There might be green bean sales in the streets of Lawrence next year.

A City Hall proposal to accommodate the growth of the Lawrence Farmers Market would close a portion of Vermont Street on Saturday mornings in 2005. This would allow vendors to sell their fruits and vegetables on the downtown block. The market currently operates in an adjacent city parking lot.

“If you’re looking for space,” City Manager Mike Wildgen said Thursday, “there’s space.”

The proposal was made Thursday morning during a discussion by the city’s Farmers Market Task Force. Other proposals for the market’s future included year-round operation — the current season is May to November — and creation of a cafe that would serve only food grown in the Lawrence area.

“We’ve figured we should dream big, (then) circle around to what we can actually do,” said City Commissioner Sue Hack, who oversees the task force.

The Farmers Market attracts as many as 2,000 customers on Saturday mornings, officials say, with fewer customers during its Tuesday and Thursday afternoon sessions.

Growing pains

But market officials said they didn’t have room at their current site — a parking lot in the 1000 block of Vermont — for all the farmers who want to sell there. They also want to add a roof over the market, along with rest rooms, sinks, running water and electricity.

The Lawrence City Commission formed the task force this summer to help the market find a solution to those needs. But Thursday’s discussion indicated the task force has decided to take a broader look at the market’s future.

Lora Stoppel, Lawrence, picks out some tuberoses at the Lawrence Farmers Market. Stoppel shopped at the market Thursday evening. A city task force is considering proposals to expand the market, including closing the 1000 block of Vermont Street on Saturday mornings to accommodate more vendors.

Alan Stevens, director of a 340-acre research farm run by Kansas State University near De Soto, said his organization had developed techniques for northeast Kansas farmers to grow fresh produce year-round. But Stevens said small farmers would need a market for such vegetables, and a year-round farmers market would be perfect.

“I’d love to see Lawrence be the first in the region to come up with this,” Stevens told the task force.

Lawrence resident Hilary Nuffer told the committee she wanted to work with the market to create a cafe that sells only locally grown food.

“I’d like to have local eggs, local wheat — try to create the bun for the burger using local wheat,” Nuffer said.

Leave downtown?

The big ideas may wait, though, until more pressing problems are solved. The market now has room for about 60 vendors on Saturday mornings, with more than a dozen others waiting to take open spaces.

Lawrence businesswoman Cindy Maude, a task force member, suggested Thursday that a move from downtown might be needed.

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“It seems like there’s a huge opportunity at the (former) Tanger Outlet Mall” in North Lawrence, Maude said. “Everything you need is right there.”

Others were skeptical, saying part of the market’s charm was its downtown location.

“There’s a real investment in downtown,” said Jerry Jost, a market customer and task force member. “You would hear about it.”

Wildgen proposed the Vermont Street closing as an answer to expansion problems. Barbara Clark, a task force member who sells garlic at the market, embraced the idea.

“What I like about it is those 14 to 18 (vendors on the waiting list) would have a permanent space,” Clark said.

Further discussion of the issues will take place at the task force’s next meeting, at 7:30 a.m. Sept. 23 in City Hall.