DELAWARE — Main Street Delaware’s plan to move this year’s Farmers’ Market into Sandusky Street drew mixed reactions from downtown business owners during Monday’s Delaware City Council meeting.
The new format will move vendors from crowded sidewalks into the Sandusky Street roadway between Winter and William streets through the market season, from May 23 to Oct. 31 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. every Saturday.
Similar to the city’s First Friday events, pedestrians would be able to walk in the roadway while vendors set up inside the closure area.
Delaware’s parking and safety committee has currently approved the closure only through the first month of the season as part of a trial period.
Some downtown business owners praised the move as a safer, more walkable experience for the Farmers’ Market, while others warned it could worsen parking and accessibility issues.
Change addresses safety concerns
Main Street Delaware Executive Director Courtney Hendershot-Graf said the proposal emerged after growing concerns about congestion and pedestrian safety during the farmers’ market, which now includes roughly 40 to 45 vendors each week.
“We were looking at how congested the sidewalks were in terms of just pedestrian foot traffic and people stepping into the roadways,” Hendershot said.
“So that led to conversations about, ‘What does it look like if we close the streets down?'”
According to Hendershot-Graf, volunteers, city staff and business owners have observed multiple close calls involving pedestrians and vehicles in recent years as crowds spilled off sidewalks and into traffic.
Hendershot-Graf said the Delaware Police Department supported the concept after discussions with Main Street Delaware, and City Manager Paul Brake later brought the proposal before the city’s parking and safety committee rather than approving it administratively.
“The city has the end decision [after the trial period ends]. Main Street is just here to be the liaison between the downtown businesses, the downtown community and the city,” she said.
Other options — including keeping the market on the sidewalks, using heavier First Friday-style barricades or relocating the market outside downtown — were considered before this proposal, according to an email from Main Street Delaware to downtown businesses on May 4.
Using the steel barricades seen during larger downtown events would cost roughly $7,000 per week and require staffing levels that were unrealistic for a 23-week market season, according to the email.
Another email on April 29 stated vendors currently relocate their vehicles elsewhere downtown after unloading, occupying roughly 40 parking spaces during market hours. Under the proposed setup, about 32 parking spaces within the closure area would instead be used by vendors.
“Main Street’s priority is our downtown businesses. We’re here for the community, and we want to make sure our businesses are thriving and surviving,” Hendershot-Graf said.
Supporters appreciate increased foot traffic
Five downtown business owners spoke during Monday’s public comment period, debating whether the closure’s potential increase in foot traffic outweighs concerns about parking, accessibility and the operational impact of a 23-week street closure.
Opa! owner Genti Koci, who owns several properties on Sandusky Street, supported the proposal and argued the current market setup has become too congested because of patios and heavy pedestrian traffic.
Koci also proposed expanding the market farther south on Sandusky Street, saying businesses in that area have long wanted more downtown activity. He criticized what he described as resistance from some business owners.
“I am very upset with my fellow business owners in this town trashing the work that a lot of other people are doing because they are being very short-sighted and very selfish,” Koci said.
“It must be very hard to have thousands and thousands of people walk into your door from the events that Main Street puts on, while us on South Sandusky have been begging for an event for 15 years in a row,” he said. “It’s time to make Sandusky great again.”
Barley Hopsters owner Dylan Richards said increased foot traffic directly correlates to increased profits for his business. He added that events like First Fridays and the Farmers’ Market ultimately benefit businesses by bringing more people downtown.
“We are used to street closures and bending over backwards for that foot traffic,” Richards said. “It is my belief that by making it essentially a street festival-type farmers’ market, we will all see a net positive in sales.”
Fresh Start owner Todd Daughenbaugh also supported the proposal, saying the market has outgrown its current sidewalk setup and that keeping the event downtown is critical for local businesses.
“Eliminating the market from downtown, to me, is not an option,” he said.
Daughenbaugh said Farmers’ Market weekends are among his busiest days of the year and pointed to similar street-based markets in Dublin and New Albany as examples of successful layouts that still drive customers into surrounding businesses.
“I believe it’s Main Street’s job to bring people downtown, and I believe this will do that,” Daughenbaugh said. “It’s my job as a business owner to bring people in my door.”
Concerns about parking and accessibility
Other business owners questioned whether closing Sandusky Street every Saturday through October could create new accessibility and parking challenges.
Hamburger Inn owner Robert Pearson said he supports community events like the Farmers’ Market, but is concerned about what the scale and duration of the Sandusky Street closure will do to residents, employees and customers.
“What concerns me the most is that business owners were not consulted,” Pearson said.
He pointed out that his business experiences high traffic during the Farmers’ Market hours and if older customers aren’t able to park nearby, they may not come at all. Pearson also said deliveries will be harder and possibly impossible with the street closure.
Son of Thurman owner Chris DeVol echoed those concerns, saying downtown businesses are already navigating construction-related traffic issues and ongoing parking complaints from customers.
“I don’t know how events like this necessarily benefit my business, because we tend to stand on our own and work very hard to do that,” DeVol said.
DeVol said since he opened his restaurant 13 years ago, parking has been one of the biggest complaints from his customers.
“We appreciate the intent behind these events, to bring people downtown. But if you’re going to bring people downtown, they have to have somewhere to park,” he said.
