Santa Ana Loses Lawsuit to Stop Swap Meets

Santa Ana city officials on Thursday lost a court bid to prohibit Sunday swap meets at a downtown college campus, which, they argued, were a nuisance and a violation of city zoning ordinances.

Eleanor M. Palk, Orange County Superior Court commissioner, declined to shut down El Mercado, in which an estimated 200 merchants have participated. Palk rejected the city’s request for a temporary restraining order and scheduled further hearings on the lawsuit.

The swap meets, held on a parking lot of Rancho Santiago College near Bristol and 17th streets, are managed by Norton Western Ltd., the same firm that operated a huge weekend swap meet on a city-owned lot behind the Eddie West Stadium until neighborhood protests led the city to stop it last year.

In a lawsuit, the city alleged that the community college was violating a municipal open-space zoning law by holding the swap meets in the parking lot. No commercial ventures are allowed under the ordinance, according to the lawsuit.

Swap meets at the stadium were canceled last year despite widespread support in the city’s large Latino community. City officials decided the noise and traffic congestion generated by the popular events, which drew thousands of bargain hunters to the lot on Civic Center Drive near Flower Street, was too much.

Last week, Rancho Santiago Community College District trustees approved a contract with the Santiago Club, a nonprofit group, renewing the swap meets through June, 1988. The club, which supports and helps to operate the swap meet, agreed to pay the college 20% of the gross vendor receipts, a portion of which would go to community programs. In return, the club agreed to provide security, management through Norton Western Ltd., restrooms and sanitation, plus proof of liability insurance.

Norton Western had sponsored about 30 swap meets a year at the college since 1985, mostly when the city lot was not available, college officials said. The college canceled the swap meets at about the same time the city did, according to Grace N. Mitchell, vice chancellor for Student and Community Services of the college. But trustees last year allowed Norton to sponsor a 12-day Christmas fair on school property.

College lawyer Mary L. Dowell said Thursday that she was pleased with Palk’s decision. Under state law, Dowell said, the college, as a state institution, has the power to declare its property exempt from city zoning law. She added that such a move may be considered by the college.