20-05-2025
Spokane block parties will often be cheaper after City Council waives fees
May 19—Neighborhoods in Spokane will soon be able to more easily and cheaply close down their block for a party or community event between June and Halloween.
Championed by City Councilman Zack Zappone and cosponsored by Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke, the Spokane City Council on Monday voted unanimously to approve the "Play Streets" program, which authorizes the mayor's office to reduce the barriers to blocking off a residential street for a block party.
The proposal was first unveiled in April during a news conference touting a number of measures to increase pedestrian and bike safety on Spokane's streets, including banning right turns on red lights on Main Avenue downtown.
"Whether it's neighbors wanting to come together and close our street to allow kids to play on the street, do a spontaneous chalk art festival, close down the street and have a barbecue ... this is an opportunity for people in your neighborhoods to come out, meet your neighbors, have that connection and bring back that life to our neighborhoods," Councilman Zack Zappone said at the April event.
Outside of the cost of the festivities themselves, local leaders have identified two costs for hosting a block party that the city would like to eliminate in many cases: application fees for a permit to shut down the street, and the physical road barriers themselves.
While it will mostly be up to the administration to craft the program, Monday's ordinance does specify that application fees will be waived for closing down a residential, nonarterial street so long as it is open to the public and limited to a single block.
Administration personnel have expressed interest in the purchase of signage and road barriers that residents could check out from the local library for free, further reducing costs for a block party, though this purchase would likely have to be approved by the City Council at a later date.
"I think we need this," Klitzke said at an April committee meeting where the ordinance was briefed. "I think it will be an improvement over the folding chair with an 8.5 -by -11 sign that my neighborhood has been using for a decade."
Councilman Jonathan Bingle, who noted he owns a trivia business, argued that the program would spur events and encourage neighbors to meet each other and better appreciate their neighborhood. Neighborhood councils often also don't have much money to put on events, so easing those costs could allow for more activity, he added.
