IURA committee backs farmers market request to lease 75 parking spaces at Steamboat Landing

The IURA Economic Development Committee on Nov. 18 recommended that the agency and the Common Council consider a modification to the Steamboat Landing sublease that would allow the farmers market to enter into a lease to provide 75 parking spaces to Keuka Medical for weekday employee parking.

Nels, the agency staff member presenting the request, said the farmers market has invested in and striped its lot and asked permission to lease the spaces to a neighboring medical facility to help cover parking improvements. Nels told the committee the draft sublease would require a resolution authorizing the change and a subsequent action by the Common Council. "75 of the 225 spaces would still leave plenty of parking for casual use of the farmers market when the marketplace isn't in place," Nels said.

Committee members pressed staff on details they said were missing from the written request, including where the leased spaces would be located and whether weekday events or special-market activities would clash with an employee parking agreement. One member flagged a factual error in the draft resolution that references "over 300 parking spaces"; staff said the correct, striped total is 225 and asked that the resolution be corrected.

The committee voted to forward a recommendation in favor of allowing the farmers market to negotiate a parking lease with Keuka Medical and to ask the farmers market to attend the IURA meeting on Thursday to answer final questions if necessary. The motion to recommend the sublease modification was made and seconded during the meeting and carried with unanimous voice support.

Next steps: the IURA recommendation will be forwarded to the Common Council for final approval of any sublease modification authorizing commercial parking on the site.