Nearly six months after its proposal to dramatically increase certain farmers market fees, the King County Board of Health has voted to leave the fees unchanged for this year.

The new proposal was created after significant pushback from farmers markets throughout the region — including the Vashon Farmers Market — prompted the county’s Food Protection Program managers to re-examine the issue. The county ultimately decided to give farmers markets and their vendors a reprieve for a year while the department of Environmental Health Services (EHS), which performs inspections at farmers markets, looks at restructuring its practices and the permitting process in order to keep fees low while maintaining 100 percent cost recovery for the program.

The county proposed significantly raising its farmers market permit fees last fall in order to reflect the increasing amount of time it spends on inspections and permitting for markets and their food vendors.

“With all of the feedback we received, we identified a need to restructure some of the permits,” said Becky Elias, Food Protection Program manager. “We still need to meet food safety needs, while being efficient and cost effective for everyone. With that in mind, we will use this year to come up with a redesign for certain permit structures.”

For instance, Elias said, the county could create a single permit for vendors who work at multiple sites. Currently those vendors must get separate permits for each location.

“It’s an example, something we’re exploring. But it gives you an idea of the kinds of things we’re thinking about,” she said.

The county expects to put forward a new fee structure in one year, with information likely coming to stakeholders in the third or fourth quarters. Fee increases are still likely.

Caleb Johns, manager of the Vashon Farmers Market, noted that while he’s pleased the market won’t have to contend with large fee increases this year, the whole process has been difficult for vendors.

“Because this wasn’t settled until the last couple of weeks, we have vendors who haven’t been able to get permitted since everything was on hold,” he said.

Johns added that while he appreciates the county’s efforts to take feedback and understands the need to raise fees, he thinks the situation could have been handled better.

“An incremental increase in the fees would have been OK,” he said, “and some warning would have been nice.”

He noted that as he plans the market’s budget for the next season well ahead of time, a sudden jump in the application fee of $1,000 would have been difficult to manage.

“Even if we don’t get new information until later this year, at least we know that it’s a possibility this time and can plan ahead,” he said.

The Vashon Farmers Market will begin its season on Saturday, April 4. Vendor applications are available now at vigavashon.org, and any current or interested vendors are invited to an information meeting from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday at the Sheffield Building.