Bethlehem, PA Special Events & Permits: Block Party Permits (2026)

02(D) splits right-of-way approval authority in two. As a rule, the Director of Public Works, as authorized by the Mayor, reviews, schedules and grants final approval to all activities on streets, sidewalks, lanes, alleys, pavements, footways or rights-of-way, but the same sentence carves out block parties and parades that require temporary closing of the street and redirection of traffic. For those events, the ordinance is explicit that they shall be permitted and controlled by the Department of Police. That means a resident organizing a block party must apply to the Police Department for the temporary street closing rather than to Public Works, and the department manages the traffic redirection that closing an active city street requires.

07 separately covers Municipal Sponsored or Sanctioned Events, which get a no-cost right-of-way permit from Public Works, but a privately organized block party does not qualify as a municipal event and stays under the Police Department's street-closing authority instead. S. Section 37403(16), as the state-law source of Bethlehem's power to control street obstructions and closures, and to Article 531 for blocking-garages enforcement and Article 523 for snow emergency routes, both of which a Police-controlled closing must still respect.