Bonita Springs workshop weighs continuing enhanced downtown signature events amid budget questions

Bonita Springs City officials discussed whether to continue enhanced downtown "signature" events during a council workshop that combined an event update with budget-planning questions.

The discussion centered on whether the city should keep larger, corridor-wide events introduced during the city's 25th-anniversary year or scale back to prior, smaller formats. Director Laura Taylor outlined recent event growth, logistics changes tied to construction in the Bamboo Lot and Banyan Tree Lot, and steps staff have taken to help organizers plan around reduced parking.

Taylor said the city now stages roughly 12 to 15 events per year and has seen increased permit requests from venues both on and off city property, including Riverside Park and private venues. "For each year, the city really does about 12 to 15 events per year," Taylor said. She described new downtown programming such as an immersive Halloween stroll with projections on seven to eight buildings, a weeklong Happy Haunts series, the Celebrate Bonita corridor stroll (April 9–12), and an expanded Fourth of July show…