NEWPORT BEACH : Sweet Deal: Vendor Aids Conservancy

The Newport Conservancy, in its crusade to purchase two grassy meadows overlooking the Upper Newport Bay, recently enlisted the help of an unlikely source.

Dave Shultz, a.k.a. Mr. Strawberry, earlier this month set up a fruit stand on the property known as the Upper Castaways at 16th Street and Dover Drive. Each day, his sales of freshly picked berries also call attention to the conservancy’s efforts to save the land from development.

Shultz has also agreed to donate several thousand dollars from strawberry sales to the environmental group.

“It is a win-win situation,” said Shultz, whose vending booth is flanked on either side by poster-size Newport Conservancy logos. “Right now, it is turning out quite well. People stop and look at this land, and the community gains awareness of the conservancy.”

Awareness is just what the Newport Conservancy needs.

The organization currently is negotiating with the Irvine Co. to acquire the Upper Castaways and another piece of land across the bay known as Newporter North. The Irvine Co. once had plans to develop 363 homes on those two pieces of land. If the conservancy cannot muster the $60 million to $70 million it may take to acquire the land, the Irvine Co. may reactivate those plans.

To finance the purchase, the conservancy may need the support of voters to establish an assessment district.

For his part, Shultz has agreed to donate $1 per tray of berries sold during the strawberry season, which ends in July. He said that business is brisk on most days and that by mid-summer he hopes to have sold several thousand trays.

“I have been eating a lot of strawberries lately,” said Jean Watt, president of the conservancy. “This is an optimal arrangement because the stand is located on a land we want to save.”

Shultz said his Mr. Strawberry stand may return next year.