Malibu forces Farmers Market out of Legacy Park, and up to to City Hall Play

It was the largest show of force over a zoning violation in recent Malibu history, when the Malibu Farmers Market was forcibly relocated to City Hall Sunday.

Early in the morning, five sheriff's deputies and three zoning code enforcement officers stood along Civic Center Way, and in Legacy Park, where tomatoes and cucumbers had formerly been sold.

City Manager Joe Irvin told KBUU Sunday he ordered the gentle show of force at Legacy Park. He said city staff had worked all week to lure Farmers Market manager Debra Bianco up to a temporary location, at City Hall, while permits are finalized to return the market to its permanent weekly home: the parking lot in front of the library and Malibu College.

"We like the Farmer's Market, it is a civic attribute," Irvin told KBUU. "And if she follows her Conditional Use Permit and county health codes, we want to do everything possible to encourage its operation."

As he was interviewed, at 8 a.m. Sunday, the parking spaces along Civic Center Way were barricaded off with construction sawhorses. But up at City Hall, it was a scene of frantic organization.

At least eight city employees were acting as Bianco assistants, directing the placement of tables and booths as vendors and city staff set them up on the south side of City Hall.

Bianco's preferred home for the market is along Civic Center Way and encroaching into Legacy Park, where it has been for four years. It was forced out of the parking lot across the street, in front of the library, when Malibu College needed that parking lot for construction.

The Farmers Market director, Debra Bianco, today repeatedly waved away the KBUU reporter, just as she has repeatedly refused to return KBUU's phone calls or emails seeking her side of the issue.

For several months, the radio station has been reporting on her refusal to follow terms of her city permits, and on the growing complaints about the commercial activity in Legacy Park.

During the morning set-up time today, on Civic Center Way, three zoning code enforcement officers were directing vendors to keep their vegetables in their trucks, and circle up to the City Hall parking lot.

By 10 a.m., the stalls had been set up in three tiers on the south side of the building. Customers were noticeably absent, as the asphalt cooked in 83-degree heat.

The deputies then pulled out from Legacy Park, and the city zoning workers at the old site were directing shoppers to ride or walk 500 yards up the hill to the relocated shopping bazaar.

Irvin said Bianco had refused to communicate with City Hall for months. The Farmers Market had permission to operate in the street, on the south side of Civic Center Way, during the construction of Malibu College, which was finished two years ago.

City planning commissioners and public safety commissioners have objected to the Farmers Market in the street, and sheriff's deputies have said there have been several pedestrians nearly hit as a result of an unsafe layout.

The temporary permit that expired about two years ago was clear that no commercial operations be allowed in Legacy Park, just south of Civic Center Way. But Bianco has been renting out spaces in the city park to vendors for months, and commercial operations were moving further and further into the park property.

That's important to the city, because the land was sold to them with a deed restriction, which theoretically could allow the previous ownership to reclaim ownership of the land if the city violates the terms of its sale.

KBUU News has been asking Bianco to respond to public complaints about this, made by city commissioners at the Planning and Public Safety commissions. Bianco has been consistent in her refusal to speak with the radio station since.

Same problem with Bianco and the city — Bianco was not answering their phone calls, replying to their emails, or obeying a "cease and desist" order.

Sunday, Irvin told KBUU that the city's code enforcement team handed a cease and desist letter to Bianco in mid-July, setting an Aug. 1 deadline.

"We were saying (to the Farmers Market manager) you have until August 1 to stop operations at this location," Irvin said. "We then started talking to them to assist in obtaining the permits to move to the Santa Monica College parking lot across the street."

Bianco, said Irvin blew off that deadline and held three Farmers Markets at the illegal location since the Aug. 1 order. Commercial booths were still selling jewelry and clothing well into Legacy Park even last Sunday.

Despite that, Irvin today called the market "a valued asset in our community."

"But we just finally had to say that ignoring the Conditional Use Permit and the public health issues just was not a viable option," he said. "Our staff last week were diligently (working) to help with an emergency site plan approved at City Hall, and I'm happy to see that right now they are setting up at the City Hall lot."

There was no cost estimate available for the amount of staff time, sheriff's deputy time, barricade rental and other tax money spent on the Sunday confrontation.