The Haleiwa Farmers’ Market will be allowed to operate at its current site until the end of the month after getting a reprieve from state orders to leave.
Dan Meisenzahl, spokesman of the Department of Transportation, said officials found flexibility in the month-to-month permit to allow the farmers market to be held at the junction of Kamehameha Highway and Joseph P. Leong Highway on the Waimea side of Haleiwa for the next three Sundays.
Thereafter, market owners Pamela Boyar and Annie Suite will need to find another site.
"Our hands are tied legally," said Meisenzahl.
The market owners met Thursday with Transportation Director Glenn Okimoto and Highways Administrator Alvin Takeshita at House Agriculture Chairman Clift Tsuji’s office to find a solution after the market received the order to vacate the agriculturally zoned land.
The Transportation Department sent the market a certified letter April 5 to leave the site within five days, citing a statute that prohibits vending from public highways.
Boyar and Suite said they were shocked, as they have been working with officials for the past year to fulfill conditions to obtain an annual agreement, instead of the current month-to-month arrangement. Transportation officials had been consulting with the attorney general’s office on conditions of new agreement plans with the market when they were told vending is prohibited at the site because the parcel is covered by the law.
The Abercrombie administration will assist market owners in their search for another location. Spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said, "We understand that this community wants this open market to continue, so we’d like to make sure they have that option, but not in this area."
The Sunday event attracts 2,500 shoppers. The farmers market was established in April 2009 when the Department of Transportation allowed market owners to use the site rent-free in support of local farmers.
The administration will look for another vacant parcel and other possible sites that include Haleiwa Elementary School or Sunset Beach Elementary School. Dela Cruz said the schools are ideal because they offer patrons parking space and a safe environment.
But Suite said space at the schools is limited to accommodate parking for shoppers and equipment that includes farm trucks and tents. Owners are looking for a location in Haleiwa that offers at least approximately 40,000 square feet.
"You also want visibility. You have to have easy access," she added.
