Fate of swap meet on the table

Lolita Harper

Finally armed with a detailed parking management plan for the

Orange Coast College Swap meet, council members will strive tonight

to make a decision on whether to grant the venue an additional day to

sell its wares.

Planning staffers and outside consultants scrambled last week to

ensure the City Council could review a detailed traffic, parking and

management program before tonight’s meeting.

Director of Development Services Don Lamm said his staff worked

diligently to answer the many questions from council members about

the swap meet’s business license, parking plan, earnings,

registration strategies, tax information and insurance.

While Lamm is confident in the answers, he could not ensure a

resolution from the council.

“It will be up to the City Council to make a decision Monday

night, if there is sufficient information to make a decision, or

whether they’ll have more questions,” Lamm said. “Or if it’s

insufficient and we have to do something else but I believe we’ve

addressed all their needs.”

Mayor Karen Robinson said last week she was not comfortable making

decisions on short notice and warned of a possible continuation.

“It makes it difficult to vote on something we are seeing for the

first time,” Robinson said. “All of our questions will have to be

answered from the dais.”

George Blanc, OCC’s administrative dean of economic development

and community education who oversees the swap meet operation, said

the college simply continues to adhere to the city’s wishes and hope

for the best.

While time is still critical, vendors have already missed any

opportunity to capitalize on holiday sales, he said with a resigned

tone.

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.

In that time, city and college officials have 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 brought the swap

meet under the intense scrutiny of the City Council and prompted more

questions and criticism.

That scrutiny continued during Monday’s council study session of

the swap meet.

Council members vowed they would not endorse another day at the

swap meet until they saw tangible plans to alleviate the traffic

problems.

While the major concern revolved around traffic management,

Councilmen Chris Steel and Allan Mansoor had more general concerns

about swap meet operations.

Steel insisted college officials verify the legal residence and

state tax numbers of all vendors. He suspects many college swap meet

vendors are taking away clients from “legitimate” Costa Mesa

businesses because they can offer lower prices by skirting various

laws.

Mansoor asked officials to reserve the possibility of changing the

venue from a flea-market-type swap meet to a farmer’s market or art

fair.