The Cornucopia Foundation may secure a license to operate at the County’s Civic Center until 2024
By Barbara Burke
Special to The Malibu Times
On Sept. 25, City Manager Steve McClary updated the City Council regarding the status of the Malibu Farmers Market, which was temporarily relocated to Legacy Park during the construction of the Santa Monica College’s Malibu campus.
“At the request of Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, the LA County Board of Supervisors will consider a motion for a fee waiver and a license permit request for The Cornucopia Foundation, operator of the Malibu Farmers Market, to operate at the County’s land on Civic Center through Jan. 31, 2024, whereupon the Board of Supervisors will possibly extend that permit for up to two years from then,” McClary said.
On Sept. 19, the city issued a statement concerning the history behind the Malibu Farmers Market’s temporary relocation to Legacy Park. The statement said that on Sept. 9, the city “issued a letter to the Cornucopia Foundation notifying them that the Temporary Use Permit (TUP) for the Farmers Market to temporarily operate at Legacy Park would expire on Oct. 7. The TUP was to allow the Farmers Market to have a safe and accessible location to operate while their original location on the parking lot of the County property and Malibu Library was unavailable during construction of the Santa Monica College (SMC) Malibu Campus. Now that the construction is complete and the SMC Campus is open, the Farmers Market may return to its original location.”
The city’s statement continued, saying, “The City has worked closely with the Cornucopia Foundation to ensure that the Farmers Market could continue to operate during the SMC campus construction. To assist the Farmers Market with parking and safety issues that arose during construction, the city passed an urgency ordinance to allow for the temporary use of the City-owned ‘Chili-Cook Off’ lot for parking. Once it became apparent that construction was impacting the function of the market and safety, the city passed a second urgency ordinance in November 2022 to enable the Farmers Market to continue to operate during the SMC campus construction by allowing it to locate temporarily in Legacy Park. Both of these urgency ordinances expired once the SMC college building could be occupied or in January 2024, whichever occurred first.”
The statement also noted that the City Council granted fee waivers to Cornucopia totaling $60,500 in 2023 and $36,000 in 2021.
“Although the City of Malibu is not part of any agreements or leases between the Malibu Farmers Market, LA County, or Santa Monica College, the City recognizes the value of the Farmers Market to the community,” The statement elaborated. “The City supports the Farmers Market as a longstanding, important community gathering place and opportunity for residents, businesses, employees, students and visitors to get high-quality, farm-fresh produce and natural products. The city has worked closely with the Cornucopia Foundation to ensure that the Farmers Market could continue to operate during the SMC campus construction.”
To assist the Farmers Market with parking and safety issues that arose during construction, the city passed an urgency ordinance to allow for the temporary use of the city-owned “Chili-Cook Off” lot for parking. Once it became apparent that construction was impacting the function of the market and safety, the city passed a second urgency ordinance in November 2022 to enable the Farmers Market to continue to operate during the SMC campus construction by allowing it to locate temporarily in Legacy Park. Both of these urgency ordinances expired once the SMC college building could be occupied or in January 2024, whichever occurred first. The letter informed the Cornucopia Foundation that currently, the City’s TUP code allows six commercial events per year on that property, and with the expiration of the urgency ordinance, each Sunday Farmers Market will begin to count as an event.
The Cornucopia Foundation hopes to conduct operations at Legacy Park
When the city purchased the land for Legacy Park, it came with deed restrictions on the uses of the park, the city’s statement explained, noting that all of the parties in the original agreement have to agree to proposed changes in the uses for the park. In this case, six parties would have to agree to release the deed restrictions on the land. The Sept. 19 letter stated, “The City has been working on obtaining that, however, that decision is ultimately up to those parties.”
On Sept. 25, the city manager informed The Malibu Times that “The LA County Board of Supervisors has a motion scheduled for tomorrow (Sept. 26) to permit the Malibu Farmers Market back on the County’s Civic Center property. Given that, the city is not going to continue to actively seek for the property owners to release the restrictions on the uses of Legacy Park, but City staff would be open to further discussions with the property owners should they have interest.”