March 20, 2018 – One of the most predictable things about Wednesday afternoons in Santa Cruz is the downtown Farmers’ Market. But many of us don’t realize how tenuous that market location is, and how long the Santa Cruz Community Farmers’ Market (SCCFM) has felt insecure about that parking lot at the junction of Cedar and Cathcart streets.
Nesh Dhillon recalls that back in 2006 the parking lot was under development review and the city wanted SCCFM to find an alternate location, which they couldn’t find despite being smaller than the market is today. But fortunately, “when the financial markets came unglued, the city backed off of that project,” he says.
Now, the future seems uncertain again. A highly controversial proposal is being considered by the Santa Cruz City Council, in which the downtown library will move to the site and become a primary tenant in a new city multi-story public parking garage directly across the street from Lupulo Craft Beer House.
But even in the thick of the debate regarding the future of the library and the prospective parking garage, the Farmers’ Market hopes to move anyway. “Regardless of what happens, we want permanence. I don’t ever want to have this conversation again about moving,” says Dhillon. “The absolutely number one, main goal is to establish permanence for the downtown market. It is the most vulnerable market, we don’t have a 100-year lease, we just go year to year with a special event permit, on a property that has always been slated for development,” he explains.
In the face of the library-garage project, the SCCFM started brainstorming ideas during meetings of its special commission. One member suggested looking at the lot behind Pizza My Heart, which was most recently the Salvation Army demo site. They talked with city staff about it and they explained would cost a lot of money to rebuild there, and would require a redesign to even become a serviceable parking lot. That means it is basically fated to remain just an empty lot.
But it turns out that an empty lot could be ideal for a new Farmers’ Market site. Dhillon says that they are definitely interested, but would really need to make sure it works in a long term way. The keyword right now is “exploratory” and Dhillon wants to make it clear that they are not getting pushed out of their current location, they just want to find a location that they don’t have to move from.
On that note, the city has invested some funds into preliminary architectural designs, so all parties involved have something to mentally work off of with parameters to envision an end result. At this point “trying to create a thought anchor,” says Dhillon, and he adds that “the city has been wonderful, very proactive, I’ve been very encouraged by the way that they’ve treated us and their sincerity.”
An additional aspect to the potential new location is that is happens to be on Front Street, which is being considered by several developers looking to redevelop that whole area. “It all depends on how Front Street comes together. If it does turn into a dynamic, business corridor, and the community felt like that location was a better representation for a gateway to Santa Cruz, then it could really work,” Dhillon adds.
Bonnie Lipscomb, Economic Development Director for the City of Santa Cruz Economic Development Department says, “Our initial goal over the next couple of months is to reach a conceptual agreement between the City and the Farmer’s Market on the location and scope of a permanent Farmer’s Market. At that point, we would take the proposal to the City Council for further consideration, discussion of cost and scope and projected timeline.”
Dhillon really wants to use this opportunity to take things to the next level for the market. While their current location is pretty good, and they have settled in quite nicely to the space over the years, if they could have a permanent site that would enhance the bigger vision and philosophy of community, education and engagement that SCCFM holds, then that would be ideal. “We are just concerned with the simple need for permanence, to continue to do what we are doing, but better. That’s always my goal every year…how do we evolve this organism, to make it work for the ag community and the public. That interface is my job, how do I make it better, what do I have to add or subtract from that to really synergize it,” Dhillon explains.
In a nutshell, the basic elements of what it would take to create more of that synergy would be a permanent structure, infrastructure, lighting, and a beautiful space to be in. This kind of thing is common in thriving agricultural communities that face bad weather, and in Europe, “it’s just basic planning design,” says Dhillon.
At this point, next steps lie in the hands of the subcommittee of the Farmers’ Market board that is vetting the new proposal. They are looking at the various layout scenarios, of which they will take their recommendations to the board as a whole. Lipscomb adds, “It is still in very active discussions, we’re trying to basically see if there’s room for all the current farmers’ market stalls and the various layouts and ingress and egress access that they need to fit on an alternative site. And we’re making good progress but we’re not there yet. We’re hoping to have something that the full farmers’ market board can support sometime in the next month, with a goal of going to council in April.”
Stay tuned…
About the author
Amber Turpin is a freelance food and travel writer based in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
