CHINA GROVE — Main Street Marketplace’s market and program manager, Brianna Carraccio, addressed the China Grove Town Council on Tuesday to present an outlook for the upcoming farmers market season.

While the farmers market used to be held at the China Grove Roller Mill, Carraccio explained that it moved to Main Street Marketplace as it continued to grow. 

Carraccio said that last year, they had 10+ vendors with “everything from meat to soap made of goat milk to coffee.”

This year, the farmers market already has nine vendors signed up. 

“We are excited to have people from last year and new vendors as well,” Carraccio said. 

During her presentation, the market and program manager aimed to clarify what she described as confusion about how the farmers market and Main Street Marketplace coexist in the same space. 

“There has been confusion around the marketplace being open because we do offer fresh produce already,” Carraccio said. “We as a marketplace don’t offer anything inside that the vendors outside are offering. There is no competition there. We fully support the farmers and vendors that are out there.”

Through her role, Carraccio works with several local farmers and businesses in the area. 

“I have been able to develop relationships with them, so it seems like a natural fit because we have worked together,” Carraccio said. 

Through those relationships, Carraccio hopes to continue enhancing the farmers market experience for shoppers, vendors and China Grove residents. 

“It’s a place to learn about healthy eating, the environment and fresh food,” Carraccio said. 

While the partnership is proving cohesive, Carraccio stressed on Tuesday that she wants people to look at the farmers market as something other than an extension of Main Street Marketplace, but rather as an extension of China Grove.

“It’s not Main Street’s farmers market,” Carraccio said. “It is our town’s farmers market. It takes all of us playing a critical role to make it work.

“It’s a place for our community to have conversations.”

According to Carraccio, last year the farmers market had 760 shoppers for an average of about 45 per week. Hoping to improve upon those totals, Carraccio joined the North Carolina Farmers Market Network. 

“It’s (made up of) managers of farmers markets from around NC,” Carraccio said. “I have received some guidance on how to manage the market.

“I hope to come back and show you guys the impact it is making on the community monetarily.”

The farmers market will not be held on Fridays this year like it was last year. Carraccio said with several vendors gearing up for Saturday markets, Fridays were not ideal. 

“Tuesday night seemed like a better fit,” Carraccio said. 

The market will start May 7 and run through August. Main Street Marketplace is located at 308 S. Main St., China Grove.

In other China Grove news

The China Grove Town Council rezoned a vacant parcel in the 800 block of South Franklin Street during its meeting. 

The property owner, Steve Safrit Jr., requested a zoning map amendment of the vacant parcel to town residential (R-T). Previously, the parcel was split between town residential and mixed residential (R-M). 

“This general rezoning is … to remove that mixed residential from the rear portion of the property and create all R-T (Town Residential) zoning for the site, which is consistent with the surrounding adjoining properties,” said Teresa Barringer, China Grove’s planning and development director. 

According to a memo from the China Grove Planning Board, the subject is a split-zoned parcel of (R-T) and (R-M) as a result of a recent exception plat to make the lot size more compatible with the surrounding lots. The (R-T) zoning district allows for both single-family detached and duplex residential development. 

It is a general rezoning of a vacant parcel with no site-specific development plan and will allow all uses permitted within the (R-T) zoning district. Per the planning board memo, that district designation is intended for more established residential areas within the town, primarily for medium-density single-family residential along with their customary uses.

At the meeting, Barringer said that the rezoning is consistent with the adopted China Grove Land Use Plan goal to … “preserve, enhance and create satisfying living environments that create and maintain strong neighborhoods.”

Barringer added that “increasing the size (of the parcel zoned R-T) will make it more viable for residential development. 

No one in attendance opted to speak out against the rezoning, and it was passed with unanimous council consent.