The Malibu Farmers Market has been ordered to immediately stop operating at Legacy Park, the city announced, ending a years-long standoff over a 15-acre site that was never meant to host weekly commercial vendors. City officials say the popular Sunday market must vacate the park, which was purchased from investor Jerry Perenchio in 2002 under a deed that bars commercial activity on the land.
According to the Santa Monica Daily Press, the city cited unresolved concerns around public safety, limited parking, access for neighboring businesses, and compliance with the market's conditional use permit. Malibu officials said releasing the deed restriction would require agreement from all six original parties to the deed, a hurdle that has so far kept any permanent fix out of reach. The outlet reported that Assistant City Manager Joe Irvin said, “This is not about shutting down a farmers market that our community values.”
How the Market Ended Up at Legacy Park in the First Place
For more than 16 years, the market operated free of charge in the county-owned Civic Center lot near the Malibu library, per the Santa Monica Daily Press. That changed when construction of the Santa Monica College Malibu satellite campus, a $25 million project, encroached on the lot and a fence cut the parking area roughly in half in 2022. The market relocated to Legacy Park in January 2023 after Perenchio's son, John Perenchio, allowed temporary use of the park during the campus construction.
The city's temporary permits for that arrangement lapsed in October 2023, and the same month, Malibu fined the market's organizers thousands of dollars for continuing to operate at Legacy Park without a valid permit, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported. Radio coverage from 99.1 KBUU Radio Malibu put the fine at an estimated $6,540 following eight consecutive weeks of unpermitted operation, and noted at the time that the county lot had room for up to 76 vendors. That same month, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors considered a motion from Supervisor Lindsey Horvath to approve a fee waiver and extend a temporary license allowing the market to return to the Civic Center lot, according to The Malibu Times.
Paperwork Delays and a Wildfire Kept Pushing the Return Back
Even with county approval in hand, paperwork delays and space disputes stalled the market's move back to the Civic Center lot, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported. Then, in February 2025, Los Angeles County paused use of the lot altogether for Palisades Fire recovery operations, pushing the market right back to Legacy Park. The city says it issued urgency ordinances allowing temporary parking arrangements during that period, but the underlying deed problem at Legacy Park never went away.
Legacy Park itself was never built with a market in mind. The $35 million, 15-acre site opened in October 2010 as an environmental engineering project designed to capture, filter, and disinfect up to 2.6 million gallons of stormwater and urban runoff daily before it reaches Santa Monica Bay, according to the City of Malibu. Its construction drew $5 million in private donations from more than 1,000 community members, per Western City Magazine, a level of community investment that helps explain why the site's original donors and deed holders have strictly enforced its anti-commercial restrictions.
Parking, Safety and a Six-Event Cap
City officials say market vendor vehicles and booths currently occupy nearly 40 percent of available public parking in the Civic Center area, and that summer visitor traffic has heightened safety risks at the park. Each market held at Legacy Park counts against a six-event annual cap the city has applied to commercial activity there since October 2023, per the Santa Monica Daily Press's reporting, leaving little room to simply let the weekly Sunday market continue as-is.
The Malibu Farmers Market is run by the nonprofit Cornucopia Foundation, led by President Debra Bianco, which the Malibu City Council formally commended in October 2024 for 25 years of community and environmental service, according to The Malibu Times. Beyond its regular Sunday produce sales, the market also hosts monthly “Vintage, Art & Brunch” gatherings at Legacy Park that require vendors to follow strict promotional and plastic-free guidelines, according to the market's own event listings — an expanded footprint that has added to the parking and traffic pressure the city cites.
City Says It Wants the Market to Stay in Malibu
Malibu officials maintain they remain supportive of the farmers market continuing to operate somewhere in the city. The Santa Monica Daily Press reported that the city worked with the market operator to try to accommodate continued operations and has offered to host the market at an approved location near City Hall while its permanent license is processed by Los Angeles County. City officials say they are committed to working with the market to eventually return it to its approved home on the county lot, and that John Perenchio has declined further exceptions to the deed restriction at Legacy Park.
Why the Cornucopia Foundation has resisted moving back to the county lot's approved footprint, despite the county's approval and the city's offer of a temporary City Hall–area site, remains an open question; organizers have pointed to space constraints and a preference for Legacy Park's park-like setting, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press. Under California Department of Food and Agriculture rules, Certified Farmers' Markets must operate under active permits approved by county agricultural commissioners and comply with local land-use zoning, meaning the market's state certification could be at risk if the permitting standoff drags on. The disruption echoes what happened at the nearby Pacific Palisades Farmers Market, which stayed shuttered for 19 months after the January 2025 Palisades Fire before reopening on Swarthmore Avenue this month on a shifted Wednesday schedule.
