San Jose City Council OKs Housing, Commercial Use for Part of Flea Market Site

After months of planning and community protests, the San Jose City County approved plans Tuesday to rezone part of the Berryessa Flea Market to build a new residential and commercial development near transit.

The council on June 29 unanimously approved zoning to allow the Berryessa BART Urban Village, a 3.4-million-square-foot plan that would create up to 3,450 homes near a new BART station.

The development shrinks the longstanding flea market to five acres, one-third of its original size, leaving many of the 430 vendors still worried that they will be squeezed out.

The vote, which had been scheduled for last week, was delayed after vendors started a 50-hour hunger strike demanding more time for negotiations between the Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association and the Bumb family, which owns the parcel of land on which the flea market sits and the city.

Councilmembers David Cohen, Raul Peralez and Magdalena Carrasco met with vendors and a representative for the Bumb family, Erik Schoennauer, on June 25 in an effort to meet some of the vendor demands.

Those negotiations resulted in $5 million from the Bumb family to help vendors with relocation fees, double the offer that was initially proposed.

The plan to disperse the money would be set by a flea market advisory group composed of vendors, city officials and representatives from the market's owners.

Mayor Sam Liccardo also said he met with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to help identify more space to expand the flea market and accommodate more vendors.

In Liccardo's recent memo, he also asked city staff to find alternatives, such as using the space underneath the BART elevated tracks on the weekends so vendors have more space and exploring the possibility of using American Rescue Fund dollars, taxes from the development of the project and economic development grants to supplement the flea market vendor fund. ”There could be a substantial possibility that we could accommodate all or nearly all the vendors who want to be there, certainly on the weekend,” Liccardo said.

The latest agreement falls short of demands from vendors, who had sought$15 million and a 10-acre plot of land from the Bumb family.

The Berryessa Flea Market Vendor Association also demanded three-year leases for current vendors, sole rights to represent retailers and rights to all logos, historical records and intellectual property related to the 61-year-old flea market.

Those demands were not met but the Bumb family promised to not evict any vendors before the current flea market closes, to give first choice to move into the new flea market to current vendors and to offer rents comparable to other open-air markets.

Under the new agreement, the Bumb family will give the first $500,000 to the relocation fund by October and will give an additional $2 million when they issue a one-year eviction notice for vendors to leave the current flea market on or before July 1, 2023. The final $2.5 million will be given out on the current flea market's last day of operation.

“It really is my hope that these families don't continue to live paycheck to paycheck, but rather see themselves as investors in their future,” said Carrasco, who represents the district where many of the vendors live. “And the Bumb family, which has been successful, teach and guide them with principles they've learned from and impart that wisdom.”

The next steps will include creation of the flea market advisory group.

Peralez said the city is “setting up the bare bones today.”

Nanci Klein, director of economic development, assured the council that the city would reach out to vendors and include them in the planning process.

 

 

6 Comments

  1. It’s borrowed land. Someone else owns it. It’s called renting. The Berryessa Flea Market Vendor Association and vendors had 61 years to plan, and work together to secure the future of the Berryessa Flea Market. Maybe they should have purchased land.

  2. come on!!!! we should protest this from happening. preserving long standing flea market is a must!! don’t let this dumbass developer shrink long historic flea market.

  3. Anytime there is a letting go of the “old”, there is a sense of loss. But, without the letting go, there can be no “new”. Realistically, those 61 acres in San Jose have more productive uses, including I am sure some much needed affordable housing, which I am assuming is included. I am not minimizing the impact to the 430 vendors, but they have been given a three year timeframe, and $$ to help reestablish somewhere else. And, as others have pointed out, these were rented stalls. And the redevelopment has been on the books since 2007. A lot of time to plan for your future, if you were a flea market business. This is why I am a strong supporter of home ownership, whether a townhouse, a studio, a condo or SFH. It is then yours. Same with a business location. If you are leasing, or renting your place of business, then you are at risk of the owner’s decisions. It’s that simple.

  4. how about Daytona flea market & Shipshewana auction & flea market. Same there, tear it down for housing. That I will approved.

  5. This is TOD

    this is the outcome

    if you dont like the outcome, stop voting for gentrifying policies euphemized as Smart Development, Bike-Friendly Cities, TOD, “character”, whatever

    build or pay, its as simply as that, there is no magic bullet

    chumps

  6. Destroying historical flea market in San Jośe but not built proposed ballpark at Howard terminal in Oakland “WOW” not gentrified the site infrastructure unchanged for next 100 year. Now the A’s in jeopardy relocating to Vegas.

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