Summary

Community group Falls Church Forward (FCF) submitted a petition to the Economic Development Authority (EDA) signed by more than 400 community members and Falls Church Farmers Market patrons in support of a pilot to expand the award-winning City market on to adjacent streets. Doing so, FCF said, would allow for additional vendors, prepared food, a place for people to sit and eat, and activities for kids.

However, FCF’s plan set off alarm bells for current Farmers Market vendors and the City’s restaurant owners. The vendors conducted a survey and submitted more than 70 comments against expansion. They also attended the EDA’s June 2, 2026, meeting to voice their concerns.

Market vendors worry that a larger market would result in lower revenues for all so that it would no longer be worth their while to bring their products to Falls Church. Restaurant owners said that prepared food vendors would negatively affect vital weekend revenues. Their message was that bigger was not necessarily better.

City staff said the logistics of street closures on Park Avenue and Little Falls Street would need to consider neighboring properties and address security issues. Closed streets would also require police presence and additional staffing resources and could have a significant parking impact.

The City’s Farmers Market Manager and vendors are in favor of expanding to other days of the week, but that did not seem to be an option under consideration. The Recreation and Parks Advisory Board supported the market manager’s view that adding vendors risks harming the market’s effectiveness in serving local farmers.

EDA members raised concerns that this initiative had come from FCF rather than the Farmers Market Manager. They were not in favor of food trucks or prepared food vendors from outside the City but expressed some support for a pilot expansion involving vendors that would not hurt existing businesses.

EDA Chair Ross Litkenhous said it was up to the City Council rather than the EDA to decide on the pilot, though no effort has been made thus far to bring this issue to the Council. In addition to Mr. Litkenhous, Mayor Letty Hardi and Council Member Justine Underhill are founding and active FCF members. Ultimately, the EDA did not offer formal support for the FCF concept.

Background

Patrick Conley, a leader of community group Falls Church Forward (FCF), brought a proposal to the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board in November 2025 to expand the City’s award-winning Farmers Market by closing sections of Little Falls Street and Park Avenue. He said the group’s motivation was to grow a highly successful weekly event.

The summer season has a long list of vendors waiting for an open spot, and some local business owners have been frustrated that they have not been able to have a presence at the market. The long wait list is typical of farmers markets in this area and partly the result of careful vendor selection that ensures that the market and the vendors are financially successful. Notably, there are vacancies during the winter season.

At that November meeting, Farmers Market Manager Jennifer Brady explained the rationale for selecting vendors to create the character of the Falls Church market and described the challenges of running the market. [See the Pulse post Managing a Successful Farmers Market: Harder Than It Looks! November 25, 2026.] Ms. Brady was not in favor of significantly expanding the existing market because doing so might adversely affect the financial viability for vendors. However, she suggested creating another market at another location on a different day. Recreation and Parks Advisory Board members concluded that more work needs to be done to solicit input from vendors, neighboring businesses, and hold discussions with City staff.

Since then, FCF has continued to press this initiative. The group submitted a petition with more than 400 signatures to the Economic Development Authority (EDA) to expand the existing Farmers Market for one Saturday as a pilot. Mr. Conley presented the group’s initiative at the EDA meeting on June 2, 2026.

On June 10, 2026, the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board discussed the pilot with Evan Vahouny representing FCF.

EDA June 2, 2026, meeting discusses plans to expand the farmers market — EDA meeting, June 2, 2026. Local business owners and market vendors were in attendance.

The Falls Church Forward petition

Falls Church Forward is a community group whose founders and active members include Mayor Letty Hardi, City Council Member Justine Underhill, Planning Commission Chair Andrea Caumont, and EDA Chair Ross Litkenhous. The group has advocated for affordable housing and business and environmental policies in the City. An attendee at the EDA meeting questioned whether there is a conflict of interest for FCF members with positions on elected and appointed bodies to support the FCF petition.

This issue has yet to come before the City Council or the Planning Commission. In contrast to most initiatives that typically originate in City Council and are then referred by Council to relevant boards and commissions for review and comment, FCF chose to approach the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board and the EDA instead.

In their petition, FCF explained that their intention is to build on the success of the Falls Church Farmers Market by expanding it to allow “room for more prepared food vendors, picnic tables and community gathering space, kids’ activities, and additional music throughout the morning.”

