After 30 years in business, the Red Barn flea market will need a
new use permit to stay open, the county Planning Commission decided
Wednesday. Representatives of the popular Sunday bazaar are vowing
to appeal the ruling to the Board of Supervisors.
By Jim Johnson, McClatchy News Service
After 30 years in business, the Red Barn flea market will need a new use permit to stay open, the county Planning Commission decided Wednesday.
Representatives of the popular Sunday bazaar are vowing to appeal the ruling to the Board of Supervisors.
By a unanimous vote, the commission decided to require an amended permit for the North County market off Highway 101 near San Juan Road because it expanded its sales area past allowed limits. With four commissioners absent, the vote was 6-0.
A permit application must be filed by Nov. 30 and a commission hearing held by mid-January.
In the meantime, the market will be allowed to continue operating in its current form. But if it fails to submit an application by the deadline, it would have to restrict sales to previously set boundaries, which would cut its sales area by about half.
Red Barn representatives said they will seek a reversal from county supervisors because they are convinced they had the county’s implicit permission to use the entire sales area for the past 30 years, despite the lack of such an allowance on any use permit. Changing things now is not fair, they argue.
“We have to appeal,” Red Barn attorney Myron Etienne said. “We are not in violation.”
Attorney Christine Kemp, who represents the Red Barn and longtime owner Fran Ellingwood, said her clients are doing everything they can to cooperate with the county on a range of violations, some acknowledged and some alleged. But she said they
can’t afford to “re-open” the 32-year-old use permit because that would require an expensive environmental review and additional fees.
“We’re not getting a free pass,” Kemp said, responding to suggestions that the Red Barn had been allowed to operate for years without much oversight. She said several county departments have scheduled site visits next month.
“We’re more under the microscope than any other business in the county,” Kemp said.
If the Red Barn applies for an amended use permit, it would be subject to a public hearing process with comments and possibly more conditions of approval.
Under the commission’s plan, the Red Barn would be required to resolve additional issues associated with its existing use permit, including submission of a landscaping plan, fencing to restrict parking to allowed areas, removal of unauthorized vehicle storage, and evaluation of the site’s wastewater disposal system. Those have been agreed to by Red Barn representatives.
The Red Barn is the target of separate code enforcement scrutiny that has resulted in an agreement to require additional vendor permits, as well as official site inspection visits involving several county agencies, including building services and others.
Etienne said his clients have signed a new agreement with traffic consultant Keith Higgins to implement a plan to improve access to the site and reduce the impact on Highway 101.
But former Sheriff Gordon Sonne, who has led the effort by area residents to increase scrutiny on the Red Barn, expressed skepticism at Wednesday’s hearing about the county’s ability to hold the business accountable.
Sonne asked the commission if its plan would ensure that the market’s traffic impact would be fully studied and mitigated. He wondered if the Red Barn would be required to acquire permits and pay fines for a range of allegedly unauthorized grading, bridge construction and a barn conversion.
“It’s taken awhile, but I appreciate the applicant trying to do the right thing,” Sonne said. But he said many property owners in the area had already been required to meet strict county standards, including expensive permit processes, and they expect the Red Barn to be subject to the same rules.
“People are watching to see if there’s a double standard,” Sonne said.
A resident of nearby Ballantree Lane asked the commission to ensure that the Red Barn will be subject to “periodic compliance review” because of what he called the business’s tendency to commit violations after official scrutiny ends.
In contrast to previous hearings, Wednesday’s hearing drew only a smattering of Red Barn supporters, including some vendors, and none of them spoke.
