Non-profit Weighs Proposal for Douglaston Green Market

A city nonprofit group will soon visit Douglaston Village to determine whether it should create a farmers market near the neighborhood’s Long Island Rail Road station.

A representative from GrowNYC, also known as the Greenmarket Farmers Market, was scheduled to meet with Douglas Montgomery, vice president of the Douglaston Garden Club, and other community leaders this morning.

But the meeting was cancelled due to today’s snowstorm and has not yet been rescheduled.

Montgomery said Douglaston was among several communities in the five boroughs that GrowNYC, which operates Union Square’s massive green market, was seriously considering as a locale for a new market on Sundays during the spring, summer and early autumn.

“More and more they are liking the train station because of the ability for transit from the train and because Douglaston Village residents are doing so much to renovate their town,” he said. “And Sundays are really quiet.”

Montgomery said the garden club has been in discussions with GrowNYC about the proposed market for two years.

Cathy Chambers, who oversees intergovernmental affairs for the non-profit, said it could take months for GrowNYC to make a decision on whether to create a market in Douglaston. The non-profit would visit the train station site before such discussions would begin.

“Right now, we’re not sure whether this is a location where we’d have a market,” Chambers said.

Montgomery, who took Chambers on a tour last year of potential sites for a market in Douglaston and Little Neck, said a community market would offer a variety of items, such as vegetables, fruits, flowers and fish.

“They said the earliest it could open would be this spring, but most likely next year,” Montogomery said. “But the fact that they are coming here is exciting to me. This is moving along faster than it has before.”

One proposal for the site, located near Douglaston’s LIRR and 235th Street, would place four to six vendors at a loop near the station as well as some other booths in parking spaces that would not be utilized on Sundays.

GrowNYC, which was founded in 1976, is based in Manhattan and operates 51 markets across the five boroughs. It also helps communities create and maintain community gardens and provides recycling and environmental education programs.

The idea for a green market has been popular among Douglaston residents. In November, community resident Lee Fiorino passed out a petition to bring the market to the neighborhood.

The community must provide GrowNYC with a list of signatures as proof that a green market would be supported by the neighborhood.