Visalia passes ordinance, could limit Farmers Market in Downtown
VISALIA, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The Visalia City Council voted on Dec. 18, to adopt an ordinance that would amend the language of the Visalia Municipal Code regarding special events. In a public hearing, Visalia residents expressed their concerns that it might limit the farmers market.
The city council voted to approve the ordinance in a three-to-one vote. The ordinance will limit events based on certain restrictions. In the meeting, they had a first reading of the updated language of the municipal code.
Based on public input and information provided during the work session, the City Council directed staff to proceed with processing changes to Chapter 12.48.
They added a new section that they say will simplify the process for large ongoing, outstanding events.
In the section, they require events with 1,000 attendees, held in three of the prior five calendar years, which simplifies the good neighbor policy and must still provide other required documents.
One resident brought up questions to the council, asking how the limitations would work on new events and how the standards changed to be convenient rather than it being fair.
“Something like the farmers market that has been around, that has struggled and there has been a lot of personal things going on, every week gives something to the community, serves the community,” she said. “It may not be the same as the Christmas parades or other parades but it’s something that’s valuable.”
Another resident felt that it wasn’t clear why the ordinance separated smaller events and larger events.
“To have an ordinance that puts up barriers on new groups, existing groups based on its size or objective size of the event based on how long they have been here, having these events. That’s not doing anything good for the city.”
The resident says it would be good to have events that make people want to come to Visalia, especially something like the farmers market, and to say that the farmers market can only happen for 12 weeks in the year if it’s going to be downtown. He asked the city council to re-evaluate the ordinance.
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