OCC Swap Meet will re-expand

Lolita Harper

It took seven months, but city and Orange Coast College officials

came to an agreeable solution Monday when the Planning Commission

voted unanimously to reopen the 20-year campus swap meet on

Saturdays.

Planning commissioners agreed to reopen the swap meet on Saturdays

with an average of 260 vendors per day, as long as college officials

worked on a more advanced vendor reservation process and prohibited

parking in the Coast Community College District parking lot across

the street. Commissioners also ordered a six-month review to track

the college’s progress.

Planning Commission Chairwoman Katrina Foley thanked the college

for its cooperation and said teamwork helped make for a better

community swap meet.

“These are really good solutions,” Foley said.

College officials said they were “100% ready, willing and able” to

adjust the operation.

Consultant Trissa Allen, a representative from Linscott Law &

Greenspan Engineers, gave an extensive presentation that analyzed

parking models, vendor spaces, pedestrian counts and volume of the

swap meet. The results were contrasted with days that the swap meet

was not in operation to see what kind of an effect the venue was

having on congestion.

In April, city officials notified the college that the campus swap

meet was violating the school’s 1984 agreement with the city. A study

-- prompted by Councilwoman Libby Cowan in November because of an

apparent increase in traffic along Fairview Road -- found that the

swap meet was operating with an excess of 200 vendors and on an

additional day not authorized by the city.

City and college officials met to discuss the study, and the

school readily agreed to decrease the size to comply with the

existing permit, starting the weekend of May 4. An announcement was

sent to vendors explaining the cuts.

The next weeks brought droves of vendors and swap meet supporters

to City Council meetings, but the council could not take action

because the item was not on the agenda. Speaker after speaker shared

tales of the wonderful bargains found at the campus swap meet and the

melting pot of vendors who derive their income from the venue. One at

a time, they detailed the hardships that would result from limiting

the swap meet.

Those voices were absent Monday. Vendors were represented by

college officials, but were still outnumbered by residents who

opposed the swap meet.

Resident Paul Weber said he could not understand how consultants

could assess only minor traffic issues when he bears the brunt of the

congestion weekly in his neighborhood.

“I live in Mesa North, and on weekends you can hardly get around

town,” Weber said.

With proper traffic flow in the parking lots and a manageable

number of vendors, Allen said, the swap meet was more than feasible.

Allen recommended that the city monitor the swap meet according to

the number of available vendor spaces because of difficulties in

tracking the exact number of vendors as a result of a last-minute

lottery of available spaces and subletting. Commissioners approved a

total of 779 vendor spaces, with each vendor using an average of

three spaces. The Planning Commission also asked the college to

devise a better method of tracking the subletting problem and more

efficient vendor reservation process.

“We are ready to step up and control what we can,” said Anthony

Beaumon, the agent for the college. “We’d like you to consider us as

a citizen, as we have been for the past 20 years.”

Commissioner Bill Perkins, also a neighbor of the swap meet, said

the changes will make a big difference.

“I live right across the street and eliminating parking at the

Coast Community College [District] lot will make it a lot less

congested and a lot safer,” he said.