Farmers Market Parking Lot to Get Upgrade

A surface parking lot at the Ann Arbor farmers market is getting an upgrade, paid for with $8,280 from the market fund balance. The city’s park advisory commission recommended the appropriation at its May 21, 2013 meeting.

The Ann Arbor public market advisory commission had recommended the work and appropriation at its April 18, 2013 meeting. According to a staff memo, the work would include “saw cutting and stripping the asphalt, grading the existing aggregate, and adding 3 inches of asphalt mix.” It’s a short-term approach intended to tide over the lot until longer-term improvements at the market are determined.

The lot is known informally as the “sand lot,” but parks & recreation manager Colin Smith noted that it’s actually built from a variety of materials, including asphalt. “It’s not some place where you’d be playing volleyball, let’s put it that way,” Smith said.

The project is already underway and initially will be paid for out of proceeds from the parks maintenance and capital improvement millage, to be reimbursed from the market fund balance. The total market fund balance as of Feb. 28, 2013 was $684,145.

The public market – located in Kerrytown, north of Catherine between Fourth and Fifth avenues – is part of the city’s parks & recreation unit, but operates as an enterprise fund. That means the intent is for the operation to be self-sufficient, without support from the city’s general fund. The market manager is Sarah DeWitt.

This brief was filed from the second-floor council chambers at city hall, 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]