Fresh crop of 'conditions' required for Tuesday Farmers Market

The ad hoc committee created to review the Tuesday Night Farmers Market has moved with the speed the Sonoma City Council had hoped for, and has come up with a plan to keep the well-attended event running for the coming year, under the same management as the previous six years.

Their proposal will headline the agenda of the Sonoma City Council's first meeting of 2017, which begins at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23, at the Community Meeting Room.

The committee, comprised of councilmembers Amy Harrington and Gary Edwards, was appointed in December to redefine the objectives of the Tuesday market and report back for Council ratification before approving an extension of the current agreement with the Valley of the Moon Certified Farmers' Market (VOMCFM).

At the meeting, the Council will consider a proposal for a one-year extension for the 2017 market season to be operated by VOMCFM, after which another ad hoc committee will evaluate the season's outcomes.

The VOMCFM will face an application fee increase, from $719 in 2016 to $1,051 in 2017, matched by a decrease in the fee for consumption of alcoholic beverages, from $460 down to $244.

Other changes include an attempt to shift the 'farmer to non-farmer' vendor ratio by eliminating 15 stalls behind City Hall – equating to about 10 vendors — and moving the food trucks to that location.

The number of food trucks would be limited to three and they can participate only on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month.

Local restaurants will also have an option to sell food behind City Hall on the second and fourth Tuesdays.

And in an effort to protect the Plaza 'horseshoe lawn,' the musical entertainment will be moved to the Grinstead Amphitheatre on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month during the first two months of the market season.

The delivery of the report was accelerated to the year's first council meeting to give VOMCFM adequate time to announce, solicit and approve applications for vendors for the 2017 season, which begins May 2, under the new fee structure, at their website sonomaplazamarket.org.