Effort to Evict Farmer From College Land He Leases Withers on the Vine : Agriculture: Officials are revising terms of Joe Cicero’s lease at Pierce to try to avoid a repeat of the Woodland Hills Christmas tree controversy of 1990.
The attempt to evict farmer Joe Cicero from the land he leases at Pierce College has withered away like an abandoned Christmas tree on a warm day.
While Cicero is busy selling strawberries and other fresh produce at his wooden stand at Victory Boulevard and Desoto Avenue, officials of the Los Angeles Community College District are revising the terms of his lease to avoid conflicts--most notably a rerun of the Christmas tree war of 1990.
The heated, three-way dispute between Cicero, the college district, and Christmas tree magnate Stu Miller centered on the issue of whether Cicero had the legal right to sell Christmas trees on the public land he leases from Pierce College.
The attempt to quash Cicero’s seasonal tree sales, a Valley institution for generations, originated with Miller, who operated about 50 Christmas tree lots around Los Angeles last season, including one on a strip of railroad property across the street from Cicero’s lot on the campus in Woodland Hills.
Miller contended that because Cicero’s lease with the community college district did not specifically allow Christmas tree sales, the farmer was engaging in unfair business practices.
He sued Cicero and the district, arguing that other vendors should have been able to bid competitively for the right to sell Christmas trees on the site.
To settle the suit, district officials promised to stop Cicero’s tree sales. When Cicero ignored their order and opened for business, district officials threatened to evict him.
The issue then moved to court and Cicero was ordered to stop tree sales.
Early in the year, district officials vowed to evict Cicero, one of the last farmers in the San Fernando Valley. But six months later, tempers have cooled. Miller’s lawsuit against the district is settled, and district officials have taken no steps to remove Cicero.
“The district does not want to dissolve the relationship completely with Cicero. The agreement he has--notwithstanding the Christmas tree sales--has been mutually beneficial to both Pierce College, Joe Cicero and the community,” said Martha Torgow, general counsel for the community college district.
Cicero has tilled the 15-acre plot for the last four years, starting when the farm his family had operated in the Sepulveda Basin in Encino since 1947 was closed.
Pierce College, which began as an agricultural school and still operates a 250-acre college farm, receives valuable advice and maintenance help from Cicero, school farm officials said.
Others said they enjoy the chance to buy fresh produce in an open-air market.
“It’s like a little bit of the country here in the city,” said Alicia Caine of Agoura.
Marsha D’Amico, who was at Cicero Farms on a recent afternoon with her two sons, ages 9 and 4, said, “I think its nice for the kids. They have more room to run around than at a supermarket.”
Cicero said he is not surprised that the district has altered its hard-line stance. He said he suspected that once the holidays were over, district officials would let bygones be bygones.
“I didn’t really think they’d go through with it,” he said. “Miller wouldn’t take the pressure off so they had to do everything in their legal power to stop me.”
But Torgow said the district is writing a new land lease for the property to prevent similar spats.
Cicero’s lease expires at the end of the year, and the new lease will be put up for bid.
Cicero said he will compete for it, and may voluntarily terminate his lease with the district sooner so the new lease can be put into effect by December.
The new lease, which is still in the draft stages, will be similar to the lease Cicero holds now. The winning bidder will provide equipment and technical assistance to the Pierce College farm, and till the leased college land.
Whoever agrees to do all these things can also use the plot to sell Christmas trees.