Glen Park News
City officials today held up the issuance of a street-closure permit for the proposed Sunday farmers’ market project in the heart of Glen Park village, saying more time is needed for concerns to be aired and addressed.
The San Francisco Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation, known as ISCOTT, put off consideration of whether to grant a street-closure permit for the market to operate until May 27.
Organizers of the proposed farmers’ market were encouraged to meet with concerned residents and merchants in the neighborhood “to continue the discussion,” ISCOTT’s Cindy Shamban said after this morning’s public hearing.
Three people testified in favor of the farmers market and three people raised concerns at the hearing, held at 1 South Van Ness Ave., Shamblan said. In addition, ISCOTT received a number of emails and calls. “There was a good airing of views,” Shamban said.
Backers of the farmer’s market, chief among them the Glen Park Merchants Association, is seeking a street-closure permit for the operation of a farmers’ market on Wilder Street, off of Diamond Street. The plan calls for the outdoor market to operate from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays for a test period running from June 6 to Aug. 8.
Under the proposal, Wilder Street would be shut to traffic on Sundays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. However, residents living at 53 Wilder St. would have access to their building from Carrie Street.
Shamban said it’s still possible the market could go through, as organizers can continue with the permitting process while preparing for the next meeting. Whether the market could open as planned by June 6th is unclear, she said. “It’s theoretically possible; I don’t know if they can turn it around that fast.”
There appeared to be “some miscommunication” in the community about the market, Shamban said. “ISCOTT definitely strives for consensus, and when you have something like this where it’s repetitive and not a one-day, one-time thing, your standards are a little higher.”
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In a note about the hearing sent to neighborhood email lists on Wednesday, the Glen Park News included a line about Glen Park Merchants Association president Ric Lopez leading the effort to create a farmers’ market in our community next to a line stating that all but one of the notices about the hearing posted on Wilder street had been torn down. The GPN in no way meant to imply that Mr. Lopez had anything to do with their removal.