Countywide : County May Pay for Trees in Road’s Path

The county Board of Supervisors today will be asked to buy a lot of fruit in the name of future transportation.

The county staff is recommending that the Irvine Co. be paid $465,820 for the loss of 3,093 lemon, orange, avocado and grapefruit trees from company-owned orchards in Irvine to make way for access roads to the Foothill Transportation Corridor.

The $746-million Foothill tollway will encompass 30 miles, connecting the Eastern tollway near Riverside to Interstate 5 in San Clemente.

Michael J. Howard, the county’s manager for real estate acquisitions, said Monday that planners had long planned to remove the fruit trees along parts of Jeffrey Road, Portola Parkway and Sand Canyon Avenue.

With the avocado trees listed at up to $233.88 each, Howard said the value of the trees were calculated using a formula that included such things as future production estimates during the orchards’ lifetime.

“This kind of thing is not unusual of road acquisitions, but then again we have never actually gone through an active orchard before,” Howard said. “It’s like somebody taking a piece of your property away. You are not just going to donate it.”

Howard said county and Irvine Co. officials hit a temporary logjam during recent negotiations when there was disagreement over how long the trees would be producing fruit.

More than half the payment was expected to compensate the Irvine Co. for the loss of 1,368 grapefruit trees valued at $188.96 each.