Displaced by the upcoming construction on the Centrepointe block, the open-air Lexington Farmers' Market Saturday shop needed a new home. And under Lexington's Streetscape Plan not only will the popular market have space, but the version will put a roof over the heads of vendors and shoppers.
Cheapside Park, adjacent to the west side Old Courthouse, will be converted from its current configuration to allow for the Farmers' Market to set up shop for the beginning of it's 2009 season this spring and will undergo a more extensive remodeling in time for the permanent structure and new features of the park to be in place by mid-2010.
"Cheapside Park is probably the shining star in the near future in terms of the opportunity it has to bring user groups, folks from the outside of downtown area (and) folks from near the downtown area into downtown," Clete Benken of KKG Studios, the city's streetscape consultant, said at a press conference Thursday with Mayor Jim Newberry.
Newberry and Benken said the streetscape and changes in store at Cheapside Park are about more than just aesthetics. "When you talk about streetscape you think about pretty things, you think about the trees, you think about planters and you think about pavement. But at the end of the day it's about economic development, it's about making downtown Lexington a better place to do business, a better place to live," Benken said.
Newberry presented plans for a total of four projects that will come together as one in the remaking of Cheapside Park that will include the beautifying of Main, Vine, Limestone and Short Streets in the core of downtown. The first phase of the project that includes the temporary changes at Cheapside but not next year's planned overhaul is estimated to cost $18 million, according to Newberry.
The mayor hopes to be able to utilize economic stimulus money or tax increments from the yet to be approved TIF district surrounding Centrepointe to pay for the upgrades. The entire streetscape plan will be presented to Urban County Council on Tuesday. The plan will add up to 170 additional on-street parking spaces in the downtown during non-peak hours. During the morning and evening rush, parking would be limited on downtown corridors.
The end product according to Benken will make Lexington "look a little more like Portland and a little less like Cleveland.
"We found that people in Lexington are demanding that streets are safer, that they're more pedestrian friendly, that people on the sidewalk receive as much consideration as people in carsÖ on the street," he said. "These plans are a reflection of Lexington, they're not a consultant's vision, these are the things that folks in Lexington have told us they wanted."
The glass and steel structure to be built in Cheapside Park will be reminiscent of Findlay Market in Cincinnati and Soulard Farmers Market in St. Louis, Benken said.
Jeff Dabbelt of the Lexington Farmers Market said the pavilion will be used by the Saturday market but could be expanded to other hours as demand increases.
Click here for a previous article and TV story on Findlay Market..