Here’s why the Christmas Village has white tents instead of the promised wooden huts

One of the major points of contention is that all the vendors are in white plastic tents, instead of the German-style wooden huts that event organizers had marketed. I’ve seen several people complain that they drove from out of town just to see the wooden huts, only to be disappointed.

[Agenda story: Stop freaking out about how the Charlotte Christmas Village isn’t good enough]

Mecklenburg County now has explained why they wouldn’t allow the wooden huts: Fire codes.

The village is inside Charlotte’s “fire district,” which is intended to prevent city centers from going up in flames too quickly. State law requires that construction inside a fire district to only be with non-combustible materials. Wooden huts don’t fit the bill.

Mecklenburg County is tasked with enforcing these requirements.

Photo via Charlotte Christmas Village.

The county says they’ll try to do things better next year.

“We are committed to exploring alternate ways to approach the situation next year, and have already talked to other communities about how they approach events like this,” they said by email.