LOS ANGELES, CA – The Malibu Farmers Market has returned to its longtime location at the Los Angeles County lot near the Malibu Library after a last-minute temporary permit allowed the weekly market to continue operating while city, county and market officials worked through a dispute over safety, parking and land-use compliance.
The issue came to a head Aug. 21, when the City of Malibu ordered the market to stop operating at Legacy Park, saying the location had never been approved as a permanent farmers market site and that a temporary arrangement had continued despite unresolved compliance concerns.
Hours before the following Sunday market was scheduled to begin, however, city officials reached an interim agreement allowing vendors to operate at the Malibu City Hall parking lot rather than cancel the event entirely.
That arrangement lasted one week.
In an Aug. 28 update, the City of Malibu announced that the market would return Sunday, Aug. 30, to the Los Angeles County lot at the Malibu Library on Civic Center Way, which the city describes as the market’s longtime home.
The market operates Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The latest agreement follows years of temporary arrangements prompted largely by construction and land-use complications around the Malibu Civic Center.
The Cornucopia Foundation operates the Malibu Farmers Market.
For more than 16 years, the organization had operated the Sunday market from the Los Angeles County-owned Civic Center parking area before construction of the Santa Monica College Malibu Campus disrupted the original setup.
City records show Malibu later allowed the market to relocate temporarily to neighboring Legacy Park.
But that location came with legal and planning limitations from the beginning.
A 2022 Malibu City Council staff report stated that farmers markets were not normally a permitted use on the Legacy Park parcel and that a temporary use permit would be required before the market could operate there. The property was also subject to deed restrictions affecting permissible uses.
The City Council subsequently adopted measures allowing the temporary arrangement, and city planning records show that a temporary use permit was processed for the market to begin operating at Legacy Park in January 2023.
The arrangement was never intended to become permanent.
By February 2024, the city was already publicly describing the Legacy Park permission as expired and working with Los Angeles County and the Cornucopia Foundation to return the market to county property.
A City Manager update from that period said land-use restrictions prohibited commercial activities such as a farmers market at Legacy Park and noted that the county had approved temporary daily permits while the operator worked through remaining requirements.
That long-running effort set the stage for the latest dispute.
On Aug. 21, Malibu issued a formal statement saying the city had spent an extended period trying to develop what officials described as a safe and compliant path for continued market operations.
The city cited unresolved concerns involving public safety, limited parking, access to neighboring businesses and compliance with the market’s Conditional Use Permit.
“Despite efforts to make the temporary arrangement work, concerns related to public safety, limited parking, access to neighboring businesses, and compliance with the market’s Conditional Use Permit remain unresolved,” the city said.
City officials said those concerns were particularly acute during summer, when Malibu experiences heavier visitor traffic.
According to the city, vendor vehicles and market booths at the Legacy Park location occupied nearly 40% of available public parking in the Civic Center area, reducing spaces available to visitors and customers of surrounding businesses.
Officials also argued that the site was not configured to safely handle the additional combination of vehicles, vendors and pedestrians generated by a weekly market.
The city ordered market operations at Legacy Park to cease immediately.
At the same time, officials stressed that they were not seeking to eliminate the farmers market itself.
“This is not about shutting down a farmers market that our community values,” City Manager Joe Irvin said in the city’s Aug. 21 announcement.
Irvin said Malibu wanted the operation moved back to its approved county location and had offered another city-controlled property as an interim option while licensing issues were resolved.
That interim solution became the City Hall parking lot.
Rather than cancel the Sunday market immediately following the enforcement notice, Malibu temporarily hosted the vendors at City Hall.
The city later described that move as a way to guarantee that residents would still have access to the weekly market while the final arrangements with Los Angeles County were completed.
Officials then worked with the Cornucopia Foundation, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s office and Santa Monica College to return the market to the county lot.
That outcome also clarifies an important distinction about the market’s current location.
The market is returning to the Los Angeles County lot at the Malibu Library on Civic Center Way, not simply relocating into an ordinary Santa Monica College student parking lot.
Santa Monica College’s Malibu Campus is located within the same Civic Center area at 23555 Civic Center Way, and the history of the campus construction has been closely tied to the market’s location issues.
Historical Santa Monica College planning documents show that the farmers market operated on the Civic Center property under a license agreement with Los Angeles County even before the Malibu Campus was built.
A project environmental report noted that the Sunday market operated from the Civic Center parking area from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. under a city Conditional Use Permit while the county maintained the underlying license arrangement.
Construction of the college campus reduced available parking and eventually contributed to the temporary relocations.
A 2024 Los Angeles County motion involving the Cornucopia Foundation likewise described the market’s longstanding location as the County-owned Malibu Civic Center parking lot at 23525-23555 Civic Center Way and confirmed that it had temporarily moved to Legacy Park during Civic Center construction.
The county action authorized fee-waived permits intended to facilitate the market’s return while longer-term licensing arrangements were completed.
Malibu’s latest announcement indicates that process has now advanced far enough for the weekly market to return.
On Aug. 28, the city publicly invited residents to attend the Aug. 30 market at the Los Angeles County lot near the library and thanked the Cornucopia Foundation and its founder, Debra Bianco, for working with city and county officials.
The city also acknowledged Supervisor Horvath’s office and Santa Monica College for participating in the negotiations.
For vendors, the resolution avoids the immediate possibility of losing a weekly sales day.
For residents, it preserves a market that city officials themselves have repeatedly described as an important community institution.
Malibu has previously said the market contributes to economic activity, community connections and access to locally grown food.
Its 2024 city manager update described the market as playing a “vital role” in the community and said Malibu had been actively working to keep it operating despite not being a party to the underlying license between the market operator and the county.
The disagreement was therefore less about whether Malibu should have a farmers market than about where and under what approvals it could legally and safely operate.
The Legacy Park location posed particular complications because the site was purchased and developed for purposes that included open space and stormwater management rather than recurring commercial events.
City records dating back to 2022 explicitly warned that deed restrictions could affect the ability to use the parcel for a farmers market.
Those restrictions help explain why temporary permits were repeatedly used instead of treating the park as the market’s permanent home.
Parking became another persistent issue as activity increased around the Civic Center.
Long before the current dispute, Malibu officials were working on ways to provide displaced parking for market customers while the Santa Monica College project was under construction.
A 2021 Planning Commission action allowed off-site market parking on the city-owned former Chili Cook-off property and permitted temporary use authorizations in six-month increments.
That history illustrates how the market’s operating arrangements have evolved for years as construction, public access and land-use requirements changed around it.
The Aug. 21 enforcement action represented the city’s attempt to bring that temporary period to an end.
The City Hall permit then served as the short-term bridge.
As of Aug. 30, the market is back at the county Civic Center lot, restoring the location Malibu officials have consistently described as its longtime home.
The market remains scheduled for Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
City officials have characterized the resolution as a cooperative outcome involving Malibu, the Cornucopia Foundation, Los Angeles County and Santa Monica College rather than a permanent shutdown of the market.
The episode nevertheless underscores how a community institution that operated for years with relatively little attention can become entangled in zoning, parking, licensing and public-safety requirements when its temporary location outlasts the circumstances that originally justified the move.
For now, vendors and shoppers no longer have to rely on Legacy Park or the emergency City Hall arrangement.
The Malibu Farmers Market has returned to the Los Angeles County Civic Center lot on Civic Center Way, where city officials say it belongs.
