Current situation
At a Sept. 24 City Council meeting, Allyson Iiams, Georgetown’s special events and marketing coordinator, presented a block party permit application update. Iiams proposed separating block party permits from special event permits, since the two currently have the same process but differ in scale.
Right now, permit applicants for both events are required to submit a $1 million insurance policy, an event site plan, a traffic control plan and a $100 permit fee, according to the presentation.
Within the past year, no neighborhood block parties went through the permitting process, Iiams said. Previously, the city would see an average of 10 applications come through each year, and Iiams said she hopes to see an uptick in applications with the adjusted process.
“We believe that is because of the cumbersome process,” Iiams said. “We had quite a few people that did call and ask, and when they hear all of the things that would go into it, they either opted not to have the block party, or they did it without asking permission."
The conditions
Iiams said the proposed changes look to make the block party permitting process easier and cheaper for applicants, and some of the suggested processes include:
- A $50 application fee
- Creating a separate application and guidebook for block party permits
- Signature collection from 50% of residents on the street
- A simplified street closure form with templates preapproved by a city traffic engineer
- Removing additional insurance requirements, unless the block party has animals, bounce houses, amplified sound, floats, a parade or other add-ons
- Requiring the applicant to rent street barricades and place a vehicle outside the barricades
In their own words
Iiams’ original proposal suggested for the permit applicant to get signature approval from 100% of people living on the street of the block party since the event would be impacting those residents directly, said Kim McAuliffe, Georgetown’s Downtown & Tourism director.
District 1 council member Amanda Parr voiced concerns about getting every resident’s signature.
“It just seems like that would be a little bit of a high bar, and we’re trying to simplify a process, not make it more cumbersome,” Parr said.
The council agreed with Parr, and McAuliffe suggested lowering signature requirements for permit applicants to 50% of neighbors. The change was included in the adjusted special event ordinance’s first reading later that night, which council passed.
A second vote is required before any official changes will be made to the block party permitting process.
Zooming out
Along with the block party permit update, the presentation also included a special event permit update. From August 2023-August 2024, 36 special event permit applications were processed, said Sharon Parker, Georgetown’s senior special events and marketing coordinator.
In the future, Parker said the department is looking forward to potential programs being held at the Light & Waterworks Plaza, an event space between the Georgetown Public Library and the Historic Light and Water Works building, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
“We’ve got lots of events in mind to plan for over there, and [we] anticipate a groundbreaking for that here pretty soon,” Parker said.
