City Boots Farmers Market From Legacy Park, Deputies in Tow
Sunday's market moved 500 yards uphill to the City Hall parking lot, after a monthslong permit dispute.
By Holly Bieler · August 24, 2026 · Malibu
The Malibu Farmers Market was forcibly relocated on Sunday morning, after the city sent sheriff's deputies and code enforcement officers to clear vendors out of Legacy Park and Civic Center Way.
The market, which has set up along Civic Center Way for the past four years, opened instead in the south parking lot of Malibu City Hall, about 500 yards uphill, under an emergency permit. Five deputies and three code enforcement officers oversaw the move, [KBUU is reporting](https://malibu.fm/story/malibu-forcibly-relocates-farmers-market-to-city-hall-20260823), with barricades going up around the market's old parking spaces around 8 a.m.
By 10 a.m., booths were arranged in three tiers behind City Hall. Customers, according to KBUU, were noticeably absent.
The eviction caps a monthslong standoff between the city and market manager Debra Bianco. The market was originally permitted for the county library parking lot on Civic Center Way, but moved onto the street and into Legacy Park about two years ago, when construction at the adjacent college campus took over the lot.
That temporary arrangement has since expired, and the city says the market has been operating out of compliance with its conditional use permit ever since. In [a statement](https://www.malibucity.org/m/newsflash/home/detail/2140) Friday ordering the market to cease operations, the city said vendor vehicles and booths were occupying nearly 40% of available public parking in the Civic Center, and that deputies had reported several pedestrians nearly hit due to the market's layout.
Legacy Park also carries a deed restriction barring commercial activity, according to KBUU, which the city worries could allow the park's previous owner to reclaim the land.
The city issued a cease-and-desist letter in mid-July, giving Bianco until August 1 to stop operating at the site. Three more markets were held there after the deadline passed. Bianco has declined to speak with KBUU or, reportedly, the city.
"This is not about shutting down a farmers market that our community values," City Manager Joe Irvin said in the statement. "We have worked to make the current arrangement work, but we also have a responsibility to protect public safety."
The market will operate at City Hall on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for now, [the Westside Current is reporting](https://www.westsidecurrent.com/malibu/malibu-farmers-market-scrambles-for-new-location-after-being-ordered-out-of-legacy-park/article_72b8a0ae-5023-49b7-99e6-a51e9b6a61fd.html), while the city works with L.A. County on permits that would return it to the library lot.