diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index acb2a00edb0..658fb9a55a7 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -103,6 +103,9 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 * SOLR-5301: DELETEALIAS command prints CREATEALIAS in logs (janhoy)
 
+* SOLR-5255: Remove unnecessary call to fetch and watch live nodes in ZkStateReader
+  cluster watcher. (Jessica Cheng via shalin)
+
 Security
 ----------------------
 
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/ZkStateReader.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/ZkStateReader.java
index 356f14b9b95..f606599ca50 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/ZkStateReader.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/ZkStateReader.java
@@ -218,11 +218,6 @@ public class ZkStateReader {
               Stat stat = new Stat();
               byte[] data = zkClient.getData(CLUSTER_STATE, thisWatch, stat ,
                   true);
-              List<String> liveNodes = zkClient.getChildren(
-                  LIVE_NODES_ZKNODE, this, true);
-     
-              Set<String> liveNodesSet = new HashSet<String>();
-              liveNodesSet.addAll(liveNodes);
               Set<String> ln = ZkStateReader.this.clusterState.getLiveNodes();
               ClusterState clusterState = ClusterState.load(stat.getVersion(), data, ln);
               // update volatile