Picnic Point Park
Picnic Point Park is the only public park in the annexation area. It has a beach, a small grassy area, and a parking lot, but does not have a significant grass area for general use. It has poor pedestrian accessibility and is in a largely remote location in relation to where people live. The park functions as a destination park but not a neighborhood park. It would be annexed by Mukilteo, but would theoretically remain under county ownership.
Picnic Point Elementary has a playground, a sand sports field, and a baseball field. Serene Lake Elementary has a playground and a sand sports field. Both outdoor areas are closed to the public when school is in session, have other restrictions on when they can be used by the public, and have no large grassy areas for general use. As a result, they are not equivalent to public parks.
There is a private park with a pond in the Picnic Point housing development, but only residents there can use it. The state-owned Lake Serene Water Access Site is only a gravel boat ramp and requires the purchase of a Discover Pass to use, so it does not count as a public park.
The county-owned Paine Field Community Park sits just outside the annexation area near Paine Field, and includes a playground, four baseball fields, and a sports field. It is surrounded by commercial and industrial businesses and does not serve residential areas in the annexation area.
Lake Serene Water Access Site
In Mukilteo and other cities, there are small parks which serve their immediate areas in addition to schoolyards, and these are placed in residential areas where they can be easily accessible on foot, especially for children. Meanwhile, unincorporated areas have few or no parks. This can be seen in much of unincorporated North Lynnwood, where there is a large amount of multifamily residential, yet there are no parks and no schools.
Parks improve neighborhood livability, provide recreation space, and limit crime caused by bored youth such as vandalism. Under unincorporated Snohomish County, the chance of any new parks in the area being built is slim to none. Under Mukilteo, the chance is much greater.