, California. The property is not owned or managed by some large faceless corporation that has no local ties. On the contrary, Hall Equities Group has been involved in investing and developing in a number of Puget Sound communities over the last 30 years including in Shelton, Lacey, Everett, and Tacoma. Additionally, the managing principal for our company built and owned a personal residence on the Olympic Peninsula for over twenty years and we have a property manager residing full-time in Tacoma.
Many have asked about future plans for Port Townsend Plaza. Since 2022 we have operated the property as the shopping center you see today. However, we acknowledge that the property is not architecturally in harmony and character with downtown Port Townsend and that at some point in the future, plans may evolve to better integrate our property into the downtown. In the meantime, we are operating the property as a stabilized real property investment, and we have long-term leases with Quimper’s and others that we respect.
We thank those in the community who have respected our rights as private property owners by following the parking regulations currently in place and by voicing support for our rights to implement a paid parking policy on our property. We look forward to announcing a revised Port Townsend Plaza Parking Policy soon.