Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
WEST VALLEY CITY — West Valley City leaders could decide this month on a controversial development question that could mean the end of the Redwood Swap Meet, a flea market proponents say is central to the livelihood of hundreds of vendors.
As the clock ticks, though, Redwood Swap Meet boosters are keeping up the pressure for the West Valley City Council to reject a rezone and general plan update central in the proposed redevelopment of the site, which doubles as a drive-in theater. They planned a demonstration Friday to air concerns and hold out hope of finding a sympathetic investor who would buy the property and preserve the swap meet.
"Don't rezone. Stop displacement," said Cristian Gutierrez, a swap meet vendor who's helping lead efforts to halt the development. A nonprofit entity has been created as part of the alternative development scheme, the Redwood Road Chamber of Commerce, he said. But even if the proposed development plan moves forward, swap meet defenders are mulling other options, like finding a new site to house the flea market so the vendors, many of them pushing retirement age, can keep working.
"They can't get jobs. No one's going to hire them," Gutierrez said, alluding to the age and alternative job prospects of some swap meet vendors, many of them immigrants from Latin America. Friday's rally by swap meet boosters begins at 6:30 p.m. at Hillsdale Park, and participants, Gutierrez said, were to march to West Valley City Hall.
West Valley City spokesman Sam Johnson says city leaders have limited options, given the rights of the property owner. The City Council is to discuss the matter during a work session next Tuesday and will hold a public hearing on Sept. 17, when the officials will take input and potentially decide the matter once and for all.
"The city has no authority over someone who wants to sell their business. This business owner has made clear that they want to sell the property," Johnson said. Even if the rezone and general plan update requests fail, he went on, the property owner, De Anza Land and Leisure Corp., could sell the land for commercial redevelopment with no need for city involvement or approval since it's zoned for such use.
EDGEHomes, a Draper-based developer, proposes building 300 housing units on the 26.3-acre site at 3688 S. Redwood Road, which would require razing of the swap meet and drive-in facilities. The housing would consist of 244 townhomes, as many as 40 condominiums and 16 single-family homes, but the rezoning is needed first since the land is now zoned for commercial use.
Gutierrez estimates some 500 vendors operate at the swap meet, selling produce, clothes, used items, tools and much more, mainly on the weekends. The money they earn, he said, keeps them afloat, hence the urgency of the situation. Accordingly, the contingent hoping to keep the swap meet has reached out to West Valley City Council members and project developers to press the issue — so far, to no avail. At a West Valley City Planning Commission meeting in June, they crowded City Hall and also spoke out at an earlier public hearing held by the planning commission.
Now the foes' plea is for the City Council to reject the rezone and general plan amendment requests, Gutierrez said. If that happens, he thinks the swap meet defenders could find an investor or investors willing to acquire the site and use it for commercial purposes, salvaging the swap meet in the process. The acquisition cost, he suspects, could be north of $10 million.
Barring that, he said swap meet boosters may appeal to city leaders to help find a space where the swap meet could be moved, as well as funds to get the land. "If they could just figure out a way to help these 500 vendors," Gutierrez said.
