photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Opening day of the Downtown Lawrence Farmers Market, April 12, 2025.

After winning a grant to help it find a new permanent home, the Lawrence Farmers Market is hoping to gather feedback from the public soon and select a location as quickly as possible — ideally by 2026.

That was what Emily Lysen, the market’s director of development, told the Journal-World on Monday after updating the Douglas County Food Policy Council on the market’s plans. As the Journal-World reported, the market is using a Kansas Healthy Foods Initiative grant to conduct a feasibility study that will help it find a permanent site, and Lysen told the Journal-World that the City of Lawrence and Douglas County will be helping with the study.

The market is hoping to move “as fast as (it) can” in completing the study, Lysen said, with the aim of finishing it by December so it can have a location picked out by 2026.

The market has been at its current location, the parking lot at 824 New Hampshire St., since 2007, but a permanent location could help the market resolve some logistical issues and bring in a wider variety of vendors. Lysen said the effort to find a permanent location has been talked about for a long time — the Food Policy Council had been involved with the project since 2015, she said, but it really “recommitted” to the project last fall, and the grant is expected to accelerate the process even more.

The first step of the study, Lysen said, will be getting input from the public, which will involve setting up tables at local events, holding community town halls and launching a website for the project. Lysen said the market expected to share the dates for those outreach efforts later this week, and that the city would assist the market with its communications.

Cori Wallace, the city’s communications and community relations director, said that she was serving as a liaison for the community feedback, and that she was encouraged by the market’s “thoughtful planning” and commitment to hearing from the public.

“This project is about more than just finding a permanent home for the Farmers’ Market,” Wallace said in a statement. “It is about creating a space that reflects the values of our community and strengthens the heart of Lawrence.”

Lysen said she was happy to have the city and county on board, especially so they could help spread the word about the project to community partners.

“We will need their support. We want to be able to reach as many people as possible,” Lysen said.