No Ban on Blossoms at Farmers Market

A move to ban flower sales at a planned downtown farmers market failed at this week’s City Council meeting, despite the protests of local florists who said their businesses will suffer.

“It’s a competition thing,” Councilman Harold R. Kaufman said Wednesday. “We should not be limiting competition. I feel the flower sales should be allowed at the market.”

But local florists who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting said they can’t compete against growers selling their own flowers at the farmers market, who can charge less because they have no overhead. And florist June Cooper, owner of June’s Blooms, also contends that the growers sell an inferior product.

“The council was just not in favor of the local businesses and they should have been. Shame, shame, shame,” Cooper said Wednesday.

But Larry Nedeau, manager of the market for the Orange County Farm Bureau, told the council that florists enjoy a large markup in their sales. And he added that supermarkets don’t complain to the Farm Bureau about being undercut by the fruit and vegetable sellers.

Councilwoman Ruby L. Netzley proposed banning flower sales and limiting the term of the market’s permit from two years to one. That motion failed 2 to 3, with Mayor Bill Ossenmacher and council members Kaufman and Karen Lloreda opposing.

So the market will open next month as approved by the city’s Planning Commission, with flowers being sold alongside the produce. But the market will also have a separate area for the city’s florists to sell their wares, if they wish.

After six months, the city staff will examine flower sales to see if the florists are being hurt, by checking sales-tax revenue and other data, said assistant city planner Barbara Kennedy.

The market is scheduled to run from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays in a private parking lot at Street of the Golden Lantern and Dana Point Harbor Drive.