Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board members could green light several key projects today (Friday), including changes to the Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market, a historic downtown walking tour, a new Front Street traffic signal and snowmelt funding.

Farmers Market Changes
Vendors could see several key changes at the 2015 Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market after a committee of DDA and city leaders, market customers and vendors spent several months reviewing options.

Chief among the opportunities the group identified: making the market more local and more organized. “Our waiting list got up to almost 40 vendors last year,” says DDA Special Projects Coordinator Nick Viox, explaining the group’s decision to limit sellers to seven counties: Grand Traverse, Antrim, Kalkaska, Wexford, Leelanau, Benzie and Manistee. The move would affect an estimated six to eight vendors who come from outside of those boundaries; they’ll be grandfathered in for 2015, but disallowed in 2016. “We have a limited amount of space to support the local growing economy, and we have all these people in our own backyard waiting to get in,” Viox says.

Vendors will also be required to give at least one week’s notice if they can’t attend the market, will be booked on a first-come, first-served basis in a system designed to achieve product balance and reward market longevity, and must sell products in one of three categories: raw agricultural products (produce, dairy, plants), value-added agricultural products (bread, soap, cheese, jams/salsas) and foraged items.

In an effort to further discourage reselling, which is prohibited, Viox says the committee will look to introduce more consistent farm visits this year at the market and at sellers’ growing sites to confirm product origins. “We want it to be a fair process for everyone, and to change the connotation of visits to something positive and proactive…while still keeping the integrity of the market intact,” says Viox.

The new rules will also establish an advisory board to hear vendor appeals and enforce guidelines, and will allow for up to four musical acts to perform (one per hour) during each market day.

Tour Through Time
The DDA and History Center of Traverse City will partner up for a special one-off event on March 21 to help raise funds for both groups and give residents a sneak peek into downtown’s historical past.

A Tour Through Time will offer a self-guided walking tour through nine downtown buildings with historical or architectural significance. Attendees will be given a passport and greeted by volunteers at stops like the Park Place Hotel, North Peak Brewing Company and Front Row Center. The event will provide access into little-seen areas of the tour sites; for example, at Cog’s Creek Building, guests can view the downstairs safe where furs used to be stored when the building housed Coddington Furriers.

Event tickets are $10 and are on sale now; the DDA’s portion of the proceeds will go toward the downtown bumpout project.

Front Street Signal
DDA board members will consider authorizing $80,000 in TIF 97 funds today for a new traffic light at Front and Hall streets as part of this spring’s West Front Street reconstruction project. Because the light is located within the TIF 97 district, it’s eligible for those dollars, according to DDA Executive Director Rob Bacigalupi, who says the “relatively modest investment in such an important project is well justified.”

Snow Melt
Finally, downtown business owners interested in installing snowmelt under their sidewalks could get help doing so if board members approve a proposal today to add snowmelt to the list of streetscape improvements eligible for fifty percent funding from the DDA. At least 51 percent of owners in a given block must agree to being assessed in order for snowmelt to be installed. If such a special assessment district is approved, projects will be subject to available DDA funding.