Approval of farmers market appealed by Eastside Costa Mesa resident
An Eastside Costa Mesa resident has appealed the Planning Commission’s approval of a farmers market near her home.
Buoy Street resident Carrie Renfro contends that the weekend market planned for St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, 183 E. Bay St., would not be “compatible or harmonious” for the area.
“We do not need a commercial venture in a residential area,” Renfro said Friday.
The City Council will hear the appeal Tuesday.
Renfro argues that a traffic study should have been completed within the last six months and that the neighborhood is already struggling with problems related to sober-living homes, traffic and insufficient parking.
Renfro filed the $1,220 appeal June 12 on behalf of her neighbors, who helped contribute to the application cost.
The city’s Planning Commission approved the market on a 3-1 vote in June.
Pastor Phil DeVaul told city planners at the time that the market will help “promote relationships and community gathering. It will make our neighborhood more neighborly.”
The commission gave St. John the OK to host the event from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays, with up to 15 vendors offering flowers, fresh produce and other food.
The commissioners denied the church’s request to allow alcohol sales and live music.
The church agreed to add parking spaces to its lot.
St. John has been on East Bay Street since the 1950s, according to city staff.
*
New developer fees proposed
In other business, the council will consider charging apartment developers a new one-time fee toward improving existing city parks or acquiring land to build them.
City staff is proposing a fee as high as $14,005 for each new apartment built within complexes containing 50 units or less. For complexes with 50 units or more, the fee could be as high as $10,598 for each unit.
The fee would level the playing field by replicating the one levied on developers of for-sale homes, according to city staff.
That fee, in place since 2005, is about $13,500 per unit.
