An elm tree wrapped in red holiday lights on the downtown square could soon be illuminated year-round if the Fayetteville City Council makes changes to a 2005 law that bans the display for longer than 60 days.
Todd Gill, Fayetteville Flyer
A small, but very tall portion of the holiday lights on the square could become a permanent downtown fixture.
City officials are asking for a change to a law that would allow the red lights on a large elm tree in front of the old post office building to remain lit year-round.
A 2005 city ordinance bans many businesses from displaying “seasonal” lights for more than 60 days in an effort to reduce “atmospheric light pollution.”
Lights on the tree remained lit for about a week following the annual Lights of the Ozarks display.
Photo: Brian Bailey
The request for a change came from Marilyn Heifner, director of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission, who said several people had suggested the idea during the annual Lights of the Ozarks display.
Besides adding character to the downtown area, Heifner said the tree could help connect the square to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which has a 47-foot-tall Roxy Paine-designed stainless steel tree out front.
Much like the Paine tree serves as a symbol of art in Bentonville, the illuminated tree on the square could do the same in Fayetteville once local artists move into the basement of the old post office building.
If the law is passed, business owners who were not grandfathered in before 2005, will receive similar privileges.
“We’ve tried to craft this ordinance in a way that doesn’t allow for massive light pollution,” said Don Marr, the mayor’s chief of staff, but does help businesses create an environmental ambience.
Language in the proposed amendment would allow restaurant and bar owners to use “strands of individual, low-intensity, decorative white lights” on their patios during normal business hours.
The lights on the elm tree are still in place, but won’t be turned back on without City Council approval. The council will consider the request at the next regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
Cool, cool. It’d be nice to get an actual tree sculpture like the one in Bentonville. That would be something really cool for the Square. How much are those?
Alice, can we get one plz?
Yes, let’s try to not be original and copy Crystal Bridges. I bet more people will come to the square because we have a lighted tree that “connects” us to Crystal Bridges. I will be anxious to see what effect this new ordinance has if it passes and just how many businesses will start putting up all kinds of christmas lights. Could be interesting. I also wonder what the cost is to have this tree turned on throughout the year.
Come on Fayetteville, this is how we want to be known? Why do we want to be associated with Crystal Bridges so bad? I thought we had our own unique thing, bit I guess we are losing it as well.
You bunch of crybabies. Do we have to whine about everything? We now have one of the most awe inspiring museums in mid-America 30 miles away, but you don’t want to acknowledge & leverage it because it’s not in Fayetteville proper. Weak sauce. Grow up. We can’t just stuff our hands in our front pockets and get pouty lipped every time something doesn’t go exactly as we want.
Did it occur to you that we could associate ourselves with Crystal Bridges AND have our own identity. We’re cool like that.
Oh George, this is why I love you. We must have been writing this at the same time. Great minds…
Hah! Yes and I love you because you freely use the word ‘kvetch’. I’m feeling quite contentious today…..in a good way.
Eh, more than yawn inspiring. But what do I know, I found most of the ‘art’ on display at Fayetteville Underground to be less than appealing (except the very expensive blown glass which was nice).
I’d rather see the city do more with the air and military museum out at Drake Field.
I predict Crystal Bridges to be a fine destination for those in the fine art world looking for a weekend of irony. If it’s got a pull at all, it’s going to be that.
We don’t need to associate ourselves with that gaudy mess up there.
weekend of irony? what is so ironic about crystal bridges?
Seriously? Now people have problems with ONE lighted tree?? I think it’s nice, and I hope it gets to stay. It’s always my favorite during lights of the ozarks anyway. It’s just a tree people…let’s not kvetch about everything, k?
If this is the kind of problems Fayetteville has right now, then I think we have officially achieved Heaven on earth. I love this city.
Agreed.
Bad idea! Come on…aren’t the wonderfull gardens the real draw? I find the lights offensive, and the electricity used completely against our green initiatives. Come on, get real. The tree doesn’t want those dang wires wrapped around it!
Please do not speak for me. I do not think you know me, therefore you do not know what I do and do not want. P
Personally, I enjoy having the lights wrapped around me. It causes people to look at me year round. And I have always kind of been the flamboyant type, so this actually suits me quite well
I just don’t understand why our reason for this tree can’t just be that it looks cool, people like it, and we want it to be on all year. Instead, it is because it will help connect us to Crystal Bridges. How does a lighted tree random connection help Fayetteville? It seems like a silly connection that no one will care about. Why do we need that as a reason to have something cool?
I am not saying I support the tree, just that the museum connection should not be a part of the reason. I think this will be an eyesore by itself without the other lights on around it. But at least it will not be the biggest tree eyesore in the city, the cell tower tree on Crossover gets that prize.
Trees, especially big ones, are neither interesting nor useful nor beautiful in themselves. They need enhancement. They need interpretation. If extreme climate fluctuations kill the tree, the wires may continue to support it for a while and the effect of the lights won’t be lost. So this is time and money we can be proud of spending. We all benefit from this, and I salute the people who were sensitive enough and caring enough to design this awesome solution to one of nature’s lapses.
