City Responds to Farmers Market Flap

Steve Hayman, the city manager of Rancho Santa Margarita, received an e-mail Monday morning from a resident who didn’t like the way city officials put the squeeze on the Farmers Market by preventing the sales of crafts and other non-food items.

It was a letter filled with passion, one that Hayman can appreciate, from a resident who wants locals to get their fair shake.

One problem: It wasn’t based on the compete truth.

Whether by reacting to alerting residents to the last day of craft sales at the Farmers Market, or by the message delivered through the grapevine, the e-mail sent to Hayman made it important for him to clear the air in the matter of the Rancho Santa Margarita Farmers Market.

Crafts are allowed, provided the vendor has the proper permit.

Verge Hagopian, who leases the land in the parking lot just a stone’s throw from Big Lots, for the last two months has operated the Farmers Market on Fridays, 1 p.m. to sundown. He has a permit from the city that allows vendors of produce and flowers to sell their wares. Basically, foodstuffs.

Hayman said it was after the city received a complaint about other sales—sheets, jewelry, candles, etc.—that its part-time code enforcement officers checked it out and informed Hagopian that his vendors were outside the lines of his permit. He would need to get a different permit in order to include craft sales.

“We have a process available if Mr. Hagopian wants to change the terms of the permit if the property owner OKs it,” Hayman said Monday. “So far, he hasn’t asked.

“The City Council doesn’t wear the title of being business friendly in a casual way. As city manager, I take that direction seriously. We want to do everything we can to accommodate and stimulate the business community,  but there are processes to do that.”

So the Farmers Market that takes place next week will be aligned with Hagopian's original vision—or, at least, the vision he applied for.