Downtown Bellingham parking fees will be increasing from 75 cents per hour to $1 per hour beginning May 1, 2022. The new fee will also apply to Fairhaven, which has always been free.
The City Council voted 6-0, with councilman Daniel Hammill abstaining, to pass the new parking requirements.
In addition to increased fees, drivers will see new hours of enforcement. Currently, parking fees are enforced from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The new hours will be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with Sunday being the only free parking day.
Parking violation fees will be doubled from $15 to $30, but response time before a late fee of $25 is applied will be increased from 15 to 30 days.
Fees for parking in Bellingham have not increased since 2008, and the city expects to increase them again at the start of 2023 to $1.50 per hour. Also at that time, they will implement a “progressive parking rate” that charges more money per hour the longer a car remains in one spot.
The new fees are intended to promote parking turnover in the downtown and Fairhaven districts, which could bring in more customers to local businesses.
Progressive parking rates allow “a low initial rate for short term visits but also a very high rate to act as a way of discouraging people from monopolizing parking,” said council member Michael Lilliquist, chairman of the city’s Public Works and Natural Resources Committee.
“It’s been established that higher parking rates might help free up spots,” said council member Hollie Huthman, who acknowledged the difficulty of finding parking downtown might keep people from going downtown in the first place.
“It’s not a matter of making money,” Lilliquist said, reiterating the city often loses money on these endeavors and the goal is to instead stimulate the economy of local businesses.
“The hope is we will have more turnaround,” said council member Lisa Anderson. “But I’m also mindful that, due to COVID, everybody’s hurting still.”
She hopes the incremental increase will allow people to adjust, especially employees of downtown businesses who have relied on economical street parking for years.
Fairhaven implemented time limited parking in 2016, but this will be the first time visitors to the historic district will be required to pay for their spots.
