Yakima, WA Special Events & Permits: Block Party Permits (2026)

Chapter 9.70 starts from a blanket rule: under YMC § 9.70.020(a), "any person or entity who conducts, promotes, or manages a special event shall first obtain a special event permit from the economic development manager." Section 9.70.030 then lists ten categories exempt from the full permit, and block parties are the last one: "(10) Block parties, which must be applied for through a separate, streamlined city process." The chapter doesn't spell out that streamlined process's forms or fees itself, but subsection (a) of § 9.70.030 makes clear the exemption isn't a free pass: "an event organizer of an activity exempted from this chapter is required to comply with all local, state and federal laws and regulations governing public safety or health." Because block parties are exempted rather than covered, several chapter-wide requirements that apply to full special events, the 45-day advance filing deadline in § 9.70.060, the insurance mandate in § 9.70.160, and the cost-recovery and security-deposit provisions in § 9.70.190, don't apply to them by their own terms; a block party instead goes through whatever separate process the city has set up outside this chapter.

What does carry over is enforcement: § 9.70.270 makes it "unlawful to conduct a special event without a special event permit as required pursuant to this chapter," and if a resident skips the block-party process entirely and instead runs an unpermitted street closure as if no rule applied, the city can treat it as an unauthorized special event and recover its costs under § 9.70.300.