Iams Nature Center rolls out $5-per-day parking as Knox County wins AARP Age-Friendly recognition

Knox County commissioners heard two presentations Monday that touched on how public-private partnerships and new revenue models are shaping services: county health officials announced Knox County’s acceptance into AARP’s Age-Friendly Network, and Amber Parker, CEO of Iams Nature Center, described a recent paid-parking rollout intended to support conservation, staffing and accessibility.

Michelle Moyers, deputy senior director of the Knox County Health Department, said the county submitted an action plan to AARP after a 2023 application and was accepted in November 2023. "Acceptance is really our first step in action," Moyers said, noting the county will prepare an AARP-reviewed action plan focused on aging-population needs and cross-agency work. Moyers cited U.S. Census trends showing the 65-and-older population will outnumber those under 18 by 2034 and said Knox County’s 55-and-older cohort is the fastest-growing local group.

Later in the agenda, Amber Parker, CEO of Iams Nature Center, described the center’s transition to a QR-code parking system implemented Feb. 19. Under the new policy, visitors may pay $5 per vehicle per day or purchase a $50 annual parking pass; members park free. Parker said members continue to receive free parking and that the rollout included a grace period with no enforcement. She described the parking change as part of a broader fundraising and membership effort that, she said, generated 2,024 new memberships in January–February of the year the presentation covered.

Parker reviewed Iams’ scale and finances: Iams has grown from roughly 30 acres at its founding to about 318 acres; Parker cited an estimate of about 616,000 annual visits based on cellphone data. She said Mead’s Quarry’s operating expenses are roughly $156,000 annually, with annual quarry income around $79,000 (net at the quarry roughly "minus $77,000"), and that Iams’ overall operating budget is approximately $1.8 million. Parker credited city and county capital investments — including a $1.5 million recent grant from the City of Knoxville and about $150,000 from Knox County over two years — and private donor contributions for recent capital work such as swim docks and ADA pathways.

Public comments from a board member and longtime volunteers reinforced Parker’s message. Celia Winchester, who said she serves on the Iams board, told commissioners that visitation increases have shifted staff time toward maintenance and trash removal and away from program delivery; she listed a Navitat payment of about $32,000 a year and reiterated that city/county funding represented roughly 9% of Iams’ operating revenues. Beau Townsend, a longtime volunteer, said volunteers perform much maintenance work and that charging a modest parking fee was a reluctantly accepted step to diversify revenue.

Commissioners asked operational and equity questions. Parker said the QR-based approach was selected for accessibility and explained low-cost membership tiers — including a $10 "access for all" membership for people at or below a specified poverty threshold — and multiple free-parking days to protect access. She acknowledged a notable noncompliance rate during the soft-enforcement period (reported to have increased from about 34% to 47% in one week), and said enforcement and further steps will be discussed by Iams’ board in April.

What’s next: Moyers and county teams will proceed with the AARP action-plan steps; Iams’ board will consider enforcement timing and further refinements in coming months. Commissioners thanked the presenters and noted public appreciation for maintaining the site’s partnership model.