Once free, tickets now $1

Residents who live within a one-mile radius of the Orange County Fairgrounds usually get free admission to the annual fair. But starting this year, neighbors will pay a fee to get inside the gates.

The Orange County Fair Board voted last week to revise the neighborhood ticket program and charge $1 per ticket. The neighborhood ticket program provided 20 free tickets per household to neighbors who deal with the effects of the fair.

Although the change is not substantial, Jeff Wilcox, president of the Mesa del Mar Neighborhood Assn., said residents are unhappy because the free admission was considered compensation for fairgoers who park and litter in their neighborhood.

“Quite frankly, we even caught people urinating on the front yard,” Wilcox said.

By law, the fairgrounds can give up to 4% of the annual tickets to neighbors and charities, among others, as courtesy tickets.

Last year, neighbors of the fairgrounds redeemed 26,244 free tickets.

Steve Beazley, president and chief executive of the fairgrounds, said the revision frees up a lot of giveaways for charities and organization with people who can’t afford to pay the fair admission fee, $10.

“We have a donation program, and groups can write in and request tickets, and in the past, we could never fulfill the requests,” Beazley said. “Now, we can fulfill those requests.”

Aside from implementing the neighborhood program fee, Wilcox said, many were not officially notified about the changes.

Public organizations typically hold public hearings on issues affecting residents or businesses.

But, Beazley said, the fairgrounds is not like a municipality.

“We don’t do public hearings, but business meetings as public meetings,” Beazley said. “We noticed it and put the staff report out. We feel like we did our duty in terms of being transparent.”

The Mesa del Mar association plans on discussing the fairgrounds’ policy revision in April before responding, Wilcox said.

“We will respond to it, and we’ll write them letters and hopefully have a meeting with the CEO and some of the board members, and we’ll talk about why we shouldn’t get charged for the admission fee,” Wilcox said.