Board approves street closures for Open Street Festival and a batch of routine consent items

The New Haven Board of Alders voted by unanimous consent during its July 7 meeting to approve multiple routine consent items, including street closures for the New Haven Open Street Festival and a number of tax-account assistance and abatement petitions.

Under the consent agenda the board approved closure of Church Street between Chapel and Elm on Sundays Aug. 9, 16 and 23, 2026 with a rain date of Aug. 30, 2026, and also approved closure of Church Street and Orange Street between Chapel and Elm on Sunday, July 19, 2026. The items were submitted by the Economic Development Department and deputy chief administrative officer respectively and passed with no recorded opposition.

The board also moved items from the finance/assistance docket concerning tax-account assistance and petitions for abatement or deferral. The clerk read a long list of petitioners and account numbers moved under unanimous consent; those items were approved as presented. Where petitioners were listed on the record, the board’s action was to grant the assistance or to approve petitions to defer collection as read by staff.

These consent items were taken together and approved without discussion; committee chairs and staff recommended approval for items requiring committee review. The meeting record shows no separate roll-call tallies for these consent approvals.