AUGUST 6, 2009 ISSUE
Farmers’ Market, Town, SAHA Reach Deal on Parking
No ASU Student Parking at Horn in the West Lot
Following several months of uncertainty, the Watauga County Farmers’ Market has been guaranteed full access to the Horn in the West parking lot during market times for the next 2.5 years.
The Boone Town Council on Monday voted to approve a renewed lease of the Horn in the West property to the Southern Appalachian Historical Association (SAHA) on the condition that the parking lot be fully available to the farmers’ market during market times. Only Council Members Lynne Mason and Stephen Phillips voted; Council Members Rennie Brantz and Janet Pepin were absent.
“We’re pretty pleased,” said Joe Martin, farmers’ market president, on Tuesday. “It’s been a long, lengthy process.”
The Town of Boone leases the Horn in the West property to SAHA, which has subleased the parking lot to the farmers’ market for about 30 years on Saturdays (and Wednesdays for part of the season). For several years, SAHA also leased the parking lot to ASU, which used the lot as assigned parking for on-campus students. ASU will not renew its sublease with SAHA.
As the market has grown in popularity in recent years, it has encountered serious parking problems when ASU students returned to park their cars in the lot in August. “It’s an absolute disaster” when student cars are parked at Horn in the West on market Saturdays, Martin said back in June.
SAHA, the farmers’ market and ASU representatives met several times over the past few months to discuss a new arrangement. After indicating in November 2008 that ASU students would be required to move their cars on market Saturdays as part of a new lease, SAHA later presented a plan to lease 250 of the 279 Horn parking spaces to ASU and not require students to move. In June, SAHA Chair Nancy Spann said ASU indicated it would be problematic to require students to move their cars on Saturdays.
The farmers’ market previously leased the lot for about $4,000. The new ASU lease would have been around $25,000, Spann said, which SAHA needed to make up for reduced funding from the state and the Town of Boone in fiscal year 2009-10.
Following a closed session on July 16, the town council voted to continue the lease with SAHA and to approve in concept the sublease that SAHA had with ASU, which had not been finalized at that time.
After a special closed session on Monday, however, Mason made a motion to rescind the July 16 decision and put forth a new motion. Mason and Phillips voted to renew the lease with SAHA for a shorter-than-typical period ending December 31, 2011, with the following conditions: the council retains the right to approve any subleases of the Horn property; SAHA will continue to sublease with the farmers’ market if the market pays an increased rent of at least $10,000 a year to SAHA; the Town of Boone will supplement SAHA with an additional $15,000 in funding each year; the town will continue to supplement SAHA funding because of a loss of funding from the state and ASU; the Horn parking lot will be fully available to the farmers’ market during market hours on Saturdays, Wednesdays and holiday markets; and the town reserves the right to concurrent use of the lot so long as that use does not interfere with SAHA or farmers’ market activities.
“Both SAHA and the farmers’ market are beloved entities to this community,” Mason said prior to her motion, adding that both are experiencing growing pains. Mason said the farmers’ market will begin to look for a new future location and that the town intends to enter into a longer lease term with SAHA after 2011.
A room full of farmers’ market supporters applauded the decision, and Martin said, “This has been a long, difficult process for all of us.” He also publicly thanked Spann.
The doubling of rent will require farmers’ market members to pay increased vendor fees, but, Martin said, “I think everybody will be very pleased to do so in order to make sure our customers have a place to park.” Martin said the market has already begun to informally look for new market locations around the county, but “everything has its drawbacks.”
About ASU’s withdrawal from the property, Spann said, “After the meetings and other discussions, I think ASU believed that their stepping aside and withdrawing their request to lease the parking lot would be the best solution. The farmers’ market board would not accept any other solution that was discussed.” Spann said the parties had worked with a professional parking consultant who proposed a park-and-ride program for the farmers’ market that would include a dedicated AppalCART bus at minimum cost, but the farmers’ market rejected that proposal.
“ASU graciously withdrew their request to lease the property because they want to support the efforts of both SAHA and the farmers’ market,” Spann said.
Spann said the $25,000 in funding from the town and the new farmers’ market lease will replace the expected revenues from the lost ASU lease but not the $4,000 that SAHA had previously received from the farmers’ market in addition to that figure, resulting in a reduced budget from previous years.
Several calls to Barry Sauls, director of Parking and Traffic at ASU, were not returned as of press time.
Community Interest
News & Notes
Events
Arts & Entertainment
