Pier Group Seeks Approval for Open-Air Produce Market

Following the lead of Corona del Mar, where a farmers market opened earlier this year, a group on the Balboa Peninsula is pushing for its own open-air produce market in the McFadden Place area.

The Newport Pier Assn., made up of merchants and residents, with the help of the Orange County Farm Bureau, won preliminary approval from the city recently and hopes to get the final OK from the City Council on Monday.

Unlike Corona del Mar, where some local florists protested the market, the McFadden Place proposal has met no opposition, city officials said.

If the market is approved Monday, 25 to 30 farmers will begin offering locally grown produce and flowers beginning the next day and continuing every Tuesday. The hours would be 8 a.m. to noon during the summer and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. the rest of the year.

The market would be at the West Oceanfront municipal parking lot next to the Doryman’s Fish Market. The lot is known locally as the McFadden Place parking lot at McFadden Place and West Balboa Boulevard.

“From a merchant’s point of view, we’d like to be seen as a destination place and we are always looking for inventive, quality attractions,” said Marcia Dossey, president of the Newport Pier Assn. “We will be able to attract locals and those who didn’t catch another market elsewhere.”

Newport Beach resident Larry Nedeau, a member of the Orange County Farm Bureau, will manage the market. Nedeau manages other markets in the county, including a Friday market in Huntington Beach.

Nedeau said the market also would sell handmade soap, sauces and spreads, and bakery goods.

Each farmers market is approved and licensed by the Orange County Agricultural Commissioner’s Department and the Orange County Health Care Agency.