Burien got a surprise gift from the Legislature in the closing hours of its recently ended session-a $1.6 million appropriation for a Town Square parking garage.

"It was a real nice surprise," City Manager Mike Martin said last week. "We were hoping for this but really didn't expect to get it."

Other key legislative appropriations for Burien area included $3.5 million for Highline School District airport noise mitigation and $1.1 million for the north bulkhead project at Seahurst Park.

Another $3 million for initial design and right-of-way work on the state Route 509/518 interchange is part of the state transportation budget.

The timing of the parking garage funding couldn't be better for Burien.

"Our parking study showed there is generally enough available parking, but it also showed there is less parking in some places than in others," Martin noted.

"The area around the city hall/library was definitely going to be challenging."

A new city hall/King County Regional Library building will anchor Town Square at the corner of Southwest 152nd Street and Fourth Avenue Southwest.

The parking garage with about 125 spaces will be located immediately north of the city hall/library.

Without state funds, Burien would have been limited to a surface-only parking facility with about 60 spaces.

The current Burien Library and the old city hall have a combined total of about 150 parking spaces.

"After seeing the parking study and talking with members of the [Business Economic Development Partnership], we wanted more spaces," Martin said.

The city had support from local legislators, with Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, playing a leading role, but the parking garage was in competition with other projects statewide and didn't seem to get much attention.

Burien's legislative lobbyist Michael Doubleday "kept chipping away," however, and the funding made it into the final version of the 2007-09 state budget.

"I was in Port Townsend on [April] 21 when I got a voice mail" about the appropriation, Martin said. "It was from Mike ... I literally had to pull off on the side of the road. I couldn't believe it."

The two-story parking garage, for which planning and design work already is underway, will have one floor below ground and the other at street level.

Martin said the city's Public Works Department will study the feasibility of building the rectangular parking garage so a third level, if one is needed, could be added in the future.

Parking near businesses in the vicinity of Southwest 152nd Street and Fourth Avenue South became a scarce commodity in early March with the opening of Elliott Bay Brewhouse & Pub and the start of construction for a new Bartell Drug store.

Since then, the downtown parking shortage has been compounded with demolition of the Gottschalk's building to clear the way for Town Square development, and the start of demolition last week on the Puget Sound Education Services District building where the city hall/library building will be located.

Martin added that the city also got $3.2 million last week for closing its sale of the Gottschalk's parcel to Urban Partners, the private developer of Town Square that will build condominiums and retail space there.

Urban Partners paid the city $1.8 million for the property.

"As a result of the closing, the city is entitled to receive another $1.4 million from the King County Housing Authority, which has been banking our share of income from the Lora Lake Apartments," he said.

Other Burien projects funded by the 2007 Legislature were Seahurst Park renovation, $500,000; Mathison Park expansion, $210,000; and the Sunnydale World War I Memorial Plaza on Des Moines Memorial Drive, $200,000.