Woodinville market site part of a growing vision

By Lisa Heyamoto
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

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With a new lease on 22 acres about four blocks south of downtown, the Friends of the Woodinville Farmers Market has finally secured a permanent home for the 11-year-old Saturday market.

If things continue to fall into place, it could be the first phase of a plan for a 100-acre farm/park that would feature agricultural attractions aimed at blending Woodinville's farming tradition with its growing tourism industry.

"It might be the next generation of farmers markets," said Tom Quigley, the man behind the 100-acre plan. "We really are blazing some sort of new territory here."

The farmers market will be held in the Sorenson School parking lot for two more years before moving to three acres of the purchased property, just south of Northeast 171st Street. There, it will share space with community P-Patches that the Friends group hopes to make available by early May.

The 22 acres is "just a place for people to get together, where they can work together and compare notes and learn from each other," said Gretchen Garth, chairwoman of the Friends group, a citizen-based nonprofit formed to support the market.

Information on the 100-acre vision: Call Tom Quigley at 425-483-9254 or e-mail tlquigley@msn.com To apply for a P-Patch: Pick up an application at Woodinville City Hall (17301 133rd Ave. N.E.), the Woodinville Public Library (17105 Avondale Road N.E.), or the Woodinville Weekly office (13342 N.E. 175th St.). Applications will be available Monday . Each 20-square-foot patch will cost about $25.

The rest of the land likely will be leased farmland, rented by the acre to farmers looking to extend their growing plots.

Though far from final, Quigley's vision would add other amenities to the mix, including display gardens, an arboretum and landscaped walkways linking the land to the Sammamish River Trail.

Quigley calls the plan a form of "agritourism" that seeks alternative ways for farmers to profit. He's banking on the land's proximity to Woodinville's tourist district off Highway 202 to boost the park/farm's popularity. The area has become a destination district because of its wineries, Willows Lodge and the Red Hook Brewery. Two additional wine and culinary centers plan to break ground in the next year or so.

Quigley is the owner of the Olympic Nursery, just south of the park/farm. He hatched his plan for the 100-acre complex after buying 65 acres south of his nursery and has been working with the Friends to mesh their similar visions.

"It would all certainly blend together pretty seamlessly," said Julie Davidson, a board member of the Friends group. "What we are trying to do has the potential to flow into Tom's ideas."

The last piece of Quigley's plan would add the neighboring, roughly 14-acre Zante Farm to the complex. He visualizes the farm, located just west of the park/farm, as a working-farm model.

A Woodinville fixture since 1927, the farm is owned by Dorie Zante, who said she'd be willing to sell but would like to see the land that her late husband, Fred Zante, labored over remain agricultural and continue to bear his name.

"I would like to see this place remain farming because this is not only a farm, it has so many memories," she said.

Garth, Davidson and Quigley emphasized that the addition of the Zante Farm still is just an idea, and no one is asking Zante to sell. In fact, many details of the 100-acre vision are still uncertain, including who would oversee or perhaps own each component of the farm/park.

Quigley has visions of possibly combining the three pieces under one nonprofit umbrella organization someday, a strategy that he says might lead eventually to community ownership.

"The idea is not to maintain these properties individually, but to step back and say, 'This is a bigger resource,' " he said.

The Woodinville Heritage Society has begun restoring an old mill on Quigley's property as part of a historic-themed garden, and the Sammamish Valley Grange will start a compass-themed garden on the property as well. Both could be considered anchor gardens for more to come, he said.

The Friends of the Woodinville Farmers Market waited more than three years for the 22-acre parcel to be freed from a lawsuit.

The land was bought by King County in the late 1990s for use as soccer fields. But several groups opposed the plan and took the Northshore Soccer Association and King County to court.

In 2000, a State Supreme Court judge ruled that the land must be used for agricultural purposes and not "active recreational use" such as soccer fields. It was then that former Metropolitan King County Councilwoman Louise Miller asked the Friends if they'd be interested in leasing the 22 acres.

"I knew that the market was wanting to locate somewhere permanent," Miller said. "For a farmers market, it's a perfect location."

Because the land is outside city limits, the Woodinville City Council has limited power to move the plan forward, but council support is strong.

"It's still a part of our community," said Councilman Chuck Price. "I'm impressed and am looking very much forward to it."

Woodinville has extended the market's lease at the Sorenson School through 2005, giving the Friends group two years to prepare the site for the market.

Around 40 vendors make up the market, selling produce, fruit and horticultural-related items. It's open on Saturdays from April through October.

For now, Garth is readying the land for the P-Patches, working to till and mark the area for each little plot of earth.

"It's been going on and on, but here we are," she said. "We're here."

Lisa Heyamoto: 206-464-2149 or lheyamoto@seattletimes.com

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