Reports show city reviewed weekend meet on Tuesdays
Lolita Harper
COSTA MESA -- City planners have a history of inspecting the Orange
Coast College weekend swap meet on Tuesdays as part of the permit-renewal
process, city documents show.
A document titled “Conditional Use Permit Review” states the site at
2701 Fairview Road was reviewed on Jan. 27, 1998 -- a Tuesday. The
document further explains the “business is still in operation at this
site and satisfies all conditions of approval” of the permit and
applicable city ordinances. The last line calls for another review in two
years.
A subsequent letter on June 8, 2000, from Senior City Planner Willa
Bowens-Killeen notifies Coast Community College District officials that
the swap meet was again inspected June 6, 2000 -- also a Tuesday -- and
was “found to satisfy the conditions of approval.”
The campus swap meet has never operated on Tuesdays. During the week,
its location serves as a parking lot for OCC students.
George Blanc, administrative dean of economic development and
community education who oversees the swap meet operation, said there are
no remnants of the swap meet on campus during the week. Only a swap meet
trailer remains on site, but it is closed and locked on weekdays.
“The only thing you could see is that trailer, but otherwise it is
just a student lot with empty cars,” Blanc said.
Bowens-Killeen is out of the office until the end of the week and was
unavailable for comment.
Mayor Linda Dixon vigorously defended the Planning Department, saying
city government is often criticized for not being friendly or helpful
enough but not in this case.
“Staff looked at [the file], saw that there were no complaints and
thought they would be a good neighbor and opted to renew it,” Dixon said.
“Will that happen in the future? I bet not.”
Don Lamm, the city director of development, said he could not
speculate whether Bowens-Killeen actually “inspected” the site on a
Tuesday, or why she chose that term for the letter to college officials.
Perhaps she meant the swap meet’s file was reviewed on that date, rather
than physically inspected, he said.
Lamm did defend the Planning Department’s permit renewal process.
During a general permit renewal process, a city planner -- who usually
knows the current issues in the community -- looks at the original
conditions of approval and researches any complaints that may have been
made about the site, Lamm said. The planner then makes a judgment call as
to how much to investigate, he said. The city has about 200 active
permits that require periodic renewal, Lamm said.
“Not every renewal is scrutinized under a microscope,” Lamm said,
“especially if the business has a long-standing record of cooperation,
works well with the community and doesn’t create any problems.
The original permit for the swap meet was granted in 1984 and
authorized 275 vendors on Sundays only. The shopping venue has
practically doubled its size in the last 18 years and -- until recently
-- showcased 400 to 500 vendors on each weekend day.
In 1998 and 2000, the swap meet -- operating two days a week with 400
to 500 vendors daily -- did not generate the same complaints from the
community that it has recently, Lamm said. Therefore, there was no
indication that planners should research the site in detail, he said.
“At that point in time, it was not an issue because both [the city and
the college] were happy,” Lamm said. “They didn’t care if it was
inspected and neither did we.”
It was not until November that city officials decided the swap meet
had become “intolerable” and began to study the site, Lamm said.
Lamm confirmed that planners did visit the site in November, after an
apparent increase in traffic along Fairview Road prompted a city study.
The study found that the swap meet operates with an excess of about 200
vendors and an additional day not authorized by the city in the original
1984 permit.
In March, city officials notified the college that the campus swap
meet was violating the school’s agreement with the city and college
officials quickly agreed to comply by scaling back. The swap meet will
meet on Sundays only and with fewer than 275 vendors starting this
weekend.
Jim McIlwain, vice president of administrative services for OCC, said
the swap meet has operated on both weekend days with nearly 400 vendors
for more than 15 years. As a result of the periodic renewal letters from
planners, college officials believed the city was satisfied with the swap
meet.
Both Lamm and McIlwain said the college and the city will continue to
work together to find a solution to the swap meet problems. McIlwain said
college attorneys are working on an amended application that will request
a two-day swap meet. Lamm said once the application is received, it will
go before the Planning Commission in about 30 days.
Dry fruit and nuts vendor William Pezzullo will continue to sell his
goods at the Sunday-only swap meet but is not happy about cutting his
weekend business in half.
He said he doesn’t want to point fingers at the city or the college,
but said some effort should be made to allow vendors -- who are in this
mess through no fault of their own -- to continue to conduct business
until the problems are resolved.
“The vendors should not be the ones made to suffer because somebody
fell asleep at the wheel,” Pezzullo said.
* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)
574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 lolita.harper@latimes.comf7 .
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