A sign that reads
”
Closed for Remodeling
”
hangs on the entrance to the massive Red Barn, right next to an
official yellow notice from the county building department that
prohibits anyone from entering except to clear out the venerable
structure.
By Jim Johnson, McClatchy News Service
A sign that reads “Closed for Remodeling” hangs on the entrance to the massive Red Barn, right next to an official yellow notice from the county building department that prohibits anyone from entering except to clear out the venerable structure.
After 40 years, the iconic Red Barn has been closed down by county building and fire officials, the most visible indication of the troubles the long-time business is facing largely as a result of its popular outdoor market bordering Highway 101 in north Monterey County, just south of San Benito County.
The Sunday market remains open while Red Barn owner Fran Ellingwood appeals to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors a county planning commission finding earlier this year that the market had exceeded its permitted bounds and needed a new permit.
Originally scheduled for Dec. 8, the appeal will likely be continued to January after Ellingwood’s representatives asked for a delay. A new use permit application was supposed to be submitted by the end of this month, with consideration to follow in January.
The bazaar is reportedly losing a number of vendors as scrutiny and enforcement efforts increase on the operation, including a crackdown on vendor permit requirements. And inspections of the property by a team of code enforcement officials a month and a half ago, prompted largely by the use permit controversy, found a range of alleged violations. No new use permit can be issued until all code violations are resolved.
Ellingwood and her attorney, Myron “Doc” Etienne,
said they continue to work with county officials on resolving the issues, though they disputed the validity of some of the alleged violations, including the use permit requirement.
“Whatever is necessary to be done, all the issues are being corrected,” Etienne said.
But county building department Director Tim McCormick said the proprietors have been resistant to county oversight and slow to make changes, and it remains to be seen if they will cooperate.
Despite a “history of code enforcement” at the Red Barn over the years, McCormick said recent scrutiny of the business only occurred after complaints about traffic problems blamed on the market rose to a crescendo. He said preliminary discussions with the owners went nowhere, and they threatened to close the business and hang a sign reading “the county shut us down.”
“In this case, it doesn’t seem like (resolution) has been the approach,” McCormick said. Instead, he said, the response was, “‘We’re out here and we’ve been here for years and we have the right to be here.’ They thought we’d go away, and that’s not going to happen.
“We’re not trying to close down the Red Barn. We’re telling them their impacts are beyond what is permitted and they need to fix it.”
For instance, McCormick said there is no reason the Red Barn proprietors can’t implement the recommendations in a traffic study they commissioned, but they haven’t yet done so.
Supervisor Lou Calcagno, whose district includes the Red Barn, said the business’s practices and impact have been largely unresolved issues for a long time, but things are changing.
“People have been operating there with no rules for years, and it’s difficult for people who’ve been operating out there one way to change,” Calcagno said. “The rules have been lax and they need to be enforced.”
McCormick suggested that because there has been a marked lack of investment in the business recently, the Red Barn “may be reaching the end of the business’s life cycle.”
Etienne said there has been “no idea” about closing down the business, though Ellingwood acknowledged the list of corrections is increasingly expensive.
It was after two inspections, conducted Sept. 27 and Oct. 1, that the highly visible main building in north Monterey County off Highway 101 was “yellow-tagged.” Storefronts and other improvements inside the structure had been constructed without permits. The barn also lacks fire sprinklers and adequate exit doors.
McCormick said a permit for “swap-meet sales” in the old hay barn was issued in 1969, but the proprietors had since set up a kind of “interior mall” for sales of antiques and collectibles that was not permitted. Now, entrance to the building is allowed only to remove all materials inside, said McCormick.
The inspections found a number of other alleged violations – even more than expected, said McCormick. A corrective order is expected to be issued as soon as this week, McCormick said, for a list of issues including a lack of permanent restrooms, maintenance and repair of bridges over a creek on the property, and another barn on site that was converted without permits.
Etienne said he and Ellingwood are “in the process of working on” the issues raised during the inspection, but he said they don’t represent violations.
