John Campbell and his wife are trying to start a flea market in Woodland, Calif., but the local city elders have not made it easy. “We tried to do it in May 2010, and the way the city worked, we weren’t able to get it going that fast,” says Campbell. “Although we did not impact anybody, but it wasn’t zoned correctly. Finally we got a three-month special use permit. That left us with an August start.”
The Woodland Flea Market launched softly, and the first two months were slow. Finally, as autumn arrived, the market had an official launch. “The first weekend in October we did a grand opening with ads on the major area Hispanic radio station, face painting, and all this stuff you do for a grand opening,” says Campbell, who has operated a fairgrounds and rebuilt a flea market in a nearby community. “We got some people, and that actually had some legs.”
In the second week in October, as the three-month special use permit was coming to a close, Campbell asked the town how to go forward, but the town elders decided against the swap meet. The unofficial reason, he says: fear that the market would give a bad image to the ground, complaints from a couple residents. Campbell discussed ways to assuage these fears, including limits on vendors, requiring canopies, and so on. “We finally got down to where the city staff came out and looked. The official word, delivered verbally, was that we did not grow as fast as the city thought we would.”
Forced out, the market had to scramble for a new location. He found a number of good sites, but faced grappling with the city and zoning issues on all of those. “There’s a vacant property next to Walmart, and there’s one next to McDonalds, but the reality of it is, they’re not going to approve anything like that,” Campbell says. And to apply for a conditional use permit, the fee is $5,000 just to apply, and with architectural drawings and other expenses, the cost could near $10,000. “This isn’t that big a project, so that wasn’t something I was going to do.” But I was running out of time.”
“So I went to the state fairgrounds and asked if we could land here, and they welcomed us. Because it is state property, it is kind of like an island within city limits, so there is no need to go through zoning,” he says. The Yolo County Fairgrounds are located at 1125 East Street in Woodland.
There are problems that can come up dealing with fairgrounds., he says. “I managed a fairgrounds for 19 years, so I understand that side of it.” There may be competing events on the fairgrounds that take priority. “They want us to stay there. I’ve got a one month contract, which I can extend, and I’m just debating that issue right now. If the vendors like it, and the shoppers like it, because people know where the fairgrounds are, and it is located in the heart of our customer base, for those reasons we may want to stay here.” But the space is not very well paved, which is a challenge. He’s also concerned that seniors living in a trailer park nearby may complain. “There are some issues that I’m not real comfortable with that I may have to deal with, but I have not made a decision yet.”
He’s been getting about 30 vendors in good weather. He’s got produce, new merchandise, used goods, even a wedding and event planning service. “We’re still only charging $20 a day for a 20 by 20 space, Saturday and Sunday.” In this economy, he hopes to attract vendors who are looking to try a new venue.
He had originally called it the Woodland Open Air Market, to make the city elders feel better about it, but some vendors were confused by that, thinking it was a farmer’s market, and now that the market is on state land, he is calling it the Woodland Flea Market.
Campbell is looking forward to the new season. “Spring is when I think it will take off, when the weather turns, agricultural workers will be starting and people will have money again,” he says. “We want to be established by that time, not setting up when the traffic is best.” For more information on the Woodland Flea Market, call (925) 706-0502 and leave a message in either English or Spanish.
