State law blocks potential San Jose flea market site

San Jose Berryessa Flea Market vendors say a city-owned landfill is their best option for a new home, but a state law is stopping the idea from becoming a reality.

The 90-acre Singleton site, a former landfill, is the favored location. It’s close to freeways and residential neighborhoods — making it the top option out of eight sites proposed by city consultants last year. But the vendors and city can’t move forward without a state exemption due to the California Surplus Land Act, which requires San Jose to prioritize city-owned properties like Singleton for affordable housing.

City officials said they’re seeking an exemption from the California Housing and Community Development Department based on the economic benefits that would result from continuing the flea market, which has to leave its current location next year due to development.

“Initial indications from the Housing and Community Development Department indicate it is not inclined to exempt the site,” Nanci Klein, city economic development & cultural affairs director, said Monday at a city Community & Economic Development Committee meeting.  “However, conversations with staff are ongoing.”

The former landfill would require three to five years of environmental remediation or clean up due to contamination at a cost of up to $4 million per acre, city officials estimate.

District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz said it could take multiple years before the location is considered usable.

“So it could leave our vendors high and dry for a while during the time in which we’re remediating that site or exploring other solutions,” he said.

Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association leaders say they’ve worked for years toward a new future home for the group’s approximately 450 independent small businesses, after the landowners wanted to turn the site into a retail space. Those plans were dropped and a deal between the landowners and District 4 Councilmember David Cohen allowed vendors to stay at the Berryessa site. It’s been extended to at least July 2026.

Roberto Gonzalez, president of the vendors association, said the state needs to work with the city to allow use of the site because flea market vendors have worked and waited years to secure a new location.

The city needs to act with more urgency, vendors said Monday. There is just more than a year left before vendors might have to leave the 1590 Berryessa Road location.

“We’re looking for commitment from the city on the relocation process, and clarity in the timeline of when that’s going to happen — we need to drive this thing home,” Gonzalez told San José Spotlight. “Most of the work they agreed to in 2021 is coming to an end, but there is still no solution, so we’re just asking here for continued collaboration in finding that solution.”

Costly delays

During the committee meeting, District 10 Councilmember George Casey said previous city leaders “dropped the ball” by contracting costly and lengthy studies to examine the obvious economic benefits of the flea market.

The flea market draws 836,000 to 1.7 million visitors per year who spend between $20 million and $40 million annually, according to the city studies, generating about $5.7 million total income per year for the vendors.

“San Jose without a big, thriving flea market would be a great loss,” Casey said at the meeting. “It’s incumbent on us to do right here.”

Just more than $1 million of the $7.5 million vendor transition fund has been distributed so far, with another $2 million set to be allocated to vendors as early as July. The funding is coming through an agreement between the Bumb family, who owns the land, and the city to cover relocation costs.

Erik Schoennauer, a land use consultant who represents the Bumb family, encouraged the city to accelerate the process of finding a new location.

“We can all work together to have an orderly and seamless relocation to a new site, in order to facilitate new urban development at the Berryessa BART Station,” Schoennauer told San José Spotlight.

Vice Mayor Pam Foley, who chairs the committee, said she understands the vendors’ situation because her husband achieved success working at the Berryessa Flea Market. She indicated vendors should not expect more funding from the city amid the 2025-26 budget discussions.

“But I would caution everyone to look at the finances of Singleton,” she said at the meeting. “Knowing what budgetary situation we’re in, we likely will not make a budgetary decision (on this) when it comes to council.”

Klein said it’s difficult to find a site comparable to the existing flea market location.

“(The state) told us, verbally, that we would have to offer the site for affordable housing. Which for a number of reasons, we don’t agree it makes sense to put it out for affordable housing,” Klein said Monday. “It is a challenging set of work to undertake.”