Proposed farmer’s market location to be discussed at later date

Gonzales City Council decided to pass until March making a decision on closing the 300 block of Saint George Street on Saturday, April 12 for a downtown farmer’s market after hearing concerns that it would make it hard for businesses in the area to receive deliveries.

The council had been asked originally in February to approve on the consent agenda a resolution authorizing the use of and designating closure of the 300 block of Saint George Street for a downtown farmer’s market at the request of Tour Gonzales and Gonzales Main Street, but pulled it out for individual consideration.

Early in the meeting, Johnnie Edwards, who owns the Josephine Peck building at the corner of Saint Joseph and Saint George, expressed her reservations about the choice of location for the farmers market.

“To be clear, I am not against the farmer’s market. I am 100 percent for a farmer’s market. I am opposed to the street closure in that area,” Edwards said. “There is limited parking in that area for the merchants there now. With you bringing more people in, with hopefully a successful farmer’s market, where will these people park?

“Multiple delivery trucks use the 300 block of Saint George as a parking place while they deliver goods and supplies to all of the restaurants in that area. Some of those include the Come and Take It Bar and Grill, La Bella Tavola, Hard Times Tavern, the Gonzales Bistro and others.”

Edwards said the time of the farmers market hours (7 a.m. to 1 p.m.) will also coincide with business hours for nearby barber shops, a beauty salon and two other businesses set to open — a brew house and a boutique.

“I feel that we need to reassess the location of the farmers market and move it to a more public space, such as one of our squares, where we maybe have restrooms available,” Edwards said. “So again, to be clear, I am 100 percent for a farmer's market in Gonzales, Texas. I'm simply asking for the council to redirect the location to a more public venue, such as one of the squares that is more open, more visible, and doesn't cause undue harm to the merchants on the 300 block.”

Main Street Director Tiffany Hutchison-Padilla said the two organizations had come up with the 300 block of Saint George because of the parking that is available in Independence Square.

“Rather than closing down square, where there's a lot of parking and people could walk, we did talk to several businesses that were in the area,” Hutchison-Padilla said. “They liked the idea of more foot traffic coming in there that that farmer’s markets would bring, but we can also see the side where you know, if people are going to have to walk, you can't park right in front of the businesses, and if we do close down that block, the delivery trucks are definitely something to consider as well.”

Hutchison-Padilla said some private property locations were considered for the market site and added she thought the site of the drive-thru for the former Wells Fargo bank — next door to the Chamber of Commerce and near the Robert L. Brothers Jr. Library — would make an “excellent option.”

However, there are no public restrooms immediately available on the site, so shoppers would have to use the Chamber of Commerce or the library, which is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. Hutchison-Padilla said she could bring the idea of using that site back to the committee for discussion.

District 4 Councilmember Ronda Miller said some of the downtown merchants had asked her about having a workshop to further discuss the matter.

“They'd like to have a workshop and talk about it being maybe somewhere else, if people were unwilling to move it,” Miller said. “Also, they had issue that in the past, when there was an event on that street, they were assured that they would be given notices, and they're little concerned they didn't get notices about this. This could have been pushed through tonight without them being able to voice their opinions.”

Miller suggested Market Square, which is at the corner of Saint Louis and Saint John streets, as an acceptable alternative.

“There's that big long building that's just full of storage and you could roll those doors up and actually do a really nice farmer's market,” Miller said. “It's right there on 183 and  I think that's worth a discussion. That'll be a great spot. Now, it may not bring people into the town as much, but people will  come for that.”

Hutchison-Padilla said the April 12 date was chosen to coincide with the Master Gardener’s annual plant sale, which has moved from Texas Heroes Square to Independence Square. She said the hope is that it will become an event that could be held more often, such as every weekend in June, or at least once a quarter.

The council agreed to wait on making a decision until the March regular meeting.