Board of Public Works adopts downtown special-events policy; grants Fourth Street Festival a one-year exception

The Bloomington Board of Public Works on Jan. 13 approved a citywide policy governing special events in the public right of way and granted the Fourth Street Festival a one-year exception to remain on 4th Street for 2026.

Adam Wason, Bloomington public works director, told the board the policy establishes three downtown festival footprints — the Kirkwood corridor, Courthouse Square and the Trades District — aligns fees with Bloomington Municipal Code provisions and directs an annual review of the application and policy. "This is very much public safety in mind," Wason said, describing permanent bollards and other infrastructure as reasons to adopt predictable footprints and consistent permitting.

The policy incorporates a fee schedule already in the Bloomington Municipal Code and is intended for cost recovery and program sustainability, Cassie Warney, public works special projects and operations manager, said. "There are several (reasons): one is cost recovery should really be associated with the event that is creating those costs," Warney said, and she described a 57% increase in right-of-way special-event applications as a driver for the changes.

Festival organizers pushed back during public comment. Pamela Davidson, a board member of the Fourth Street Art Fair, urged the board to "grandfather the Fourth Street Festival," arguing the event's identity, artist recruitment and economic link to nearby restaurants would suffer if it moved. Juliet Roberts, president of the Fourth Street Festival, asked the board to "pause or provide an exception to the relocation" and proposed joint cost-sharing for street-closure expenses so the festival could remain on 4th Street while infrastructure options are explored.

Organizers and artists raised competing attendance figures. Cassie Warney cited data from a cell-phone analytics platform (Placer AI) and said the 2025 event recorded roughly 1,700 attendees on Saturday and 1,600 on Sunday; Dawn Adams, a former festival president, presented volunteer-based counts for 2022 (about 16,680 Saturday and 27,546 Sunday). The board and staff left those estimates as disputed public records and did not adopt a single official attendance figure at the meeting.

Board members weighed the festival's history and community value against updated public-safety guidance for large gatherings. After public comment and staff clarifications, a board member moved to approve Resolution 2026-01 "policy on special events in the right of way," including a written exemption allowing the Fourth Street Festival to remain on 4th Street for 2026 and directing that the festival relocate to one of the designated footprints in subsequent years; the board also scheduled a policy review for October 2026. The motion passed on roll call.

What happens next: staff will include the full public submissions and letters in the official packet, engage with festival organizers to support the transition and return to the Board of Public Works for the scheduled review in October 2026. The policy also commits staff to routine annual review and to coordinate public-safety requirements with Bloomington Police and Bloomington Fire Department for large events.

Speakers quoted in this article are drawn from meeting remarks and public comments recorded in the Board of Public Works transcript for Jan. 13, 2026.