Farmers vote down Hannaford lot market

SOUTH PORTLAND — Vendors planning to participate in this year’s South Portland Summer Farmers’ Market have rejected an offer extended by Hannaford supermarket to set up shop in its Mill Creek parking lot.

According to Hannaford spokesman Michael Norton, the store made the invitation after reading news accounts of the market’s struggle to find a permanent home where it can attract an audience. Since late February, a debate has raged via email among farmers, councilors and others over whether the market should stay in Thomas Knight Park, where it reportedly limped through its inaugural season, or relocate to Hinckley Drive, which would be closed to traffic on Thursdays from 2-8 p.m.

“We just saw it as part and parcel of being a good member of the community, especially since we have a relationship with more than 220 local farms in our six states, including nearly 100 in Maine,” said Norton on Friday.

Hannaford’s offer was celebrated late last week by councilors on either end of the market debate, including Rosemarie De Angelis and Jerry Jalbert. However, by Monday market manager Caitlin Jordan had thrown a blanket over that enthusiasm.

Jordan said that of the 18 vendors who have signed up for this year’s market, 14 voted via email Sunday on the Hannaford’s proposal. All but two, she said, rejected it.

“Mostly, it’s an issue of the visibility factor,” she said, explaining the vote. “We want to be seen from the major [Broadway] intersections. There’s also a desire to be as close to Mill Creek Park as we can, for ambiance, to feed that whole farmer setting.”

According to City Manager Jim Gailey, the vote takes Hannaford’s offer off the table. When the council meets May 7, it will vote on whether or not to close Hinckley Drive for the market, he said. Part of that vote will include how much of the road to close.

The farmers’ rejection of the proposal is the latest step in an ongoing debate over the location of the park. During her 2011 term as mayor, De Angelis helped spearhead creation of the market in Thomas Knight Park, where many vendors reporting losing money on the Thursday afternoon showcase.

At a Feb. 28 council workshop, De Angelis asked her peers to approve an 8-foot-by4-foot sign on Broadway to advertise the market’s location. Jalbert opposed that request, questioning what signal council support would send to Knightville businesses. Instead, he suggest the market move to Hinckley Drive, an option taken up by market manager Caitlin Jordan, who had supported the Mill Creek Park setting from the start.

However, because that option had been considered and dismissed early on – over concerns about parking, traffic flow and duck invasions, among other things – a behind-the-scenes firestorm soon erupted. Emails circulated on the debate became so contentious that two vendors withdrew from the market, while one person quit its advisory committee.

By the time the matter came back before the public at an April 21 council workshop, relocating Hinckley Drive was widely viewed as the best of worst options, prompting the initial positive reaction to Hannaford’s offer.

Now that Hannaford’s proposal has failed to pass muster, the council will return to figuring out which Hinckley Drive plan will work best.

One plan aired at the April 21 council workshop – the first public debate on the issue since early March – calls on 24 vendor booths to be located on either side of Hinckley Drive, between Ocean Street and the Hinckley entrance to the credit union. Another, designed for 41 booths, would extend “around the bend” on Hinckley Drive to the People’s United Bank entrance.

Although the larger layout would block his tenants’ access to Hinckley Drive, Tom Noyce, owner of 170 Ocean St., where Town & Country Federal Credit Union is located, said he preferred that option, as it would limit people trying to shortcut to Hannaford from Ocean Street. De Angelis backed the larger plan, as well, citing safety concerns over motorists not seeing the market until they “whipped around the bend.”

Norton said traffic concern over the potential closure of Hinckley Drive contributed to his company’s offer.

“We want the market to be successful,” said Norton, “but we thought maybe we had an option that might be safer. We weren’t so much concerned about the access issue – there are other ways to come to the store than Hinckley Drive and we think most of our customers would be motivated to take a route around the market. But it would create a new group of pedestrians trying to access our store on foot in an area where visibility could be an issue on some corners.”

If the council agrees to close Hinckley Drive for the market, the issue still has to pass muster with the Planning Board. At its May 8 meeting, the board will vote on whether to grant a special exemption permit to the market, which ordinarily would not be allowed in the limited business zone around the park.

“We can close the street all day long,” said De Angelis of council powers, “but only the Planning Board can OK the market functioning there.”

Assuming positive votes of both the council and the Planning Board, the market could be up and operating as soon as May 10, said Jordan.