Why the Children's Museum says it's charging for 'premium' parking spots on peak days

A new parking policy at The Children's Museum meant to offset rising operating costs is frustrating some parents.

Starting in March, the museum instituted valet parking and premium parking options on some days. The former is available from Friday through Sunday and starts at $10 for the visit. From Thursday through Saturday, premium parking is assigned to 48 spaces on the second and third levels of the garage's east side — the side closest to the museum — and starts at $5 for the visit. Special events and peak visitation times could cause prices to change.

The options are meant to provide additional revenue to the museum for exhibits, facility and garage upkeep, community outreach for underserved families and staff pay, according to Audra Blasdel, the museum's vice president of operations.

"To avoid (further) burdening members and visitors with these costs, the museum is trailing out several new revenue streams focused on providing enhancements versus charging more to all visitors," Blasdel wrote in response to emailed questions from IndyStar.

But the changes aren't sitting well with some museum patrons, who have expressed on social media that they feel like the charges are a money-grab amid rising costs for families, a move toward becoming less accessible and unfair to members since the costs apply regardless of membership.

New Children's Museum parking fees frustrate some families

Katey Yoder and her 1 ?-year-old daughter arrived at the Easter Egg Hunt to what Yoder described as a practically empty parking garage, only to have to park further away or pay to park in spaces that had been free during her previous visit.

The extra walk through more lanes of cars while guiding small children and juggling diaper bags and other accoutrements makes the visit more difficult, especially for single moms, said Yoder, who sometimes visits with her husband and sometimes takes kids to the museum herself. Problems also arise for parents with medical issues, like her best friend, whose recent trip to the InfoZone library was made more arduous, she said.

"They don't necessarily have a ton of extra money right now," Yoder said. "They had to park at the very back of the like fourth floor of the parking garage, like as far away as possible ... because the parking garage was so full and because people didn't want those spots. She then had to take her kindergartener and her 1-year-old into the museum and walk across and then they get their books, and then she has to lug these two bags of books and these two kids all the way across."

That the museum charges its members for the premium spots is also frustrating, said Yoder, who noted that other similar institutions in town — like the Indiana State Museum, Eiteljorg Museum and Newfields — either have free close parking for everyone or for at least members.

Children's Museum says majority of parking remains free

The Children's Museum's garage has 880 available spaces and more than 1,200 on the campus overall, and patrons are encouraged to use the skywalk to cross Illinois Street regardless of where they park, Blasdel wrote. The premium spaces are free Monday through Wednesday, and the accessible spaces nearest the skywalk remain free every day.

"The museum does not have plans to increase the number of paid spaces in the garage and remains committed to ensuring that the vast majority of museum parking — both in the garage and surface lots — are free to our visitors," she wrote.

Denison Parking is running the premium spaces, which ask the visitor to scan a QR code that leads to payment options via the Honk mobile website. The museum chose Denison for its technology, expertise and cost-effectiveness, Blasdel wrote.

For her part, Yoder said she wants to support the museum but would have preferred it be more transparent about the need for additional funds.

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"If it would have been rolled out differently, if there would have been transparency, there would have been an opportunity for us as members and as parents and people who live in Indianapolis to kind of buy into the project and buy into their desire to raise additional revenue, (and) I probably would be singing a completely different song," Yoder said.

"It's the way that it was done — that makes me super annoyed and frustrated as a parent and as a member."

The Children's Museum's current parking policy is listed at childrensmuseum.org/visit/parking.

Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or [email protected]. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis Children's Museum premium parking fee causes frustration