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 .