San Clemente’s weekly Sunday Farmers Market will move back to its original location at Avenida Del Mar this month.
The farmers' market was forced to move elsewhere during the pandemic, but will return to the sidewalk on the 200 block of its original location by the end of November.
Over the past two years, vendors had been operating out of a car park shared by the public library, and then the San Clemente Community Center. In September this year, the mayor was pushing staff to review whether the market could move back to Del Mar.
The market is operated by city staff member Rick Heill. He moved the market to the parking lot next to Community Center so that close contact could be reduced and attendance monitored more carefully, and to ensure that the market was operating under the pandemic-era guidelines set out by the Department of Public Health.
Outdoor dining decks were banned on Avenida Del Mar until March 2021, which meant the market was unable to use all the space it used to have access to. Vendors will still be able to use a part of the parking lot if needed because using two of Del Mar’s outdoor dining decks leaves little space for the street. Vendors at such markets could use printing services to attract more people to their stands.
According to staff, the market will be back at Del Mar by this Sunday, November 20.
