Downtown Merchants at Odds Over Plan to Relocate Farmers’ Market

In what a planning commissioner has called a symptom of downtown’s evolution, merchants are at odds over one shop owner’s bid to keep the Saturday farmers’ market from moving two blocks west.

Attic Treasures owner Don Goolesby, whose appeal could delay the move scheduled next month, says the market would eat up valuable parking space. But other shop owners disagree, saying the lively outdoor market brings in shoppers.

And Planning Commissioner Sandy Smith says the struggle over where to put the itinerant temporary market is just symbolic of the larger changes taking place downtown.

“We are at the crux of major economic change in the downtown,” Smith said. “The farmers’ market is at the center of what is going on. It’s symbolic of what is going to take place.”

Smith says construction of a new 10-screen theater complex and downtown parking structure means that downtown traffic will increase. Some businesses will gain from that traffic, and others will lose.

The same is true of the farmers’ market, he said. Originally conceived as an activity to lure more shoppers downtown, the market is scheduled to move from Santa Clara and California streets to make way for the parking garage.

It is supposed to begin hawking its fruits and flowers at a public parking lot on the northeast corner of Santa Clara and Palm streets April 5, according to downtown redevelopment manager Pat Richardson. But Goolesby’s appeal may delay that.

Goolesby said Tuesday that he and his neighbors on Main Street would not benefit from the proposed move.

“They’re saying the farmers’ market brings business,” Goolesby said. “But people who come that far to buy vegetables are not going to put them in the car to wilt while they walk around. They are going to take them home and put them in the refrigerator.”

He said that many downtown merchants share his concerns, and that 15 other businesses are collecting signatures of people opposing the move. They put the petitions out Thursday and have collected 400 names so far, he said.

But other Ventura merchants argue that the new location is the best to be found--and that the market consistently brings in customers.

“Most merchants are doing everything they can to entice people downtown,” said Ron Ellis of Smith & Smith on Oak Street, whose private parking lot would be shut off by the farmers’ market if it moves. “That farmers’ market is the only thing we have on Saturdays. Those 2 to 3,000 people make a difference.”

Smith says it comes down to a division between what he calls “impulse shoppers” and “destination shoppers.” Foot traffic generated by the farmers’ market may help a restaurant more than an antique dealer, he said.

“The downtown is going through changes,” Smith said. “Those changes will be dramatic over the next 10 years. Rents are going to be going up, and some stores are going to be looking at places with rents that are cheaper.”

The open-air market was started in 1986 as a downtown redevelopment project. Since 1989, it has been run as an independent, nonprofit farmers’ cooperative.

The market was held at Figueroa and Santa Clara streets through 1991, when the 2nd District Court of Appeal building was constructed at that site. The market was then moved to its present location. Now, the market is being forced out again--this time by a four-story, 500-space parking structure.

Karen Wetzel, operations manager for the Ventura County Certified farmers’ market Assn., which runs the market, said she was surprised by the appeal.

“We worked really hard with city staff and downtown businesses,” she said. “We had lots of input before deciding on that [new] site.”

Richardson said the city looked at six possible street locations and two other city parking lots for the market.

“The one we chose is closest in, it has good traffic circulation and we can close it off without disrupting the [neighboring] bank,” Richardson said.

The Planning Commission will consider the appeal at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 501 Poli St., then make a recommendation to the City Council.

“I have really mixed feelings about it,” said Smith, who said he will wait to hear the public speak before making up his mind. “But it will be an inconvenience for certain merchants no matter where you put it.”

In the meantime, Wetzel says the market’s future is in limbo.

“We don’t have a permanent location,” she said. “So it’s not like we can hang a sign on the door.”