Farmers Market to Close Next Month

The Dana Point Certified Farmers Market, the weekly outdoor market popular with local residents for its farm-fresh produce and flowers, will shut down early next month but could reopen elsewhere in the city.

The farmers market, a familiar event in a number of cities, lost its battle with neighboring merchants who had been complaining for six months about parking and sanitation problems that critics say appear every Wednesday when the market sets up shop at La Plaza Center.

The uproar by other businesses caused the City Council this week to terminate its contract with the market, where about 30 operators sell their produce and flowers.

Merchants had maintained that the market, which manager Rick Heil has run since March 1995, has disrupted their businesses.

Others have objected to the market’s flower stands, which they say are run by direct flower growers who undersell nearby retailers.

“We don’t have anything against the farmers market,” said Rick Scalzo, of Scalzo Brothers Auto Parts Two. “It’s about parking.”

Council members said they, too, liked the farmers market but cited the need to find a compromise that addressed the concerns of both local merchants and residents, who enjoy the market’s convenience and fresh goods.

“I think what we’re doing is setting up the framework so it’s a win-win situation,” Mayor William L. Ossenmacher said.

The city left the door open for Heil to relocate his market or change the day of operation.

The city is also talking with another market manager about starting a Saturday market in the Pavilions shopping center at Dana Point Harbor, said Ed Knight, director of community development.