Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Farmers’ Market Plan Pits Out-of-Towners Against Local Builder : Business: A Newhall Land & Farming official says using City Hall parking lot would violate covenants.

A weekly outdoor market proposed in Santa Clarita has put a new twist on the tale of a small farmer clashing with a big developer over land.

In this case, the developer is local while the farmers are from out of town and the property involved is a 25,000-square-foot expanse of asphalt.

The Ventura County Certified Farmers’ Market Assn. would like to use Santa Clarita’s City Hall parking lot Sunday mornings to sell fruits and vegetables. But the Newhall Land & Farming Co. says the event is prohibited by stipulations, known as the Covenants, Codes and Restrictions, or CC&Rs.;

“A farmers’ market, as desirable as it may be, clearly violates the intended use for the City Hall property,” said Thomas Lee, chief executive officer of Newhall Land, in a letter to the Santa Clarita City Council on Tuesday.

CC&Rs; are often applied in residential and commercial areas to ensure consistent development and presumably maintain property values. CC&Rs; for City Hall are monitored by Newhall Land, which was the original owner of the Valencia property. That property was sold to Saunders Development in 1985; Saunders sold it to Santa Clarita in 1992.

Lee said a dangerous precedent could be set by ignoring CC&Rs.;

“The implementation and enforcement of CC&Rs; in the community have contributed greatly to the quality of life here, and violating one set of CC&Rs; can serve to weaken all of them,” Lee said.

He said Newhall Land supports the idea of a farmers’ market and will help the city search for a suitable site.

Some Santa Clarita officials believe that the market can be allowed on the parking lot. An initial review by the city attorney indicated that a market was permitted and the City Council on Tuesday directed Santa Clarita’s legal officer to review the CC&Rs; for a second time and examine Newhall Land’s correspondence.

“When you think of other things that have been held in this parking lot, such as chamber mixers, how could this be any worse?” asked Mayor Jan Heidt.

Santa Clarita has reportedly received more than 500 letters and phone calls in favor of the farmers’ market.

The Ventura County Certified Farmers’ Market Assn. has been searching since January for a site that has ample parking, minimal rent, a paved surface and meets health codes by providing running water and bathrooms.

Newhall Park was a likely site, but nearby residents objected to the idea because the park is already regularly filled with ongoing recreation activities. Other suggested locales include the College of the Canyons, H. R. Textron, Saugus Speedway, Metrolink commuter rail station and several local shopping centers.

“With COC, (the problem) was basically an economic situation,” said Santa Clarita Parks, Recreation and Community Services Director Rick Putnam, indicating that the rent would be too high. “The Metrolink station wouldn’t work with the (Saugus) Swap Meet going on. All the parking is taken up by swap meet goers.”

The market was supposed to begin operating June 6. The matter is now scheduled for additional discussion by the City Council on June 8.

California’s Department of Food and Agriculture created the farmers’ market program in the 1970s. There are now more than 180 markets statewide.

“It was designed to allow farmers to direct-market their products to the public, with some less restrictions,” said Molly Gean, a strawberry grower from Iwamoto Farm in Oxnard who participates in 40 markets statewide.

She is one of 45 growers from Los Angeles County, Ventura County, San Diego County, San Luis Obispo and Fresno who are expected to participate if Santa Clarita has a farmers’ market.

Gean said the markets flourish in areas as varied as the produce, drawing everyone from “yuppie, upper-middle class families to food-stamp-using families.”