RESTON, VA — Fairfax County Park Authority and the Lake Anne of Reston, A Condominium Association (LARCA) signed an agreement that will keep the Saturday farmers market in the Washington Plaza parking lot in 2023.
“A little while ago, it was unclear that the farmers market was going to stay in the parking lot there at Lake Anne,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, during a year-end briefing with reporters on Monday. “There was an impasse between the two sides, the park authority and the LARCA board.”
Over the last few weeks, Alcorn met with representatives from both entities separately and then brought them together at his office last week to hammer things out.
Related: Impasse With Lake Anne Board Forces RCC To Move Summer Concert Series
“The good news is a contract was signed the end of last week, so the very successful farmers market will continue in the Lake Anne parking lot next year,” he said, adding that he intended to thank the LARCA board for signing the contract. “It’s their parking lot and they they make it available to the park authority for the farmers market. It’s clearly in everybody’s interest that that continues.”
John Lovaas, who founded the Reston Farmers Market and is co-market manager with his wife, Fran, was glad the agreement was signed.
“We are very pleased to see a productive conversation between LARCA and Fairfax County, which made the signing possible,” he said.
Last April, the Reston Community Center moved its Thursday night Take a Break concert series to Reston Station, after reaching an impasse with the LARCA Board over the agreement covering the county-run center’s use of Washington Plaza.
LARCA’s attorney wanted an indemnification from the county to protect the association and its unit owners from any claims of attendees, such as a market customer slipping or falling.
Related: Thursday Free Evening Concerts At Lake Anne Plaza In Reston To Return
“As a county agency, RCC can’t indemnify or hold harmless any entity, carries self-insurance coverage, and would not be able to make a side agreement to assume responsibilities of our landlord as a function of the landlord accepting responsibility for our costs in presenting events on the Plaza,” Gordon wrote in an email to the LARCA Board at the time.
In the new license agreement for the farmers market, the county acknowledged that it would carry all necessary liability insurance, but it is prohibited by law from extending its self-insurance to outside parties “or agreeing to holding harmless or indemnifying any parties.”
On Dec. 16, LARCA and the park authority signed the new agreement, covering the full farmers market season for 2023, which will run from the end of April to early December.
Although last year the Take a Break concert series moved to Reston Station, the LARCA Board signed an agreement with the Lake Anne and Washington Plaza Merchants Association for a new series of Thursday night concerts at Lake Anne.
Related: 2022 Multicultural Festival Moves To New Venue At Reston Town Center
RCC also chose to move the 2022 Multicultural Festival to Reston Town Station from its traditional home at Lake Anne Plaza.
In spite of the defection of the Take a Break concert series and the Multicultural Festival to other Reston venues, the park authority and the LARCA Board did reach an agreement in time for the April 30 opening of the Reston Farmers Market’s 2022 season.
In years past, the farmers market closed on the Saturday when the Multicultural Festival was taking place. In 2022, the farmers market vendors decided to remain open on Sept. 24, the same day the festival was going on over at Reston Town Center.
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