New Space for the Saturday Santa Barbara Farmers Market

A Conversation with Sam Edelman

After years of planning and many months of hard work, the Saturday Farmers Market opened in its new downtown Santa Barbara location on September 28. The market is now truly in the heart of downtown, branching out from the intersection of State and Carrillo streets. The new spot is certainly more visible and spacious than the Cota Street commuter parking lot, where the market had been held for nearly 40 years and where the City of Santa Barbara will soon start building a new police station.

Farmers and shoppers alike had concerns about the new location before the move, but in my experience over the past couple months the new market has been as crowded as ever and people seem happy. I caught up with Sam Edelman, general manager of the Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market, to learn more about all that went into the move, and how things are going.

The move from the old location to the new one must have been a long time in the making. It reminded me of preparations for Y2K, and how a lot of work took place behind the scenes to make the actual transition appear seamless. What were your goals when planning and implementing the market move?

The planning and preparations were years in the making, but efforts really ramped up in early 2024, leading up to our September 28 opening. The location was approved by the Santa Barbara City Council on April 30, 2024, where the general market parameters were set and the street closure plans worked out, but then it was a matter of putting the puzzle together to determine where all the farmers would be placed.

In the month or so leading up to the big move, extensive planning took place that involved working with numerous City departments. This included public works, transportation, downtown parking, police and fire, as well as outreach to various property and business owners located in the general area of the market. This was really an all-hands-on deck operation, as we were relocating to a major city thoroughfare in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. We had training and trial runs for setting up the substantial barricades placed at each end of Carrillo Street to safely secure the streets, and we crafted a traffic control plan.

Our goals were to do our best to have as smooth an opening day as possible, and I feel that we achieved that goal. The first market was heavily attended; we posted impressive sales and the overall reaction of our farmers and customers was very positive.

With the move, we lost the rows in the old parking lot, and our familiarity with where our favorite vendors were situated. How is the market organized now, and how can customers find specific vendors? Is there a design function to the new layout?

The layout of the new market is quite different from what we had been accustomed to for almost 40 years. A significant amount of thought and planning went into the placement of our farmers at the old site, and such a different configuration did make things a little complicated. Numerous factors played into the final farmer placement, which began with input from the farmers themselves. Some of them did make specific location requests, and most of those were accommodated. Most were more general requests, such as “I would like to be in the shade” (if they had products more sensitive to sun) or “I would like to be next to so-and-so,” if they had been adjacent to a certain farmer for many years.

On my end, there were many factors to consider, such as how much linear space our farmers had at the previous location, with the goal of giving everyone approximately what they were accustomed to. I also worked to try to keep certain communities of farmers together within the site itself, to give our customers a more familiar feel. Farmers’ historical arrival and exit times were also considered, to create an ease of entry and exit.

We have a map of our farmers available at the market information booth (at the northwest corner of the intersection). More commonly, customers come to our booth and ask where to find certain growers or products, and our knowledgeable market staff is happy to direct them.

Tell me a bit more about the planning process, what worked out well, and if there’s anyone you’d like to recognize for their efforts.

The saying “It takes a village” really applies here. I have an incredible market staff, almost all of whom have been working for our association for at least 10 years. Collectively, we were all able to make this rollout as seamless as possible, in coordination with the various City departments.

Jessica Grant, supervising transportation planner, really helped shepherd us through the entire planning process and did an incredible job. Also, Behdad Gharagozli, supervising transportation engineer, and Derrick Bailey, principal traffic engineer, did great work on the traffic control plans and signaling. From my market staff, I would like to recognize Alfredo Puente, one of our senior market managers, and Derek Trost, who assists with the very important barricades every Saturday morning, as well as our other incredible Saturday on-site staff: Vicky Sarquilla, Max Ortiz, Kimmy Iniguez and Shannon Fanning—they all keep our markets running smoothly.

How was the actual transition on the weekend of September 28? I went to the market and the general lack of chaos was a good sign, but I’m sure a lot was happening in the background. How did it look from the organization’s side?

