Fair to Keep Market, Equestrian Center

After hearing emotional pleas by vendors and horse owners, the Orange County Fair board Thursday chose to downsize rather than eliminate its equestrian center and opted against relocating its popular weekend marketplace as part of the fair’s 10-year master plan.

“This is good news. I’m happy,” said Kathy Hobstetter, whose Fox Pointe Farm training stable is at the fairgrounds.

Fairground management has been looking for ways to improve the 160-acre Costa Mesa site to make it more “user friendly” and to enhance revenue by maximizing space and events held there.

Board member Jim Barich, who made the motion to retain the stables, originally intended to vote for their closure but said he changed his mind after hearing dozens of equestrians’ comments at the hearing.

The board’s unanimous vote instructed the fair’s consultant, Frank Haselton of Irvine-based LSA & Associates, to reduce the 14-acre equestrian center’s number of stalls to 185 from 250 and to trim its training rings to three from five.

One of the options was to close the equestrian center and put in a bid to operate the stables at the former El Toro Marine base. But horse owners said that would force them to travel an additional 30 minutes and would end the fair’s long equestrian tradition, which would betray the fair’s mission.

“Clearly the goal of showcasing the heritage of California agriculture within an urban setting is far better served at the current location than at the proposed [El Toro] site,” said McCall Kuhne, who spoke on behalf of Southwest Show Jumping, operated by her sister, Hillary Ridland.

Vendors who earn a living selling goods at the weekend Orange County Marketplace also received good news when they were told the outdoor venue would not be moved. Relocating would have jeopardized finances for many of the 1,000-plus vendors who have invested heavily in their setups, spokesman Mike Robbins said.

Robbins, who sells cigars, said he has spent more than $250,000 on his business and there are others with thousands of dollars invested in warehouses and vans to ferry items to the fair. After three decades, the marketplace has come to define itself more as a European bazaar, he said, with many of the vendors nurturing hundreds of loyal customers, Robbins said.

“Even moving 100 yards down would affect us and we would lose customers. That’s our location. That’s our spot,” Robbins said.

The testimony swayed the board to leave the marketplace in its current location and to instruct Haselton to instead relocate the fair’s carnival, whose dates conflict with market hours of operation.

Tel-Phil Enterprises Inc., operators of the marketplace since 1969, were pleased with some of the board’s actions.

“I think some progress was made today,” said Jeff Teller, a Tel-Phil vice president. “Our position has always been about our vendors concerns about being relocated.”

Haselton was also instructed to modify the fair’s proposed front entrance, which had reduced parking and slowed pedestrian traffic, according to complaints.

No decision was made concerning the fair’s controversial Pacific Amphitheatre, closed since summer 1995. The venue has been the subject of a long-running legal dispute with nearby residents over noise.

The fair board is expected to vote on a comprehensive master plan Nov. 15.