Courtesy of Kathryn Clarke Albright

A rendering by Helen DeHart shows the new market structure for Blacksburg. The structure will provide shade for the vendors and make shopping safer, market director Jenny Schwanke said.

BLACKSBURG -- Tonight the community will get its first look at concept drawings for a proposal to revitalize the popular downtown farmers market space at Draper Road and Roanoke Street.

Representatives from the Friends of the Farmers Market group, which oversees market operations, will present ideas and possible designs for the project at the Blacksburg Police Department training room from 7 to 9 p.m.

Officials hope the project will boost ongoing downtown revitalization efforts.

Every Saturday and some Wednesday afternoons throughout the year, the market draws shoppers interested in both organic and conventional vegetables and meat products. Local florists, cheesemakers, bakers and artisans also sell their wares there.

If eventually approved by the town, which owns the property, the new market design would reconfigure what is now a parking lot into a community gathering space. As currently conceived, it would move the market vendor stalls away from the road and create a park and events space with limited vehicle access.

Under the current version of the plan, the number of parking spaces in that area would be reduced from 40 to about 20.

The number of sheltered vendor stalls would more than double, from nine to 20 to accommodate the continued growth of the market.

According to market director Jenny Schwanke, since this time last year the number of vendors has risen from 19 to about 30, depending on the time of the season.

To accommodate the growth, Schwanke has assigned makeshift spaces along the Draper Road sidewalk and the brick-lined alley that runs between Draper and Main Street. But those areas lack any shelter or shade and, according to some vendors, attract fewer shoppers.

One of this season's new vendors along the alley is Sterling Bridge Dairy Farm, a family cheesemaking business located in Floyd County. Wisconsin natives Nancy and Randy Crompton and their college-aged son Elliott run the business, which produces fresh and aged goat and cow milk cheeses. But sales have been slow at the start because of their location along the alley, Nancy Crompton said Tuesday.

She said she hopes the proposed new arrangement will provide better visibility to all vendors.

The proposed design also seeks to make shopping in the market safer, Schwanke added. Right now shoppers congregate on the sidewalk -- and sometimes in the street -- at one of downtown's busiest corners. The new market design would move shoppers inside the market, better protecting kids and pets from traffic, Schwanke said.

Market organizers believe the proposed changes will enhance the identity of downtown and create "a destination place for community gathering throughout the year," said Kathryn Albright, founder of the Friends of the Farmers Market and a Virginia Tech architecture professor.

"If you think of places like Savannah, Ga., where they have lots of small parks, people are out and about more," Albright said. When people gather in urban areas, "it promotes social interaction and civic engagement," she added.

The Blacksburg market has over the years become a social, and even political, gathering spot. Candidates in the May council election came there to meet voters. Electorally-minded groups often register new voters there, and advocates for various causes can often be found conducting petition drives among the market stalls.

There is as yet no cost estimate or specific timeline for the project, Albright said. But the upcoming design work should provide those details.

The town council has already approved $50,000 in federal entitlement funds for the project's professional design work and over the past two years has contributed $20,000 to the market's operating budget, Assistant Town Manager Chris Lawrence said.