Thanks to extensive planning, the actual transition was much smoother than anticipated. The farmers were given their placements a few weeks prior to the move, and I know many of them went by ahead of time to get a look at the space. The most important component to the opening day was the safe closure of Carrillo Street. City staff assisted us at 5am the first couple of weeks, which was very helpful, and since then we’ve been doing it ourselves. To safely close the streets, we must tow two large trailers to the site, each equipped with 900-pound barricades and an attached gate that needs to be in place prior to opening.

On opening day, it took us about three hours to place the traffic control cones and signs and set up the barricades. We have cut that time down by half, as we continue to enhance our operation. Thankfully, our staff member Derek Trost has experience towing horse trailers, so he’s been very helpful. I usually start the day on site at about 4:45am, starting with the traffic control plan. Soon after, Alfredo meets me on site to set up the market information booth to get the farmers situated. Derek arrives and we head over to pick up the first trailer to start the hard street closure. There are a lot of moving parts and work to do before the customers arrive for the market’s 8am opening.

People are enjoying walking through, admiring the stunning mountain views, architecture of the buildings and the large shade trees.

Is there anything you’d like to share about opening weekend and reactions to the new location?

I think that one thing that really stood out from both the customer and farmer sides was how incredible the site is. It’s much easier for customers to park than everyone had anticipated, and much easier to navigate within the site due to the wide streets. We’re also hearing comments about how beautiful the site is. People enjoy walking through, admiring the stunning mountain views, architecture of the buildings and the large shade trees. It’s proving to be much more welcoming than many of us expected.

How has the market been going over the past months?

Overall, things are going very well. The market has really brought life to that central downtown area of Santa Barbara, and I have received numerous reports of positive impacts on surrounding businesses. While some farmers may not yet have reached the sales levels they had at the Cota location, many of them have reported record-high sales. Overall average sales for the first couple of months have been slightly higher than those at the previous location for this same seasonal window. And most of the regular shoppers have been able to find their favorite farmers.

Why is the very center of the market, where State Street and Carrillo intersect, empty of vendors? Can we stand around and socialize there?

It’s primarily left clear in case a fire truck needs to enter the site during an emergency. That central portion of the market has indeed naturally turned into a nice gathering space.

After speaking with Sam, I spoke with three longtime farmers at the market. Tom Shepherd, Robert “BD” Dautch and Jacob Grant all had positive things to say about the new location.

Renowned farmer Tom Shepherd was one of the original vendors at the first Santa Barbara farmers market in 1983. He was all smiles when I asked how he likes the new market. “It’s super, and there are so many improvements—wider aisles, beautiful buildings and trees, much more space.” He loves the location he selected, right in front of the historic Hill Carrillo Adobe. He’s seeing a lot more “new faces” at the market compared to the previous location where 90% of the shoppers were regular customers.

Jacob Grant, of Roots Organic Farm, serves on the board of directors for the farmers market and participated in the relocation planning process. While he still has some concerns about the configuration of the market and how it’s more spread out, he is happy with the wider aisles and the fact that vendors are set up on both sides of the streets. One customer he spoke with provided a lengthy explanation of the spiritual energy inherent in the layout and central location.

“Everyone asks how I like the new market, and I realized that the important thing to me is whether the customers like it.” Sales are good, he said. He also pointed out that it would be nice to have more places for people to sit and rest, so that’s something they hope to provide in the future.

Robert “BD” Dautch from Earthtrine Farms, another farmers market original, said he’s happy with the new market and turnout, and is especially glad to see that plenty of customers are showing up and doing real shopping: “That means more people in our community are eating good, fresh, seasonal food.” His vendor location is a bit smaller, but he says his crew is great and makes it all work well.

RESOURCES

The Saturday market runs from 8am to 1pm.

For a listing of all Santa Barbara farmers markets and additional maps, visit www.sbfarmersmarket.org.

Please note that the vendor map is a guide that may change over time.