photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Steve Clark, a principal with Clark Huesemann working with the Lawrence Farmers Market, presenting potential locations for a permanent downtown site for the market to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Monday night. The top recommendation based on a feasibility study is at South Park near 11th and Vermont Streets.

One potential site is standing out to the Lawrence Farmers Market as it studies the possibilities for a permanent home: South Park.

At its meeting Monday night, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board heard that the park just south of 11th Street got the most positive feedback in a recent study done by the market and the design firm Clark Huesemann. Steve Clark, a principal with the firm, told the board that more than 20 public engagement sessions were held as part of the study, and the majority of participants favored the idea of creating a permanent pavilion in South Park that could double as a park shelter.

“This could be a community structure that creates a true public living room (and) enhances a beloved downtown park,” Clark said.

As the Journal-World has reported, South Park is one of four potential sites being considered for the market’s permanent home. The other three are a parking lot at Ninth and Vermont streets; a location near Seventh Street that would be partially in Watson Park; and the market’s current location in the parking lot at 824 New Hampshire St.

The market had been searching for a permanent location for several years, but it got a boost last year after it received a Kansas Healthy Foods Initiative grant to conduct the feasibility study. Additionally, the City Commission approved a budget for 2026 that allocated $175,000 in the Capital Improvement Plan for the search for the permanent location.

Of the four options, Clark said the parking lot sites were less feasible than the locations in the parks. He told the board the desired goals for a permanent site would not work well with the market’s current location on New Hampshire, and that the lot at Ninth and Vermont was in “final negotiation” with the city for a different development.

A pavilion at South Park, however, could align with multiple goals in the city’s long-term plans, such as creating a downtown event space, he said.

photo by: Screenshot from Lawrence Farmers Market website

A rendering of a possible permanent location for the Lawrence Farmers Market on the northwest portion of South Park near Vermont and 11th Streets.

For the South Park site, Clark spoke of two potential concepts. One would take up about 10% of the park and would also occupy space in what’s now the parking lot of the Community Building, 115 W. 11th St. Another plan would not use any space in the Community Building lot and would extend the space for vendors and parking farther south into the park.

A couple of vendors with the farmers market spoke in favor of using the South Park site. Sarah Salzman said the park was once used by early Lawrence residents as land “to grow crops and raise livestock.” She said placing the pavilion in the park would be like “continuing the initial role” of the land while creating “a lasting civic resource” and a community commons.

But other residents who spoke were worried about the potential effect on the city’s green space. One commenter worried about losing open space near downtown, and another felt that this kind of construction would be “too intense” for South Park or Watson Park.

Board Chair Vicki Collie-Akers echoed some of their concerns. She asked the team how it would work to minimize the impact on trees. Clark said the sites proposed in South Park were in the most open area of the park, and that the market would “do everything (it) could” to ensure any permanent structure could coexist with the trees.

The board took no action after the presentation, but board member Ruth DeWitt said she was “excited by these ideas and presentations.” And the process of public input on the market’s new location will continue with another community town hall event from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.

photo by: Screenshot/City of Lawrence

A concept plan of the potential permanent location for the Lawrence Farmers Market that could be at South Park. This plan would take up about 10% of the park space, according to a presentation from Steve Clark, a principal with Clark Huesemann helping the market.