Sebastopol Farmers Market gets expanded hours and no vendor limit
Planning commission gives the Farmers Market everything it asked for at Tuesday's meeting
There was a rare full house at the Sebastopol Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday night as several dozen supporters of the Sebastopol Farmers Market—farmers, vendors and shoppers—gathered to show their support for Sebastopol Farmers Market Manager Barbara Hom.
Hom was at the meeting to ask the Planning Commission for several modifications to the Sebastopol Farmers Market’s conditional use permit, which was originally granted in 1997. These included the following:
A change in the hours of operation from Sunday, 10 am to 1:30 pm, to Sunday, 9 am to 1:30 pm.
Elimination of the requirement that required 80% of market vendors sell agricultural products only, while the remaining 20% could sell prepared food, arts and crafts, or other items. Hom asked that the ratio restriction be removed completely so that the market could have the flexibility to fill more of its booth spaces.
Hom also submitted three seasonal market and parking configurations: January to April, May to November, and December.
Planning commission removes vendor ratio restrictions
City staff initially resisted Hom’s request to eliminate the vendor ratio restrictions. In fact, the staff report recommended tightening the restriction even further—increasing the percentage of agricultural vendors to 85%, leaving only 15% of other types of vendors.
Associate planner John Jay suggested that a vendor ratio restriction was necessary to ensure the integrity of the market and keep it from turning into an “arts and crafts fair or a flea market,” a characterization which ruffled feathers among the market’s supporters.
Hom argued that a restriction of that sort would be financially unsustainable.
“I want to bring up the reality of our situation,” Hom told the planning commission. “Remember that we are a nonprofit organization. We’ve been operating at a loss for many years. In order for us to survive and continue as a farmers market that the community loves and that enhances the town center, we need to grow. Our primary income is booth fees…and we need to earn more money at this time to survive. We need to make an average of about $2,000 weekly. Our booth fees earn $38; that is 52 booths a week. Currently, we have 27 farmers, 21 food booths and 17 arts and crafts for a total of 65—if every one of my food booths and every one of my farmers showed up, which never happens.”
This comes out to roughly 42% agricultural vendors, 32% food booths and 26% arts and crafts. Hom said that this number shifts slightly every week depending on who shows up.
City Manager Don Schwartz also recommended a ratio restriction of some sort, as did Planning Commissioner Kathy Oetinger. But Planning Commissioners Evert Fernandez, Paul Fritz, Seth Hanley and Jennifer Koelemeijer all pushed for no restriction on the ratio of ag to non-ag vendors—and they won the day.
Fritz said, “I’m okay with no ratio. I think the ratio has been arbitrary. I think the 15% suggestion [by city staff] is arbitrary. I don’t think that’s something we need to be micromanaging at the planning commission.”
Seasonal market configuration modifications
Over the years, the market has come to an agreement with local merchants about how the market will be set up at various times of the year. In December, for example, during the height of the holiday shopping season, the market moves out of the parking area and into the center of the town plaza—leaving parking spaces available for holiday shoppers. From May to November, the market takes up about two-thirds of the parking, and a little less during January to April.
Hom requested that the market switch to the January-April configuration the Sunday after Christmas. The planning commission agreed to this, but also added that the market should shift to the December holiday configuration immediately after Thanksgiving, which is always a big shopping weekend.
Is the farmers market good for business?
Last fall, the market expanded into the West America Bank parking lot that connects Weeks Way with Highway 12, which caused a bit of a fracas with some local businesses that depend on that parking lot for customer parking on Sunday. That expansion was not included in the modifications Hom requested. Both Myriah Volk of the Chamber of Commerce and John Goehring of Toyworks appeared at the meeting to express their longstanding support for the farmers market, while encouraging the commission to keep the needs of surrounding businesses in mind for what Goehring called “a win-win.” In private, other businesses have told the Sebastopol Times that their business dwindles away to nothing during the farmer’s market because of the lack of parking. Some have considered closing on Sunday. But most say they are willing to take the hit for the benefit the farmers market provides to the community.
Hom pushed back on the notion that the Farmer’s Market was taking business away from local merchants. In fact, she said it was the opposite. She presented stats from the Berkeley Ecology Center that found that the average farmers’ market customer spent $51 at the farmers market and $62 at nearby businesses.
This spillover effect was echoed by several people during public comment, including Leah Wilner, who moved to Sebastopol two years ago.
“Knowing that there was a farmers market in Sebastopol was a draw for us,” she said. “and it was also one of the first activities that we did when we moved here, and it’s become a very important and beautiful tradition for us. It’s also one of the ways that I spend a lot of my local money. So I want to validate what Barbara said about having farmers’ markets being another way to cultivate additional money for other merchants in the town. I can say that I do that. I’m drawn to come out on a Sunday, go to the farmers market, and then I’ll walk around town and spend money at other businesses. I think that the requests made by Barbara and the market seem very valid and well thought out, and I would hope that the commission approves them.”
The Planning Commission ultimately agreed, voting unanimously to support the market’s new hours and imposing no vendor ratio restrictions. They also approved the market’s configuration maps—with the changes discussed above—and allowed them to have amplified music
“I felt very positive about it,” Hom said afterward about the outcome of the meeting. “I felt that the planning commissioners were very supportive.”
She also gave a shout-out to John Jay for helping her through the process. “He has been super helpful…we were on the phone a lot, and I could call him up and ask him questions, and he was very nice. I thought this process was good. I thought that the meeting was good, and they kept me well-informed about how it was going to be.”
Expansion beckons
Throughout the meeting, Hom repeatedly hinted about possibly expanding the market in the future. At the same time, she began the evening by saying, “I will not answer any questions about expansions or anything like that. We really want to focus on this and get our market back to normal.”
So, for now, that’s where we are. With its modified permit, the farmers market is once again in the City’s good graces. Its long-running detente with local merchants is temporarily restored. But for how long is an open question.
In a story posted by Press Democrat yesterday afternoon, Hom said that she still has her eye on expansion.
“We do want to expand and plan to apply for a permit to expand,” Hom told the PD. “Ideally, we want to take over the entire plaza and parking lot. But we just want to get back to normal and don’t want to slow the market down right now.”
Hooray !!!! Great Job Barbara
Is it a farmers market or a flea market. Sebastopol may need both but this process misses the distinction