Lower Merion, PA Special Events & Permits: Parade Permits (2026)

Chapter 145's Article IX, Miscellaneous Regulations, governs public processions in the Township under Section 145-53. Subsection C is the operative permit rule: no parade, procession or assemblage may occupy, march or proceed along any street unless it has a written permit issued by the Lower Merion Police Department. The only groups excused from that requirement are the Armed Forces of the United States, Pennsylvania's military forces, the Township's own Police or Fire Department, and funeral processions. Funeral processions get their own rules instead of a permit: under Section 145-53A, no one may drive between the vehicles, persons or animals of a moving funeral or other authorized procession except on a police officer's direction, and each vehicle in the procession must display identifying insignia or another method the Police Department designates.

Section 145-53B requires every participant in an authorized procession, whether in a vehicle, on foot or with an animal, to stay as near the right-hand curb as practicable and to follow in line as closely as is practicable and safe, so organized groups cannot spread across the roadway and block ordinary traffic. Because the statute does not set an application deadline, fee or specific criteria for the Police Department's decision in the text itself, an organizer needs to apply to the Department directly to learn its current process; the chapter's general enforcement and penalty provisions in Section 145-9 otherwise apply to any violation of Chapter 145's provisions, including this one, since no more specific fine is set out for this section.