They asked the City to pilot the closure of a portion of Park Avenue and/or Little Falls Street to provide the additional space. A letter with the names of 411 signatories was emailed to the EDA ahead of the meeting. Mr. Conley said that the signatories were community members, residents, and market patrons. (Actual signatures and addresses of the signatories were not included, as is typically required of a formal petition.)

A counter petition from Farmers Market vendors

Even though the FCF petition was not on the EDA’s agenda for its June meeting, many local businesses and market vendors were aware that it would be presented as a part of public comments. Their responses were almost entirely negative with many concerned about the financial impact from additional prepared food vendors in an already competitive environment for City restaurants.

The market vendors ran a survey to counter the expansion and shared responses from over 140 people, including 75 comments from vendors and patrons. Respondents conveyed that bigger was not necessarily better. Several people commented that expanding the market into neighboring streets would exacerbate an already bad parking situation. As a result, the June 2 EDA meeting was well attended, and the first hour of the meeting was devoted to this topic.

Business blowback at the EDA meeting

Mr. Conley opened the discussion on behalf of FCF, explaining that the intent of the proposed street closures is to provide additional public space for the community to gather and for businesses in the Falls Church community to showcase what they have to offer. He said he would defer to the Farmers Market Manager the selection of vendors and activities that would add value to the market to put in that space. “It’s not just [for] prepared foods and food trucks,” Mr. Conley maintained.

Mary Ellen Taylor, owner of Endless Summer Harvest in Purcellville, Virginia, spoke on behalf of many vendors who were too far away to attend the EDA meeting, which started at 8:00 p.m. Ms. Taylor has been at the Farmers Market for 20+ years. She explained that the market was the most important financial part of her business.

“The type of expansion being proposed would erode the authentic producer-only marketplace. … We drive hours to bring you our best each week. Please continue to make it financially worth our while,” Ms. Taylor said. Adding prepared foods would dilute the market as more vendors compete for customers’ limited dollars. As evidence, she said that when the City has major events in the park or at the Community Center, her sales are lower, despite more people attending.

“[Restaurants] might break even Monday-Thursday, but Friday-Sunday is when they pay the rent.” said Jen Demetrio of Café Kindred. “Expanding the options of eateries in Falls Church on a Saturday will negatively impact the business level of the local restaurants, who are already under strain due to the influx of large restaurants moving into the City.”

David Tax, co-owner of Clare and Don’s Beach Shack, wrote to say that their experience on Memorial Day and similar events is that additional traffic does not translate into more customers. Mr. Tax and other business owners pointed out that prepared food vendors and food trucks contribute less to the tax base than brick and mortar restaurants that pay taxes on equipment and reliably collect meals taxes.

Arash Tafakor of Dominion Wines, Stratford Gardens, and Brickhouse Butcher, was once in favor of market expansion but not if prepared food vendors are added. He has been unable to secure a spot at the market for his specialty sausages.

Sean Lowder of Liberty Restaurants Group, which owns The Falls and Northside Social, had concerns about Park Avenue closures that would restrict access to their restaurants. He acknowledged that Northside Social has benefited from its proximity to the Farmers Market, but said more prepared foods and coffee vendors would negatively affect their business. Mr. Lowder criticized the City for planning an expansion without knowing what vendors they would bring in and for not considering the parking problems.

Hüseyin Kaygusuz of Borek-G suggested the City expand parking, not the market. He said he made $500 to $600 more on Saturdays before the market added two more hot food vendors. He urged the City to expand the market to other days of the week instead of just Saturday mornings.

The logistics of a Saturday morning street closure

FCF submitted a proposed plan to the City staff for closing off sections of Park Avenue and Little Falls Street, below. The green arrows show how neighboring buildings would be accessed.

Aerial map showing proposed street closures to expand the farmers market. — Source: Farmers Market Expansion, Falls Church Forward website.

Deputy City Manager Andy Young responded that the City staff have looked into expanding the market onto the street and are familiar with the difficulties involved. The plan submitted by FCF creates four dead ends that require traffic to make U-turns, creating other problems. Closing off either Park Avenue or Little Falls Street would require a plan that considers public safety, security, and access for emergency vehicles, Mr. Young said.

Road closures would also require police presence and an expanded market additional Recreation and Parks staff. They would likely need overtime pay. Recreation and Parks Director Danny Schlitt said the estimated cost for police officers was about $4,000, plus the cost of his staff. Vendors were concerned that they would be stuck with the bill for additional City staff. Today, the cost of running the market is covered by the fees vendors pay.

