The drama continues

The Saturday farmers’ market debate has added a new chapter with a letter from Interim City Manager Mark Orme to Richard Coon, chairman of the Chico Certified Farmers’ Market board of directors. The letter offers four options: a three-year agreement to stay in the current downtown parking lot with no expansion until the city completes a study on parking impacts; staying put but moving the market to Sunday for a 15-year term; moving the market to the City Hall parking lot and surrounding area, with one option allowing business on Saturday (a four-year agreement) and the other on Sunday (for 10 years). Market operators have not yet submitted an official response. All four options include a $5,000 annual fee.

Coon has indicated the CCFM board wants the City Council to either adopt or put to the voters a qualified initiative that would keep the market in place for the next eight years and allow it to expand.