The Lawrence Farmers Market is eyeing two downtown parks for a permanent location, and representatives shared plans and answered community members’ questions during a town hall Wednesday.

Many of the details are still to be ironed out, and community members raised questions about a handful of items including traffic, safety and conflict with other events.

The Lawrence Farmers Market started 49 years ago as a weekly pop-up event in city parking lots. The market has used a parking lot at 824 New Hampshire St. since 2008, but leaders have pushed for a permanent location for more than a decade.

The market’s top priorities for a permanent site include locating downtown, shelter from rain, electricity, access to water and drainage, parking for vendors and customers, a community gathering area, restrooms and more.

Steve Clark of Clark Huesemann, the local planning and architecture firm working on the project, said during the town hall Wednesday at the Lawrence Public Library that they’ve had about 30 stakeholder meetings so far with neighborhood and local business representatives.

Clark said they wanted to let the community guide the project. He said they took inspiration from farmers markets in Overland Park and Kansas City, as well as others across the country. 

After starting with about a dozen downtown locations, they have whittled the best options down to two. One is in Watson Park, along Seventh Street between Kentucky and Tennessee streets. The other is in South Park, along the northwest edge closest to Vermont Street.

Clark said the sites would likely allow for a small increase in the number of vendors, plus more equity between vendor locations throughout the market. He said if the structure is a city structure used for other purposes, such as graduation parties, being in a park is more appealing than a parking lot. 

He showed concept designs for both locations Wednesday night. 

The concept for the South Park location included a winding covered walkway through the northwest edge of the park, near Vermont Street, with vendors on either side.

Sarah Salzman, chair of the Farmers Market board, highlighted how the South Park location would be right across the street from the Community Building.

For the Watson Park location, Clark said they could temporarily close Seventh Street during the market, enclosing it on either side with pavilions in the park. He highlighted the location would be right next to the outdoor pool and library. 

One attendee asked about efforts to add Watson Park to the Lawrence Register of Historic Places. Jane Huesemann, with Clark Huesemann, said the Historic Resources Commission, which stewards that list, had told them being on the register does not prevent building on the site but adds criteria to meet. Clark said they’ve worked with the city planning department to identify what those extra steps would be. South Park is already on the register.

Clark on Wednesday said the Old West Lawrence Neighborhood Association, whose residents live next to Watson Park, had decided not to fully support the project because some members were concerned. 

Emily Lysen, director of development for the farmers market, said there is still the possibility of a fully enclosed space for year-round use, but that would be decided more in the next phase of design. 

Parks produce chance for collaboration, conflict

Nancy Boyda, who is on the board of the Lawrence Barn Dance Association, said they have been frustrated because they are not able to use the Community Building next to South Park. Clark said if the market were to pursue a South Park location and partner with the Community Building, they could look into collaborating with the Barn Dance Association about using the space. 

Moniquè Mercurio, who works with a Douglas County group called CORE that creates programs to enhance entrepreneurship, said they would love to work on how to utilize the same spaces and communities as the market. 

Both concepts also included performance space for groups such as the city band. 

Jen Unekis, co-coordinator of Art in the Park, said they have run into challenges with parking during their annual event. She said the farmers market would need to find solutions to that as well. She said holding the farmers market and Art in the Park at the same time would be challenging. 

Some members of Lawrence’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board were in attendance Wednesday.

Board Vice Chair Lee Ice said there is youth basketball on Saturday mornings at the Community Building, which would make parking difficult. 

Two members of the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, Vickie Collie-Akers and John Nalbandian, had drafted a letter opposing both park locations. The letter suggested that the added structures and increased traffic that would come with the market could alter the character of the parks and box out other community events.

However, board members decided during their Monday meeting that they would not be sending the letter on to the Lawrence City Commission.

Nalbandian spoke at Wednesday’s meeting and said the advisory board was concerned they weren’t involved in the process until this week, especially since the final locations are both in downtown parks. 

“The issue was this was brought to us, you know, kind of already decided,” he said.

Salzman said the city manager gave representatives for the farmers market a list of people to connect with and they assumed others were being looped in.

Mark Hecker, assistant director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said they loved the idea of a new farmers market space, but their biggest concern was current uses at the parks. He said South Park was the busiest public asset in the city and hosts more than 30 community groups. The Watson Park location, he said, may clash with the use of the pool. 

“It’s not a matter if we like it or not,” he said. “It’s a matter of ‘will it fit?’”

Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.

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