The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire is set to open in Dover in July of 2008, and according to the Museum website, currently 97,000 people visit the location in Portsmouth every year. According to the Downtown Dover Parking Facility and Management Study presented to the City Council on November 7th, 2007, the core parking area near the Butterfield Gym where the museum will be located exceeds 80% utilization during peak periods of the day, and averages 58% utilization throughout the entire day between 8AM and 4PM.

Currently a parking garage is being proposed off Orchard Street next to the historic Trela and O’neil homes; however there has not been any final decision on when construction will begin or any groundbreaking. It may take six months or more to complete the construction of the parking garage, and meanwhile visitors that will be arriving in three months will encounter the traffic congestion everyone is already familiar with in Dover NH. It is unclear whether the tax cap will affect the likelihood of there being a parking garage, however the proposal would create 514 additional spaces for cars near the future location of the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire.