Clayton council allows string lights

By Scott Bolejack | on June 02, 2023

CLAYTON — Some downtown businesses had been adorning their buildings with string lights in violation of town rules.

But rather than see those shops cited for breaking the law, the Downtown Development Association asked the town to allow string lights on buildings.

At its meeting on May 22, the Town Council obliged, and Councilman Porter Casey thanked the DDA for going to bat for businesses.

"I just want to highlight the value of our advisory boards," he said. "And I appreciate the DDA coming and suggesting and pushing to get this ordinance changed."

The change does come with rules for the lights. Bulbs can be no more than 5 watts, they must be single strands, they can't blink, and for most of the year, they must be white. From Nov. 1 through Jan. 15, however, they can be other colors.

And throughout the year, the lights can go almost anywhere: along a building's architectural features, wrapped around columns, strung overhead in alleys.

A unanimous Clayton Planning Board had earlier endorsed allowing string lights.

"I’m very supportive of this," said James Lipscomb, a Planning Board member.

Planning staff acknowledged that string lights had become part of the downtown landscape. "While the town has historically not permitted string lighting to be used, there are a number of businesses that have used decorative string lighting in the downtown area," the staff said in a memo to the Planning Board.

Planning Director Ben Howell had earlier said that if the council lifted the ban, the town would not go in search of string lights that were up before then. "If this text amendment is approved, we will go into a reactive code enforcement structure," he said. "So if someone complains, we will go out there and investigate. But we are not going to be proactively policing the string lighting."