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Bellingham is raising the price of parking downtown, adding paid parking in Fairhaven and doubling the cost of a parking ticket. Hours of paid parking are changing too — and free Saturday parking will vanish, after the City Council voted 6-0 with Councilman Dan Hammill abstaining, to approve new parking measures Monday night, Jan. 24. Paid parking will start in the Fairhaven shopping district on May 1, along with other changes the council approved Monday.

City officials also are getting ready to start a pricing model that would charge drivers more per hour the longer they stay in the same parking spot. That upcoming ”progressive-pricing” model, along with higher parking rates, is aimed at forcing turnover in the downtown core and Fairhaven, said Councilman Michael Lilliquist, chairman of the Public Works and Natural Resources Committee.