Further, at the June 10 meeting of the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board, Mr. Schlitt said that road closures would need permission from the owners of the affected office buildings. He estimated that properties at 313 Park Avenue and 200 Little Falls Street together had about 130 condo offices that are separately owned. It would be difficult to get all of them to agree to a half-day closure, let alone every Saturday.

Mr. Schlitt emphasized the importance of the goodwill the City has built with these neighbors, especially when market patrons regularly trespass on their properties. These businesses protested strongly against the Park Avenue Great Streets plan to move the Farmers Market to Park Avenue.

Deputy City Manager Young said that the current market works really well and warned of “upsetting the apple cart.” He also said that it is important to be mindful of the impact on the neighboring community that has tolerated the market and incursions on private parking lots.

EDA and Mayor’s comments

Mayor Letty Hardi attended the EDA meeting. She said she is in favor of repurposing public streets into gathering spaces, such as for block parties, rather than using them just for parking cars. In that light, the expansion of the Farmers Market achieves that goal. However, the details of how that can be accomplished need to be worked out, she said. Mayor Hardi supports the pilot.

EDA Chair Ross Litkenhous said he was surprised that many comments indicated that people thought the expansion would significantly increase the size of the market. His understanding was that it was an expansion of only five or six vendors that offer products not currently in the market, giving preference to City businesses. He said he is not in favor of prepared foods vendors from outside the City “getting a free ride.” He also said that this was not an EDA decision, but a City Council decision with the Farmers Market Manager ultimately selecting the vendors. FCF asked for the EDA’s endorsement of their proposal, though none was formally given at the meeting.

EDA Member Matt Quinn said that he is concerned that the expansion effort is coming from FCF and not the market itself. Although he personally thinks the expansion pilot is a good idea, given that the EDA’s role is to represent the City’s local businesses, Mr. Quinn could not support this initiative because he has not heard a single positive note from businesses. Other EDA members were in favor of the pilot but against having more prepared food vendors.

The Recreation and Parks Advisory Board (RPAB) discussion

The Farmers Market is managed by the Recreation and Parks Department. FCF first brought the market expansion proposal to the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board (RPAB) in November 2025, so board members were familiar with it. At the request of FCF, the board revisited the subject at its June 10, 2026, meeting with FCF member Evan Vahouny representing the group.

Recreation and Parks director Danny Schlitt — Recreation and Parks Director Danny Schlitt

RPAB Chair Jenna Schroeder was in favor of adding public gathering spaces but not adding more vendors, a position shared by the other RPAB members. “Increasing vendors, which we heard from Jennifer [Brady, the Market Manager] previously, [based on] the Dupont example, was pretty disastrous,” she said. Ms. Schroeder thought adding space for tables to provide seating might encourage people to linger and spend more money at the market.

Vendors view their locations in the market as extremely important to their sales. Mr. Schlitt said vendors may not be willing to move to the street. There are alternative spaces around the market that would not require street closures. He reminded the group that the farmers market has regularly added public gathering spaces for community events such as pop-up fitness classes and the Plein Air Art Festival on the grassy areas around it.

“The City is very proud of the Farmers Market, and there is something almost flattering that everybody wants a piece of it,” Mr. Schlitt said, “but I am not sure that our Farmers Market philosophy is built to help solve some of the business issues that exist right now…”

Mr. Schlitt raised the issue of how to assess the success of a pilot. He would like to have quantifiable metrics. He said it would take time to work that out with FCF.

RPAB School Board Member MK Hughes asked what problem the City is trying to solve with this initiative. She said, “I’m hearing a lot of different goals – more vendors, more access for local businesses, and community gathering space, but I’m also hearing what problems are created. … If we don’t know what is going to improve as a result of doing this, it’s going to be hard to assess whether a pilot is effective.”

Next steps

Mr. Young said that he would take this discussion back to the staff and that the Farmers Market Manager is aware of the issues raised. They will continue their review of ways to improve the market while being careful not to break something that has worked so well.

Mr. Schlitt said he will work with Mr. Conley to further refine FCF’s proposed pilot, though it isn’t clear why he would be required to spend time to do so without formal approval to proceed with it

Mr. Conley intends to take this initiative to the Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation on behalf of FCF. It isn’t clear when, or if, FCF plans to present its proposal to the City Council.