The Fenton Street Market will try to return to Veterans Plaza next year, despite announcing last week it would close permanently.

Market founder Hannah McCann announced Tuesday the market will vie for space at the Silver Spring location next year after hearing community feedback supporting the weekly event where vendors sell handmade jewelry, pottery and clothes and other items.

“There were so many people saying such beautiful things as to what this market means to them,” McCann said.

The Fenton Street Market has been open Saturdays on the plaza in front of the Silver Spring Civic Building at One Veterans Place since spring. The plaza is also the site of game nights and live music, as well as an ice rink during the winter months.

Montgomery County opened the space on the plaza to applications earlier this month, asking anyone interested in starting a market to submit a proposal for next year’s season.

McCann said last week that the Fenton Street Market would close Nov. 12, after she disagreed with new county requirements for future markets. Though the county would not charge rent for the market, organizers would have additional costs such as rental of a portable toilet and salaries of two county employees: a security officer and a building services worker.

Officials from the county Department of General Services said Friday some of the requirements might be amended in the coming weeks, including allowing food vendors, changing the terms for clean-up and potentially increasing the length of the market lease.

McCann said she changed her mind after hearing about the amendments, as well as community outcry when news of the closure broke.

“There was a big rallying cry from the community,” McCann said. “We have been bombarded with calls and emails from concerned citizens testifying to what an asset the market is to the community.”

County officials said they opened the plaza area to proposals earlier this month to be fair and to provide everyone an opportunity to start a market in the space.

McCann said she was so drained from a summer of fighting for the market’s spot on the plaza, that she did not have the energy to submit a detailed proposal to the county.

Megan Moriarty, project manager with the market, volunteered this week to work on the proposal.

“Megan has been the answer to our prayers because I felt like I couldn’t do it myself and couldn’t afford to hire someone at this point,” McCann said.

Moriarty used to sell handmade jewelry at the market’s original Fenton Village site in 2009 and said she decided to take on the proposal application, which is due in November, after seeing firsthand how important a market is to the community.

“I’ve really come to appreciate it as a community gathering space and an incubator for local business,” Moriarty said.

ktousignant@gazette.net