Farmers Market Returns to Library Lot Amid Parking Chaos Play

It may have taken some shock therapy, but Malibu's Farmers Market was forced back to the Malibu Library parking lot Sunday.

The crowd was 10 times larger than it was the weekend before, when the market was forcibly relocated to a hidden parking lot up at City Hall.

One typical shopper: "You know it gets confusing, because we never know where it's going to be. And this is much worse with the parking situation. There's nowhere to park. I see a lot less people here today."

Farmers market director Deb Bianco made herself unavailable for comment.

Her operation had been running in the same library parking lot for 20 years, until college construction forced it across the street into parking stalls along Civic Center Way.

And there it sat for three years, the booths creeping further and further into Legacy Park. That was a major legal headache for the city, as the city park's land title prohibits commercial activity.

But it was much nicer in the shady park than in the asphalt parking lot by the library.

Sunday, customers said it felt familiar yet different.

Shopper 2: "I feel like it's kind of the same because there's still one walkway, but there's a little more space to walk in between. It was a little tight on that side of the street, I must say."

Shopper 3: "Cooler over there. More shade."

Shopper 2: "True. More scenic, but it's okay."

Two Sundays ago the city sent sheriff's deputies and zoning inspectors to block Bianco from setting up in Legacy Park. City staff basically set up the stalls and booths for Bianco up at City Hall.

Sunday, no show of force. Bianco set up back at the library.

But the headaches and problems are by no means over.

There were complaints of not enough parking. The farmers market ate up almost all of the spaces at the library, where market patrons used to shop.

A massive all-day traffic jam developed on Civic Center Way. Anytime someone walked to one of the angle parking spaces on Civic Center Way, a hopeful shopper would turn on their blinker and stop to wait. Traffic was backed up for two blocks all morning as vehicles passed the market.

No one can park in the dirt lot at the chili cook-off site. It's being set up for the carnival this week.

Shoppers made do with the new-old site.

Shopper 4: "Well it's actually interesting to call it 'new' because when I first started coming to the farmers market, it was here in this parking lot. I don't mind it. It's fine. I did like it over there too. It was fine. I used the parking lot for parking, and it did get pretty messy during the summer. But being able to walk over there was nice. I did not like it last week when it was at City Hall. That was a bit crazy for me."

The traffic jam on Civic Center Way was exacerbated by the opening of the new Cross Creek Ranch shopping center next door, which has increased the traffic count on Civic Center Way.

Back inside the market, mixed reaction to the whole set-up. Some people just took it in stride. Others were quite frustrated.

Shopper 5: "It's nice, much better than last week. All the booths are a little closer together and the aisles closer. It feels more like a community."

Shopper 6: "Not great, not great. Less parking. The issue they supposedly were mitigating was people crossing the street, but you still have people doing that because you have people parking across the street. And there's no shade."

The city put on a brave face. In a statement issued over the weekend, the city effusively thanked farmers market director Debra Bianco for working with the city and the county to keep the market going.

Left unsaid was that the city had to spend thousands of dollars in weekend staff time, plus the cost of six sheriff's deputies, to forcibly prevent Bianco from using Legacy Park two weekends ago.