Farmers’ Market Bullish on Staying Open Until Noon

Downtown merchants who failed to stop the Saturday morning farmers’ market from moving two blocks west are now trying to reduce the market’s operating hours, provoking new protests from fiercely loyal shoppers who see their weekly shopping ritual threatened again.

On Saturday, scores of shoppers eagerly picked up pre-printed cards--meant to be mailed to City Hall--supporting the market’s present hours.

“It’s outrageous,” said Ventura resident Hilary Young, 49, of the most recent protest by an antique-store owner. “This is one of the most charming things about Ventura--it’s where people get together. . . . I have a feeling people in antique stores must eat frozen food.”

Last month, the Ventura Planning Commission approved the market’s move two blocks west, to a city parking lot at Santa Clara and Palm streets. The move is slated for next month. But a merchant whose customers use that parking lot is demanding that the produce vendors vacate the lot by noon.

That means that Ventura County’s largest farmers’ market, which attracts up to 3,000 shoppers between 8:30 a.m. and noon, would have to close an hour earlier to ensure that farmers have sufficient time to dismantle their stalls.

The City Council will decide April 14 whether to approve the shorter hours requested by Sharyn Taylor, owner of Antique Accents in the 300 block of East Main Street.

“We have complaints every weekend from people who can’t park,” Taylor said, noting that her business relies on an out-of-town clientele rather than the Ventura residents who frequent the farmers’ market. “If they’re going to put it there, we just want them to limit the hours so it’s half a day for them and half a day for us.”

Construction of a four-story parking structure at the market’s present location in a municipal parking lot near the corner of California and Santa Clara streets is forcing the move.

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Last month, the Planning Commission unanimously rejected an appeal by some downtown merchants who contended that the market’s relocation would consume valuable parking spaces on the busiest shopping day of the week.

Karen Wetzel Schott, operations manager of the nonprofit cooperative that runs the market, is asking customers to mail the pre-printed cards to City Hall requesting retention of the market’s hours. About 1,600 people signed a petition last month supporting the move, and about 300 people have mailed in cards asking that the hours remain the same, Wetzel said.

Lopping an hour from the market’s operation would be a major hardship for the farmers who travel long distances to sell produce for only 3 1/2 hours, as well as for Ventura’s notoriously late-rising denizens, she said.

“We figure 35% of our business is done in that last hour,” Wetzel said, standing amid milling market crowds Saturday next to a vibrant electric green sign that read with a note of incredulity: “A second appeal! Now they want to shorten our hours! We need your help again!”

“An hour doesn’t seem like much,” she said, “but the impact it would have on the market, the farmers and the customers would be huge.”

Wetzel found no shortage of people annoyed by the prospect of an abbreviated market.

“I better sign that because I have a hard time getting anywhere on time,” said Rosemary Stewart of Ventura, a mother of two who noted that her out-of-town relatives are among the antique stores’ customers. “My parents-in-law spend oodles of money in the antique stores and if I’m displeased, I’ll tell them not to come. . . . I think it’s very shortsighted of them to irritate a few locals.”

Meanwhile, over at Antique Accents, regular “antiquers” Glaen Redeker of Westwood and her mother, Patricia Lay of Ventura, had stashed the strawberries and freshly cut flowers they purchased at the market in the trunk of their car before hitting the store.

“If not for the farmers’ market, I wouldn’t shop here,” Lay said flatly.