SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — The Barbieland Halloween display in one Utah city has become so popular, officials have been forced to close down roads to maintain order.
Situated on the small island inside Daybreak in South Jordan, the massive Barbieland display is made up of several homes decorated in the motif of scenes from the movie that broke box office records this summer.
Since opening a few weeks ago, the display gained attention across Utah before it became a viral hit across the U.S.
"What that means is that a lot of people are trying to go check it out, and a lot of those people are trying to drive in to what is an island in the middle of Oquirrh Lake in our city, So that starts to cause some issues." said Rachel Van Cleave with the City of South Jordan.
The horrific traffic has prompted numerouos calls from residents whose lives have been disrupted by the display. The city had been monitoring the situation and has determined it is now a public safety concern.
On Friday, the city posted signs at the two entrances to the island that said parking was reserved for residents only in order to bring relief to the neighborhood.
"One thing we are very conscious of is that that does push out some of that parking to other neighborhoods," said Van Cleave. "So as long as people are legally parked on roads, then we're happy to have them."
The city really hopes people who want to see the display will walk in or ride their bikes to the neighborhood.
If the new restrictions don't alleviate the issue, South Jordan officials won't put themselves in the position to send Barbie and Ken packing and shut Barbieland down.
"We don't have any laws or rules that say they can't decorate their homes." Van Cleave explained, "so there are, in terms of, from the city perspective, we're not going to make that decision for them as a private homeowner."
