Parking problems near the Indiana State Fair

INDIANAPOLIS — In the final days of the Indiana State Fair, IMPD is looking into parking problems near the fairgrounds.

Police said there is no issue with neighbors charging people to park on their lawns but the issue arises when they try to charge drivers to park on public streets.

“When someone is blocking off a spot and is asking for people to charge [pay] to park on the public street, that is an issue,” said Drew Brown with IMPD.

Pearline Coleman lives on the North Side near the fairgrounds and has called this spot home for decades. She said this is always a popular area to park during the fair.

“We park in the yard and we park in the back as well but we have no issues with anybody parking in front of here,” she said. “That’s no problem because you are allowed to do that.”

But this year, some other neighbors are taking the convenient parking situation a bit out of hand.

“You can park in your yard,” Coleman said. “That’s not a problem but the street is a public street, no one has the right to charge in my opinion for that. To me, that’s wrong.”

IMPD said they found other homeowners near the fairgrounds trying to charge people to park on public streets, which is illegal. There have also been instances of people parking in front of driveways and in front of signs that explicitly say “No Parking.” Police said that can lead to fines or your vehicle getting towed.

“IMPD traffic units are around the state fair this time of year just because of the extra presence of vehicles,” Brown said. “Just over the weekend, they wrote over 100 tickets and they were also towing vehicles as well, specifically vehicles that were parked in areas that have displayed a ‘No Parking’ sign.”

There were also reports of drivers trying to take down the “No Parking” signs in this area.

“We have heard reports of people taking down those signs that are permanently affixed,” Brown said, “Those [signs] are property of the city and the Department of Public Works affixes those signs so that our roadways can stay clear not only for our public and their traffic patterns but for emergency vehicles as well. Our roadways need to be clear in certain areas.”

The most important thing for drivers to do when heading out to the Indiana State Fair is to plan ahead. Parking inside the fairgrounds is $10 per vehicle and while neighbors can offer drivers the opportunity to park on their lawns, they should not be asking anyone to pay for parking on the public street.

“It’s not right at all,” Coleman said. “You know that is a public street. I mean, you can park your car right there but you don’t have to charge anybody. To me, that’s not right. It’s not fair at all.”

“If it’s a public roadway, someone should not be blocking that off and charging for it,” Brown said. “That is a situation where you need to be a conscious buyer. Be conscious of where you are parking. If you know it is a public roadway and someone has placed a sign, they are blocking off a public street. That is an issue. We ask you to report that to us so we can address it.”

If there is an issue, drivers can call IMPD’s traffic complaint line at 317-327-6525.

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