Quick Take
After more than 30 years in its familiar Cedar Street lot, the Wednesday downtown Santa Cruz farmers market will relocate one block away on May 21 to make way for the new library and housing project breaking ground in June. The market's temporary new home — stretching along Cedar Street and around the Cruzio building — will host the weekly event for the next two to three years as the city and market leaders work toward a permanent, purpose-built site downtown.
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The Wednesday farmers market in downtown Santa Cruz is counting down its final days at its home of more than 30 years. The last day at the current location is May 14. The weekly market will resume at a new temporary location just one block away on May 21.
The market will move from the parking lot on Cedar Street between Lincoln and Cathcart streets – known as Lot 4 – to Cedar Street between Walnut Avenue and Church Street. It will continue half a block west on Church Street, making an “L” shape by the Cruzio building and stopping before it reaches Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church. The market will also take over the parking lot next to the downtown Santa Cruz Public Libraries branch, known as Lot 16.
The streets will be closed on Wednesday afternoons while the market is going on, and earlier in the day while the vendors set up. The new site is close to two parking garages, and bike valet parking is free to market visitors.
The move comes as the downtown mixed-use library project prepares to break ground on Lot 4 in June, forcing the market to move elsewhere before construction gets underway.
This is an interim location, probably for at least two to three years, until the city and the market establish a permanent home for the Wednesday market within the downtown area. The market is currently considering two sites: the parking lot on Front Street between Cathcart Street and Soquel Avenue, known as Lot 7, and the site of the current downtown library. The city-owned 1.5-acre parcel could be redeveloped once the new downtown branch is complete.
In March, the Santa Cruz City Council unanimously approved a plan to explore developing the current library location on the corner of Church Street and Center Street and the adjacent parking lot into a mixed-use site with a public plaza, office space for the city, affordable housing and permanent farmers market infrastructure, such as bathrooms and electrical hookups for farmers market stalls.
Nesh Dhillon, executive director of Santa Cruz Community Farmers’ Markets, is considering different ways the market could work with the library and other nearby businesses to create family-centered programs and other incentives to bring people downtown. “We’re looking at every aspect of what we do and seeing how we can improve it,” he said.
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