Community Corner

Farmers Market Bears Some Blame For Permit Flap

Market staffers failed to properly apply for permission to close Ivar Avenue, where the Los Angeles Film School has complained about blocked access.

The future of the, a beloved community institution known as the city's front porch, has been imperiled in part by the missteps of market employees who failed to follow city permitting rules, Hollywood Patch has learned.

At issue is an application for the right to shut down city streets. In 2009, a change in city code required the market to apply for a "temporary selling activities permit," including providing the signatures from all businesses and residences affected by the market, which shuts down Ivar and Selma avenues between Hollywood and Sunset boulevards. At least 51 percent of those who sign must agree to the closures.

Initially market employees simply recycled an application they originally submitted in 1991, when the market first opened. That application was rejected by the city.

"What was submitted was not the right document," said Julie Wong, communications director for , whose district includes Hollywood. "We want the farmers market to stay, but they need to follow the procedure."

A second application attempt included hundreds of signatures from market patrons with addresses in Orange County, Pasadena and Los Feliz. Noticeably absent was the .

For years the weekly market, which runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays, has been at odds with the 11-year-old school because the entryway to one of the school's parking lots is blocked by the market.

The market, which hosts more than 170 vendors selling fruit, vegetables and other foods, and is by far the most popular in Los Angeles, with more than 8,000 patrons descending upon the neighborhood each week.

Yet market employees failed to secure the signature of anyone from the film school. The nonprofit that oversees the farmers market, known as SEE-LA (Sustainable Economic Enterprise of Los Angeles), didn't even approach the school, according to Adam Englander, a film school spokesman. He said the school had initially reached out to the market three years ago to try to resolve their differences.

Then in November, film school personnel protested and the Department of Public Works' Bureau of Street Services revoked the permit that applied to the section of the market that runs along Ivar, in front of the school. About 50 produce an artisan vendors operate on the affected stretch of Ivar, between Sunset and Selma.

Pompea Smith, the manager of the farmers market and executive director of SEE-LA, said the petition was confusing and that the unique nature of the market should exempt it from having to provide such a document.

"It's a recurring event, which should provide us some fundamental protection," Smith said. "It's not like this is a block party."

In years past, the Hollywood Farmers Market enjoyed a somewhat more relaxed permitting process, in part because it is run by a nonprofit, and it is a community service. But the recent change in city rules required  a more rigorous attention to detail.

Normally the cost of a permit for this type of ongoing event would run about $30,000 a year, Smith said, but the market pays just over $1,400 a year out of SEE-LA's annual $1.6 million budget. Farmers and others also paid SEE-LA $562,000 in fees to rent vendor spaces.  About $656,000 went to the salaries and Smith, as the executive director of the organization that oversees eight farmers markets in L.A., is paid about $72,000 a year.

Led by Smith, a wave of public outcry followed, with vendors wearing "Save the Farmers Market" T-shirts in solidarity. At the beginning of December news crews and reporters appeared en masse, interviewing market patrons and filming the driveway to the parking garage in question.

In just one day, more than 1,000 e-mails and phone calls flooded Garcetti's office, which helped secure a 90-day extension to keep the market open through March.

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The story line painted the market as the victim and the film school as the culprit. "There was little place for the truth of the matter," Englander said. "That's what's been lost—I don't think the truth makes as good of a story."

In 2007, film school personnel sought to renegotiate the farmers market street closure of Ivar to gain access to the campus' parking garage, but their request went unheeded, Englander said.

Smith has said she was not aware of the film school's desire to have access to the driveway before last month. However, in an e-mail to the director of the school dated March 17, 2008, Smith acknowledged the school's concerns.

"We understand the needs of the film school to have access to its facilities on Sunset and Ivar, and in consideration of your needs have provided access to both buildings on Ivar," she wrote in the e-mail. "We will also review any possible changes we can make in the market's operations and are confident that we can agree on a mutually acceptable and beneficial solution."

Smith maintains that in recent months film school representatives have been unwilling to discuss the matter. "I think they were set in their minds that we need to move," Smith said. "They were not open-minded about understanding our needs."

During the conflict earlier this month, the film school issued a press release saying it wanted the farmers market to remain open and serve the community. But at the same time, Englander said, school staffers didn't want to be pressured into signing off on a permit that would allow the farmers market to continue for another year without addressing the parking and access issue.

Find out what's happening in Hollywoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The city is not requiring that the farmers market reapply for the revoked permit-- instead officials have suggested the two parties work out their differences.

Garcetti said he wants to keep the market's current size and number of vendors and that the 90-day extension will provide more time for negotiation. Some options being considered include the relocation of vendors to adjacent streets or for the film school to map out construction options to connect its parking structures.

Gabrielle Frankel, a longtime Hollywood resident, was one of the protest leaders and the maker of more than 2,500 "Save the Farmers Market" T-shirts.

"Why wasn't there more transparency in both parties?" she asked. "I think there's stuff that the public still doesn't know." Frankel was surprised to hear that the farmers market manager knew about the concerns of the film school before November.

At the end of the day, Frankel says the issue shouldn't be about two parties who disagree, it should be about keeping the market open and thriving for years to come.


"The farmers market is for the kids and this community," Frankel said.


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