Seattle Press on Line - Where Have all the Farmers Gone?

Ballard Bugle

Where Have all the Farmers Gone?

By Adam Richter

Dec 20, 2001 -- Farmers not welcome at Ballard Sunday Market location

For the organizers of the Ballard Sunday Farmer's Market, moving into the old Safeway building for the winter seemed like a great idea at the time. There was only one catch: no food allowed.

When Safeway sold its building to the city of Seattle, one stipulated condition of sale was that no competing business could occupy the space for 20 years. That included grocery stores, no convenience stores, supermarkets, etc.--in other words, any future tenants could not sell food. Judy Kirkhoff, the produce manager for the Ballard Sunday Farmer's Market, says this restriction places a big obstacle in her organization's attempt to create a year-round farmer's market in Ballard. "There will be more and more farmers who have produce available later and later in the year," she said. "They need venues to sell."

The city of Seattle plans to put a 1.78-acre park on the existing site, which also houses a temporary skateboard park. Safeway sold the property to the city in March and stopped an eminent domain action that the city filed in February. But the sale came with a use-covenant that keeps farmers from selling produce on the grounds.

"For the Restriction Period" of 20 years, the deed reads, "the Property shall not be used for supermarket, grocery store, drug store, prescription pharmacy, or convenience store purposes."

Inside the Safeway building, therefore, only craftspeople and prepared-food vendors set up shop. The "farmer's market" proper remains where it has been since the summer: at the US Bank parking lot across the street.

The Ballard Sunday Market, which moved from Fremont in August, may find itself on the move again at the end of the month when its lease expires. The last day for the farmer's and craft markets is Sunday, December 23. Kirkhoff said they are now trying to renegotiate the lease and perhaps find a permanent site.

"They're not directly competing with a lot of local business," says Stephen Lundgren of the Community Council Federation.

But some local businesses have asked for conditions that make life tough on the farmer's market. For one thing, merchants are not allowed to park around the busy intersection of 56th and 22nd, where the Safeway building sits. And because the Safeway parking lot is used for customer parking, merchants have to use a lot on Shilshole Avenue, several blocks away.

The parking issue at the Safeway building kept another farmer's market from moving in to the site.

Chris Curtis, director of the Neighborhood Farmer's Market Alliance, said her organization wanted to put a weekday farmer's market in Ballard before the Sunday Market moved in. The NFMA also runs farmers' markets in West Seattle, Columbia City and the University District "I knew Ballard could and would support a farmer's market well," she says.

Curtis also doesn't like the prospect of having to move a farmer's market once it's in place.

"It terrified us to open in one location and have to move it," she says. Inevitably, the Ballard Sunday Market vendors will face the same challenge.

Even if they renew their lease at the end of the year, the Safeway building will soon get torn down to make way for a new park. Kirkhoff said she's looking at a range of new sites: Bergen Place, where Leary Way meets Market Street, the West Wall at Fishermen's Terminal, or any suitable vacant lot, if necessary. "We're looking at everything," she said. The Northside Grange #727, headquartered in Ballard, recently sent an open letter to the Ballard Business Community asking for support for a year-round market.

"A vibrant Ballard Farmers Market will be good for small family farmers and local artisans, our local environment, our community's physical and civic health, and especially good for Ballard's business community," the letter reads.

Most people agree that the farmers market's fate in Ballard is shaky right now. This week is the last market of the year. "The future is conditional right now," said Lundgren.

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