NORWICH — The Upper Valley Agricultural Association has purchased nearly 35 acres of land on Route 5 to serve as a new, permanent home for the Norwich Farmers’ Market.
The Upper Valley Agricultural Association’s $750,000 purchase from the Rose Z Dyke Trust in care of Judith Currier of Leesburg, Va., became final Tuesday, said Peggy Allen, who serves as president of the nonprofit organization that was started in 2024 to support plans for a new home for the market. The purchase was funded by donations.
“All of it was through private donors and from people who really love the market and recognize the need” for a permanent home, Allen said in a Wednesday phone interview.
The Norwich Farmers’ Market was founded in 1977, according to the nonprofit’s website. On Saturdays from May through October, it is located off Route 5 on a lot it currently rents from the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society. In the colder months, the market relocates to Tracy Hall in downtown Norwich.
The organization has said the parking areas at both locations have caused traffic congestion, which the new space would help address. The new space also will increase capacity for vendors.
The nonprofit has a goal of raising $5.7 million to fund the land purchase as well as the planned construction of a 7,500-square-foot building, a picnic area, space for outdoor vendors and around 250 parking spaces on roughly 10 acres of land.
There are also plans to use the space for cooking classes and other agriculture-based workshops, according to a description on the Upper Valley Agricultural Association’s website.
The association has currently raised $1 million and is working on fundraising and writing grants for the remaining $4.7 million.
“Construction won’t start until we have the dollars we need raised, raised,” Allen said, adding that it won’t be ready in time for the 2026 season.
The Norwich Development Review Board approved the Upper Valley Agricultural Association’s plans last November. It still needs to apply for an Act 250 land use permit through the Vermont Land Use Review Board. Allen said the nonprofit aims to submit the application in March. The association is also hoping connect to the town of Hartford’s water and sewer system, and those conversations are ongoing.
Plans call for the portion of the land not occupied by the farmers market to be subdivided to allow the nonprofit Twin Pines Housing Trust to construct affordable housing and the rest to be used to build market-rate housing, Allen said, adding that the housing part of the project is still in the planning stages.
“(Upper Valley Agricultural Association) is excited to partner with Twin Pines Housing Trust by selling the necessary acreage for Twin Pines to develop much-needed affordable housing in Norwich,” according to a statement on the association’s website. “This collaboration reflects our shared vision for building a vibrant, inclusive community where neighbors can live, shop, learn, and gather together.”
Twin Pines may incorporate part of the newly purchased land into an affordable housing development it is proposing for roughly 7 acres of land on Route 5 owned by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley, which is connected to Hartford’s water and sewer system, Andrew Winter, executive director of Twin Pines Housing, said.
“Twin Pines continues to move forward with early pre-development work on as many as 30 units of affordable housing (on land) currently owned by the Universalist Unitarian Congregation of the Upper Valley,” Winter said. Current plans call for a mix of one- and two-bedroom units.
“The hope is we will have an agreed upon plan by this summer and we will move forward with permitting in the summer and fall of 2026,” he said. The next step would be to apply for funding, with the hope of breaking ground on the project in 2027.
“This is early and there’s lots of work to be done and lots to figure out,” Winter said.