Fall farmers market proposed for Crestline

Urban Cookhouse is proposing a new fall farmers market on Saturday mornings in Crestline Village, but it has yet to finalize a location. The Mountain Brook City Council discussed the proposal at its meeting Monday, Sept. 14.

Organizers plan to start the market the last weekend of September (Sept. 26) and run it through the weekend before Thanksgiving (Nov. 21). Each market would run from 7-11 a.m.

"Our hope for this farmers market is to bring the community together... to provide a place for family and friends to gather on a Saturday morning to enjoy and also help out local farmers and vendors," Lindsay Horne of Urban Cookhouse wrote in a letter to the city.

Urban Cookhouse representatives requested to hold the market on Oak Street between La Paz and Otey's Tavern.

Mountain Brook Police Chief Ted Cook said the location is problematic because it is a one-way street and they have no place to turn around other than making a U-turn, which there might not be room for. Cook also recommended off-duty police officers man the road barriers.  Representative Lloyd Shelton agreed that it would not be good for traffic or surrounded businesses and recommended they look at Dan Watkins or the field across from the library. A representative from Oak Street Garden shop confirmed that it would negatively affect their customers on Saturday morning.

Both the city and Urban Cookhouse agreed that the field next to the Emmet O’Neal Library would make a strong alternate location.

“Most of us like the idea of a farmers market as long as it’s not impacting the village,” Council President Virginia Smith said.

The restaurant ran a farmers market last summer on Wednesday evenings on Vine Street. This year in early June a representative from Urban Cookhouse came before the council to propose a summer market on Friday evenings in front of City Hall in Crestline, but merchants opposed the location because it would block parking and police because of concerns about sight distance. Other locations in Crestline were suggested at the meeting, but it never came before the council at a later meeting.