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TheOC Fair & Event Center (OCFEC) is a 150-acre (0.61 km2) event venue inCosta Mesa, California. The site hosts over 150 events attracting 4.3 million visitors annually, and is home to theOrange County Fair, Centennial Farm,Costa Mesa Speedway, andPacific Amphitheatre.
The OCFEC is managed by the32nd District Agricultural Association, a statespecial-purpose district in the Division of Fairs and Expositions of the California Department of Food and Agriculture formed in 1949. Its board is appointed by theGovernor of California.[1]
The Orange County Community Fair Corporation sponsored the firstcounty fair in 1890 inSanta Ana, thecounty seat. In 1894, it was taken over by another group, the Orange County Fair Association. In 1916, it was passed again to the Orange CountyFarm Bureau, before passing to an Orange County Fair Board in 1925, when it was relocated toAnaheim.[3]
After World War II, the state formed the current association and purchased land then occupied by theSanta Ana Army Air Base for use as the fairgrounds, which became part of the City of Costa Mesa at the latter's incorporation in 1953.
On March 18, 2009, this venue was also the host of a town hall meeting held by PresidentBarack Obama on his visit to Southern California.[4] In 2016, then candidateDonald Trump held a campaign rally here.[5]
In May 2009, then GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger recommended the Orange County Fairgrounds be listed for sale. He had decided the fairgrounds were "surplus or underutilized" assets,[6] although the Fair hosts more than one million visitors each year and is utilized virtually every day of the week with multiple community activities.OC Weekly reported, "What followed was a story of deception by a small group in a position of power within the fairgrounds hierarchy. Through various contractual agreements between people of wealth and power, a move was made to privatize that public land in what members of the Orange County Fairgrounds Preservation Society call one of the largest, most deliberate land grabs in the county's long history of land grabs."[6] The Preservation Society quickly stepped in to halt the sale. They contended that the OC legislators inSacramento had been remiss in intervening to stop the transaction, that the proposed deal to sell public land was both "Ill-advised and illegal."[6] Both theDel Mar Fairgrounds and theLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum were saved by just such an intervention by the legislators.[6]
A public auction was held, but before any sales agreements could be signed, there were two lawsuits filed and the sale was stopped. The Preservation Society, and Tel Phil Enterprises filed in theCourt of Appeal and asked that the new governorJerry Brown have the sale categorically dismissed. Lawsuits by two former building commissioners that Schwarzenegger had fired, however, stalled the proposed sale long enough for incoming Governor Brown to have the final word.[7]
After a closed session on January 27, 2011, the OCFEC Board of Directors issued the following policy statement regarding the sale of the fairgrounds:
We believe that the 32nd District Agricultural Association and Orange County Fair belong in public hands. As such, the Board of Directors have instructed its Sale Committee to engage with the Governor's office in a meaningful negotiation regarding revenue sharing as a possible way to work with the State in the financial crisis that we're experiencing.[8]
On February 8, 2011, the 32nd District Agricultural Association sent a letter to Governor Jerry Brown, which can be viewed as a PDF at the site.[9]
In February 2011,California GovernorJerry Brown told theLos Angeles Times, "This is not the best time to be selling real estate. I think we have time to consider what we ought to do with that." He also said that his predecessor's plan, rather than helping California's budget crisis, would "have cost taxpayers far more in the long run."[7] Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana) stated that Brown's comments were "a good sign."[7]
- Epting, Chris (2015). The Orange County Fair. The History Press. p. 93.ISBN 978-1-62619-802-9.
33°40′0″N117°54′4″W / 33.66667°N 117.90111°W /33.66667; -117.90111