The task the county planning staff and the Red Barn owners now
face could be considered daunting.
By Jim Johnson, McClatchy News Service
The task the county planning staff and the Red Barn owners now face could be considered daunting.
They have about a month to come up with a plan to keep the iconic Aromas outdoor market – with its many jobs and tax income – open while at the same time tackling its permit violations.
County Planning Commissioner Martha Diehl said this week the onus is on the Red Barn to show that it could handle the impacts of its operations.
The Red Barn ownership “needs to perform, not promise,” Diehl said.
Red Barn attorney Myron Etienne said his clients – co-owners Ken McPhail and Fran Ellingwood – would listen to the staff proposal before deciding their next move. If the proposal is “overly punitive,” Etienne said it would likely trigger an appeal to the Board of Supervisors.
The issue is “we actually have the right to continue our operation as we have for 30 years,” Etienne said. “I disagree with (the commission’s) finding. On the other hand, we don’t want to just reject their proposal. If it’s adequate enough from an economic perspective, we would consider it.”
Commissioners said this week they didn’t want to see the Red Barn market closed, but acknowledged that revocation of the business’s use permit is still possible if an agreement on a new permit can’t be reached.
After a lengthy public hearing Wednesday that drew more than 250 people, the commission found the owners were in violation of their 30-year-old use permit and had expanded the outdoor sales beyond the permit’s limits.
But the commission also continued the hearing until Sept. 9 to allow county planning staff and Red Barn representatives to hammer out a plan, including a timeline, to apply for a new use permit to allow the expanded uses.
Area residents triggered a county review by complaining about long-running traffic problems on Highway 101. County planning officials found that the market appears to have doubled its size and exceeded its permitted limits.
But Red Barn representatives argued they had the right to use the expanded area despite the absence of any such allowance on the permit.
While the commission ruled against the Red Barn on Wednesday, it agreed to allow the market to continue operations while a new plan is being formulated.
Several commissioners made it clear they want a new use permit in place as soon as possible. A new use permit could trigger a review of the market’s business and its impacts, including traffic on the adjacent highway.
The commission could have immediately revoked the use permit or ordered that operations be scaled back to the 1970s permit limits.
But the commissioners acknowledged they were influenced by the scores of vendors and market supporters who told the commission the loss of the Red Barn market would devastate them.
Red Barn backers estimate there are 700 vendors and as many as 1,200 employees working in the food and merchandise booths. If the outdoor sales were just reduced to the 1970s limits, it would force about half of those booths to close, supporters said.
And that doesn’t count the many hundreds more who spend Sundays at the thriving market, contributing an estimated $5 million in annual taxable income to the area’s economy.
But some neighboring residents who spoke Wednesday night said the market’s success shouldn’t influence the county’s application of its own laws.
Margaret Serna-Bonetti, a Salinas Unified School District board member, compared the situation to blaming the sheriff for evicting people who don’t pay their mortgage.
Commissioners also said the traffic problems can’t be blamed solely on the Red Barn, noting the problems are not limited to Sundays, the only day of the week the flea market is open.
Commissioner Aurelio Salazar said area residents should know that Highway 101 is going to be congested on Sundays, because other Peninsula events also contribute to the traffic jams.
McPhail said it doesn’t make sense to force him to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a temporary traffic solution that will be torn down in a few years when Caltrans builds the planned San Juan Road overpass.
California Highway Patrol spokesman Brian Wiest said his office considers the highway around the Red Barn to be a “very precarious area, especially on Sundays.” He said the CHP records numerous accidents and traffic violations in the area, most of them due to people trying to get in and out of the Red Barn.
Wiest said traffic conditions have improved some since Caltrans closed down the left-turn lane on southbound Highway 101 at the Red Barn in late June, and increased CHP patrol presence has resulted in a spike in traffic tickets, many for unlicensed drivers.
That drew complaints from Red Barn patrons and vendors. Wiest said he doesn’t know what level of enforcement the CHP will employ in the future, though he said accidents and complaints about traffic will trigger increased attention.
Meanwhile, a county task force convened Thursday for its second meeting aimed at addressing code enforcement issues, and the Red Barn is likely high on its list.
The task force includes representatives from various county departments, including planning, building, environmental health, county counsel, the district attorney and the sheriff, as well as area fire marshals.
The Sheriff’s Office has referred a vehicle abatement issue at the Red Barn to the task force.
“We’re going to continue to look at the issues out there and deal with it with the task force,” Sheriff Mike Kanalakis said.
According to deputy Phil Hickenbottom, who handles code enforcement, 71 notices of violation were sent in June to the registered owners of vehicles alleged to be illegally stored on the Red Barn site after complaints triggered an investigation.
But Hickenbottom said the Sheriff’s Office suspended the action 10 days later at the request of county planning and building officials while the use permit issue was considered.
He said he has since been directed to turn the case over to the task force. He said he believes the task force will combine all the alleged violations – including the illegal remodel of a milk barn and fire code violations – and send one letter to the Red Barn owners, who will be required to address them within 15 days.
The task force will also be asking the CHP and Caltrans to help alleviate the traffic issue, he said.
