For now, swap meet at OCC is one day

Lolita Harper

All they want for Christmas is a two-day swap meet. But vendors at

the Orange Coast College swap meet will have to wait almost until the

holiday to be heard by the City Council because officials postponed a

decision on Monday.

The delay came as outgoing Mayor Linda Dixon asked the council to

put off any decision on the swap meet until Councilman-elect Allan

Mansoor was sworn in on Dec. 2. The terms of approval for the revised

shopping venue required a six-month progress check by the council.

“It is an unfair burden for me to place on a new council member

for me to take a vote on something he will have to make a decision

on,” Dixon said.

College officials argued vigorously against any more delays,

saying it would cause vendors to miss out on the lifeblood of retail

sales: holiday shopping.

Swap meet vendors have been running a Sunday-only swap meet for

almost eight months, since college officials agreed to scale back its

operations because of traffic problems on Fairview Road. During that

time, city and college officials worked together, a private

consultant was hired, options were proposed to the Planning

Commission and a new swap meet was approved with an average of 260

vendors per day.

Then, an 11th-hour appeal by resident Paul Wilbur -- who claims

commissioners don’t have authority over the swap meet -- brought the

item before the council Monday night.

Each council member took the opportunity to poke holes in the

proposed swap meet configuration, except Gary Monahan, who opposed

any further delays.

Councilman Chris Steel asked swap meet officials to verify legal

residency and state retail tax requirements of their vendors. Steel

contended swap meet merchants take trade from “established” Costa

Mesa businesses, and should follow the same laws regarding

citizenship and taxation.

Councilwoman Libby Cowan also asked about the validity of Wilbur’s

appeal. Although Wilbur’s main contention was with the Planning

Commissions’ authority over the issue, his appeal raised some

questions about the swap meet’s business license and whether it even

had one, she said.

Don Lamm, the city’s director of development, said the Planning

Commission’s earlier approval of the amended swap meet required

school officials to update their existing license to include sections

added within the past 20 years the swap meet has been open.

Finally, Councilwoman Karen Robinson said the city should not have

even considered an approval until the swap meet could show it had all

the necessary business permits.

City leaders were also concerned that there weren’t enough

solutions to the problem that prompted the cutbacks in the first

place: traffic.

Cowan said her main concern with the swap meet is traffic backing

up on Fairview Road. In the 82-page report from consultants, she

could not find any reports, maps or data that outlined solutions to

the traffic problem.

“Does this mean they don’t have it yet?” Cowan asked. “Why are we

not requiring that before we approve this?”

Paul Wilkinson, who represented consultant Linscott Law &

Greenspan Engineers, said the consultants’ job was two-fold. His firm

came in after the swap meet had already been limited to one day of

operation and based their recommendations -- all six of them -- on

existing traffic problems.

“Our analysis wound up doing a number of balancing equations,

which were presented as options for the Planning Commission to chose

from,” Wilkinson said. “The reason you have traffic issues around the

perimeter is because people can’t get in the lot.”

The way to ensure traffic flow, he added, is simple: There must be

enough parking spaces. That way, cars will not be forced to line up

on the street waiting for parking.

The way to determine the right amount is to base it on the

physical characteristics of the swap meet and determine a ratio of

parking space to vendor space, Wilkinson said.

Once the city had determined the size and scope of the swap meet

and the required parking, college officials could then concentrate on

operational details, such as a specific traffic flow chart and

directional signs.

While city leaders iron out the wrinkles in the proposed plan,

vendors and college officials continue to wait. Barring a denial on

Dec. 16, merchants might be open on Saturdays in January, at the

soonest, officials said.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.