Starting this Saturday, Overland Park will offer shuttles downtown on Saturdays for the next two months, coinciding with the city’s popular farmers market.
The move comes as the Overland Park Farmers Market is at a temporary home this summer outside the Matt Ross Community Center while a new permanent market pavilion is being built at the market’s traditional spot off Santa Fe Drive downtown.
In a news release Thursday, the city said the shuttle will run each Saturday starting June 7 and go through July 26.
Shuttles will run from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on those days and are expected complete a downtown loop every 15 minutes.
The circulating route will start at Overland Park City Hall, 8500 Santa Fe Dr., about a mile away from downtown, and stop at four different locations around the city’s downtown area, including at:
- Santa Fe Drive at Clock Tower Plaza
- 79th and Marty
- between 79th and 80th on Floyd
- and 80th and Marty.
Patrons will be able to hop on and off at any of the stops on the route.
The route will be slightly different on Saturday, June 14, to accommodate the Overland Park Art Fair. The shuttles that day will make a wider loop around the downtown area and actually stop closer to the farmers market’s temporary location at Matt Ross.
“This shuttle service makes visiting Downtown OP even easier,” said Mayor Curt Skoog in the city’s news release. “It’s my hope that visitors and residents will come for the Farmers’ Market and stay for our wonderful downtown shops and restaurants before hopping a ride home.”
The new $34 million pavilion near the city’s iconic Clock Tower Plaza is expected to be completed in time for the 2026 summer market season.
The new pavilion and surrounding area has already been dubbed Clock Tower Landing and will be centered around a new indoor structure that can host farmers’ markets year-round, in addition to outdoor gathering spaces around the new building.
Some downtown businesses have voiced concerns about the impact the ongoing work to build the new market pavilion is having — even temporarily — on foot traffic and revenue.
City officials told KSHB they are taking steps to respond, including adding signage about businesses and information about where downtown visitors can find parking.
There are at least five public parking garages in and around downtown Overland Park that the city directs patrons to on market days.
