As the town reworks its long-term parks and recreation plans, the Western Wake Farmers' Market and the Cary Downtown Farmers Market are petitioning to use Cary land.

"A farmers market seems to be what a lot of successful towns have," said Liz Ryan, website manager for the downtown market. "It pulls crowds in; it makes it a happening place."

For the Western Wake Farmers' Market, the need for a new site is dire. The market will have to move from its current location - a parking lot in Carpenter Village, near Morrisville Parkway and N.C. Highway 55 - when its lease expires in March.

The site will be turned into housing, leaving the market homeless unless it finds a permanent location.

Organizers hope to move the market to the town-owned A.M. Howard Farm.

The 45-acre farm, at the intersection of Morrisville Carpenter and Louis Stephens roads, is about a half-mile from the market's current location.

Meanwhile, the Cary Downtown Farmers Market's vendors want to move from their temporary space, outside the Chatham Square shopping center, back to the heart of downtown Cary.

The downtown group is eyeing a town-owned site across from the Cary Arts Center, which recently opened on Dry Avenue at Academy Street.

The town will not make an immediate decision on either proposal.

But as Cary launched a reworking of its master parks and recreation plan last week, market advocates were quick to announce their wants and needs.

Last week, supporters of both farmers markets turned out to public meetings regarding the town's parks and recreation plans.

The town owns 10 undeveloped sites designated for parks.

At the Cary Senior Center on Tuesday night, residents picked up cards labeled with ideas for new town projects - everything from dog parks to public art to bocce courts - and placed them on maps of unused land to show where they thought the projects should go.

Farmers markets and public art ranked highest in the informal poll.

People pinned 25 cards supporting farmers markets to the maps - some on the downtown Cary area, and some in the A.M. Howard Farm site.

"It's all covered up with farmers market cards, so that's a good thing," said Kevin Gordon, operations manager for the Western Wake Farmers' Market, as he pointed to a map of the former farm site at the Tuesday meeting.

Location counts

A permanent farmers market in Cary would be more convenient than traveling to other well-established markets throughout the Triangle such as those in Carrboro, Durham and Raleigh, said Kenzie DeNardis, who has been going to the Western Wake Farmers Market for about two years.

"I don't want to drive 20 miles every weekend to go and get what I need," she said. "I'd rather just go down the road, or even ride my bike."

And while the Western Wake Farmers' Market seeks a steady home, the Cary Downtown Farmers Market wants more emphasis on the "downtown" part of its name. The Chatham Square shopping center is on the outskirts of downtown, but vendors would rather be in the middle.

"It's better for (the vendors') business," Ryan said. "They get more visibility and it makes them more part of the downtown instead of on the edge of it."

The market set up shop at the town-owned Cary train depot until 2008, when construction forced it to move to the shopping center.

Manager Michele Blackley said a new space could include a shelter and restrooms, and Ryan, the website manager, hopes for electricity and an ATM.

"It would be nice to have a permanent place," Ryan said. "We are so jealous of Carrboro.

"To have even just a glorified shed, that would be nice."

Town thinks on it

Danny Hopkins, director of parks and recreation for Cary, said the town would consider the requests as it crafts its new plan.

It is too early to estimate how much the town would have to pay to establish either market on town property, he said.

Hopkins doesn't believe the two proposals will compete for town dollars.

Although the two facilities might serve similar audiences, they are about seven miles apart.

"I don't think the decision would be mutually exclusive," he said. "They have their own merits in their own right."

Staff writer Andrea Weigl and correspondent Matt Goad contributed to this report.