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The large Christmas light show at 24 Marshwood Blvd. in Kingsville is no more.
The annual display, which featured about 65,000 computer co-ordinated lights that flash to the sounds of holiday music at a residence each December, has been cancelled by Doug Williams and his son Colton, who run the display.
A notice posted on the Williams’s website says a bylaw passed Nov. 4 by the Town of Kingsville governing holiday displays is too restrictive.
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“It’s with heavy hearts that we share some news about the 2024 Williams Light Show,” the notice says.
“We poured hundreds of hours into programming this year’s show starting in June, holding onto hope,” the notice reads. “But with the bylaw’s timing and complexity, there was simply no way to make it work.
“The reality is that the Town of Kingsville’s decisions and delays made it impossible for the Williams Light Show to happen this year.”
The notice says the house at 24 Marshoods Blvd. will be sold and the owners will be moving elsewhere in Essex County.
“What was once a tight-knit, supportive town has changed in ways that no longer feel like home,” the notice says.
The 20-minute light and music shows ran three times nightly during the holiday season through the week, except Wednesdays, and four times on Fridays and Saturdays.
Viewers parked their vehicles nearby and watched the show from their seats or stood on sidewalks or the edge of the road. A traffic guide then helped vehicles clear the street after each show.
The annual event has raised more than $45,000 for local charities through donations since 2017.
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However, some nearby residents found the show intrusive and felt it had outgrown the property, with the number of vehicles attending and sometimes occasionally idling and the music from the speakers on the front lawn.
Last December, after Doug Williams appeared before Kingsville council, the town decided to run an anonymous survey of the neighbourhood to gauge their feelings about the display.
“It is a well-known and loved event for many,” a staff report said at the time, “but not for those nearby neighbours who feel it unacceptably infringes on their otherwise quiet street.”
Town staff who attended the show found about 20-30 vehicles idling for up to an hour, creating a localized smell and air quality issues.
Williams disputed those findings at the meeting, noting the show was “an annual spectacle that encapsulates the warmth and joy of the holiday season for the residents of Kingsville.”
The result was a bylaw approved Nov. 4 that governs large holidays displays, which it defines as “an exterior display of lights and decorations that are temporarily installed on private property that can be reasonably expected to create or has previously created nuisance impacts.”
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It places the town clerk and supervisor of bylaw enforcement in charge of overseeing such displays.
The bylaw requires large holiday displays to have a permit, limits when they can be operated to 30 days and prescribes time periods when they can run. Operators must also provide a drawing of the layout and location of the display, outlining traffic impacts and the number of visitors expected.
The clerk has discretion to impose conditions and issue, suspend or revoke the permit. An appeals process is also in place.
Offenders could be subject to fines.
The notice on the show’s web page said the bylaw effectively shut the show down.
“In our view, the bylaw was written ambiguously, leaving too much room for interpretation and making it easier to revoke permits at will,” the notice says.
Attempts are being made to work with the Municipality of Essex and the County of Essex to find another location for the show, the notice said.
“While it’s a pause, we hope you’ll keep the Williams Light Show in your hearts and traditions until we light up again, brighter than ever.”
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