Saturday Farmers Market set to move September 28 to make way for new Santa Barbara Police Headquarters

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The new location for the Saturday Farmers Market in Santa Barbara will be set for use on September 28.

The market is currently in the Cota St. parking lot on the corner of Cota St. and Santa Barbara St. That became the preferred site for the new Santa Barbara Police station and parking structure after an extensive study. The location is a city owned property.

The Farmers Market staff has been cooperating with the planning process.

The new site will be using two main city streets in the heart of town. It will be Carrillo St. from Chapala St. across to Anacapa St. Then the market will extend up and down State St. one block in each direction. Not all the space will be filled at the start. There is room to add more farmers. The Saturday market is the largest of the markets which take place six days a week.

One of the concerns with the new location was the emergency route for Santa Barbara City Fire coming out of Station 1 a half a block to the west of the new market location.

Plans are in place to make Figueroa St. from Chapala to Anacapa St. just one way traffic from west to east on Saturdays during the market hours from 6 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. That will clear a lane for an emergency response.

Senior Transportation Planner Jessica Grant said, "the traffic control and emergency response is meant to be adaptive over time. We really just want to make t the market a really safe place to visit and easy for emergency response crews to not only if they need to get to the market location, but the surrounding areas."

Economically the market is expected to be a boost to the area. Notices have gone out and businesses have been notified of the additional activity starting on September 28th with over 90 vendors loading in and loading out. The market itself draws about 5000 shoppers on Saturday.

Grant said, "The Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market is just such an asset to our community. I think it's very easy to visualize just the fun and ambiance and really the good and healthy food that, they bring to our community."

For more information go to: Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market