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

Section 15-106 of the Motor Vehicles and Traffic chapter, adopted by Ord. 2009-05 on 8/19/2009, gives the Township authority to close any street or specific part of a street to vehicular traffic and to place barriers or station police officers at each end of the closed portion while construction or maintenance work is under way or a special event, such as a neighborhood block party, is being conducted on the closed portion. Driving a vehicle onto any such closed portion is unlawful. The same section separately authorizes the Township to establish a restricted traffic area during construction or maintenance and to station flagmen who can stop or hold traffic at each end of that restricted area; disobeying a flagman's stop signal is likewise unlawful.

This authority sits alongside § 15-104's broader emergency and special-event powers, which let the Board of Supervisors or its designee restrict or prohibit traffic and parking in limited areas for up to 72 hours to facilitate public works or the conduct of parades, processions or public events. Read together, a resident or group wanting to close a residential street for a block party works through the Township (Board of Supervisors or its designee) to get the street physically closed and marked, rather than closing it unilaterally.