Outdoor Market Needs Fast Change of Zoning

An outdoor produce market that each week draws more than 2,000 customers to downtown Burbank may be out of a home next month unless city officials speed through an ordinance allowing merchants to sell their wares in a city park.

Last month, operators of the Burbank Certified Farmer’s Market announced that it will move in early October from 1st Street and Orange Grove Avenue to a permanent location in the parking lot of George Izay Park.

But the St. Joseph Medical Center Foundation, which runs the market, did not realize that merchants would be violating a city ordinance if they attempted to do business in an area zoned for residential use only, said foundation spokeswoman Joanne Sugar.

Sugar said city officials have expressed a willingness to rezone the part of the park that the market would use. Officials said they hope to have such an ordinance approved by the Burbank City Council within three weeks.

Permit Also Needed

The market also will need a permit from the city Licensing Department to set up business at the park, but Hazel Walker, the market’s director, said the permit only costs about $12 and should be no trouble to obtain.

A spokesman for the Burbank Planning Commission, however, said ordinances for rezoning can take up to five months to process unless they are approved as emergency measures.

Sugar said the foundation is also negotiating with the city to provide patron parking on nearby streets. Because of street cleaning, parking is not permitted on Friday, the only day the market is open, in the area surrounding the park.

The market must leave its existing site by Nov. 29 to make way for redevelopment construction.

Petition Circulated

On Friday, merchants distributed a petition asking for support and collected 1,500 signatures in two hours from patrons.

Foundation officials have called the proposed park location, at Clark Avenue and Griffith Park Drive, ideal for the market because it would enable the market to add 10 vendors, raising the total to 35.