Dallas has Reunion Tower. Fayetteville has a lighted tree.
Light up the tree!!!!
Only in Arkansas do we leave our chirstmas lights up all year. I think we are going to fit the stereotype nicely.
Seems silly to me that government has any control at all over whether a private property owner puts lights on a tree. But I usually come down on the side of more individual freedoms.
Why does anyone care about this at all? It’s not like people visit this square at night unless it’s Christmas or a First Thursday or something. On or off, it still requires people there to see it for it to be even worth discussing.
There are actually a few fine dining options up there now, as well as some good casual restaurants on Center. The Square is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to go after dark. I’m excited to have a lighted tree to look at, although I wonder what the effect will be when the tree is covered in leaves.
I hope the OPO gets all worked out for the A&P. I hope they host First Thursdays, as well as Good Folk shows. I hope they open up the former restaurant patio into some kind of a “band shell” area for local musicians. The square has a lot of unrealized potential right now.
Helloooo, red for the Razorbacks! I think keeping that particular tree lit throughout the year is very cool.
I HAVE NO OPINION ON THIS MATTER IN ALL CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please don’t! I avoid the square entirely while the lights are up- it’s visually overwhelming. Keeping these lights on even one tree year round isn’t ‘green’, isn’t good for the tree, and would be distracting from the natural beauty.
How tacky, and what a waste of energy. Trees are beautiful in their own right. I applaud efforts to spice up our town with actual art. Let’s do something truly creative which shows that we take pride in our minds and hearts. This is a cheap copout.
Reducing light pollution is the 1st reason for the ordinance that prevents this. An exception should not be made for this. It’s hypocracy, and sets a bad example, for the city to allow 1 commission to do something that other private businesses would not be permitted to do. It’s wasteful to use energy year-round without a need or purpose, and that would be a beacon of anti-environmentalism, in the center of our city Square, how embarrassing.
If no other objection here matters to you, almost everyone agrees it is tacky to leave your Christmas lights up year-round.
I will probably not vote again for any local politician who supports this anti-environmental, inefficient, energy-wasting, hypocritical, tacky and unattractive idea.
Plant more trees, not more lights.
What if the lights that are in the tree now stay up until they quit working, and then are cut down and disposed of or recycled.
Then next year, we seek out other awesome trees and wrap a single tree in our public spaces every year, the same way. I’d go to there.
Rabble rabble rabble
It may look neat, but it seems really wasteful to have it on all year. I’m not convinced this is a good idea… the reasoning behind it seems a little wacky. Sure Crystal Bridges is a cool place, but what’s a tree strangled in red lights going to do to associate us with them? If we want art, then by golly we have enough artists and creative folks around here to make the square shine!
If we let those lights stay up we’ll have to let anyone else who wants to keep their light up too. isn’t this the usual argument against making exceptions to a law.
seems like the A&P commission has more money than they know how to be economical with.
a waste….. that is all
Must bust more pot heads to fund this.
lol
This is great. I think this will attract a lot of attention to the square and the businesses in that area. I think the city should publicize this as the centerpiece of the funkyness of the square/block street area and perhaps craft a ‘lit up tree’ specific paid parking program for the square parking spaces to fund the electricity the light bulbs require and to construct any additional parking decks necessary to support the throngs of lit-up-tree-seekers surely to flock to the square.
Is someone really claiming a tree with trailer trash-ish Xmas lights being left on year round will somehow connect us to Crystal Bridges?
Also, maybe we can solve another problem the city was having concerning lights…what if, instead of just leaving the lights up on 1 tree on the square, we put lights on a lot of trees along the bike paths and then we don’t have to worry about the bike path lights being turned off after a certain time?
The trail lights stay on from dusk until dawn, FYI.
Well, that is certainly good news for my information bank, but what I’m proposing would connect our trail (figuratively) with Crystal Bridges *AND* light our bike path… It truly is a win-win
Trees wrapped in lights year round can be found all over the world. And besides, your car is a bigger problem for the environment than an LED light display.
While at the Farmer’s Market, in the daytime, is when I really enjoy the square and the trees and gardens. When I see that tree in daylight, so densely and tightly wrapped up in green plastic wires, it makes me sad. It looks like someone who doesn’t care enough to take the Christmas decorations down. They don’t look like permanent installment type lights to me. I suppose they’re fine to be left up all year “technically speaking”. I wonder if this tree would give more citizens enjoyment by being left in it’s natural state or by being lit up in bright red all year round? I wonder if this is just a way for the city to avoid paying someone to spend hours and hours unwrapping the tree? Maybe they figure it’s cheaper to leave them up (since they’re LEDs) than to pay to take them down.
who pays for the lights on this tree? Is its electric bill separate from all the other trees that are wrapped during the holidays? anyone know how much all this costs?
It hasn’t been decided who would pay the energy bill for the lights. The council left the issue on the second reading Tuesday night and will take it back up on Feb. 21.
The big red tree is one of my favorite things about Lights of the Ozarks. If it’s lit up year round it’ll just become mundane.. But why do we still pay city employees to hang the christmas lights for that festival? It seems it would be cheaper for the tax payers to get a private company to do that work.