FAYETTEVILLE -- As plans emerge for a new sculpture along the Scull Creek Trail, city officials are working on a new policy for public art.

The Fayetteville Recycling and Trash Collection Division last month commissioned John Stalling, a Eureka Springs metal worker, to craft a 20-foot-tall sculpture -- in the shape of a tree -- outside the Marion Orton Recycling Center, 735 North St.

Stalling said Monday the sculpture will feature iron "vines" wrapped around a steel "trunk." It will be shingled with hundreds of aluminum cans, and the tree's branches will support a recycling symbol, with three green arrows, that turns in the wind.

"I wanted to be able to make a statement not only about recycling itself, but about the tie-in to nature," Stalling said. "It will be a unique piece."

Brian Pugh, city waste reduction coordinator, said it could be next year before the sculpture is installed. That all depends on how quickly Stalling is able to finish it, he explained.

The Recycling and Trash Collection Division has budgeted up to $10,000 for the project, but Pugh said a contract hasn't been finalized. A city selection committee picked Stalling's design from nine submissions.

All future trail art will likely have to go through a different process that's being developed.

Fayetteville for years has had set guidelines for donated art on public property, including in parks and along city rights of way. A policy doesn't exist, however, for art along trails.

Alison Jumper, park planning superintendent, said as the trails system has grown, parks staff has fielded more and more requests from residents who want to install their creative works.

Some projects, such as the orange Hoover Monument south of Center Street on the Frisco Trail, have panned out. But most don't, Jumper said.

The city has had more than one request, for instance, to have art installed in the grassy area east of Wilson Park, where the Frisco Trail loops into the Scull Creek Trail. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board in May 2013 signed off on designs for a 7-foot-tall concrete sculpture by Fayetteville artist Hank Kaminsky.

Kaminsky canceled the project, however, after he fell well short of an $18,000 fundraising goal for the project through the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter.

According to new rules the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board recommended Monday, artists would have 90 days to install a project after it's approved by the City Council.

"We just don't want to be saving spots along the trail for people," Jumper said. "If a project isn't going to happen, we'd have some sort of structure and timing."

Projects valued at more than $5,000 would have to be approved by the parks board, Fayetteville Arts Council and City Council. Applicants would be required to identify a funding source in a submission form to the city. And they would have to establish a maintenance agreement for the artwork with Parks and Recreation staff.

Chuck Maxwell, one of nine members of the parks board, said he liked seeing a policy that might encourage public art on city trails. But he also questioned whether there were too many hoops to jump through for someone wanting to donate their art to the city.

"If you're serious about wanting to do an art project, you do jump through the hoops," Phillip Watson, board chairman, said. "It shows that you're serious about doing it."

The policy must be approved by the Fayetteville Arts Council and City Council before it takes effect.