A Fruitless Future?

As late as the mid-’60s, Placentia was mostly orange groves. “Placentia, home of the Valencia,” was once the city motto.

But housing became more profitable than oranges. By the early ‘70s, bulldozing of groves planted at the turn of the century became commonplace. Now, even the few acres left of the pioneer Kraemer family groves is master-planned for development.

If those go, can you guess how many privately owned orange groves that would leave in Placentia?

Just one.

Now the developers want it too. To build more houses.

One city leader is determined to stop them. But does he have enough clout?

“I want to be able to drive my grandchildren by at least one place in Placentia and say, ‘This is what our city once was,’ ” says longtime Councilman Norman Z. Eckenrode.

That one hope for Eckenrode is a tiny 3-acre patch along Valencia Avenue, just north of El Dorado High School. Once part of a McFadden family ranch, it was passed on to a daughter, Ysidora “Babe” McFadden Brower, a great-great niece of Pio Pico, California’s last Mexican governor. She died last fall at age 91.

Eckenrode wants to see her orange grove preserved, or at the very least turned into a city park.

But standing in opposition is Jack Christensen, a longtime friend and neighbor of Babe’s. He’s executor of her estate.

It’s not that he’s got anything against oranges; Christensen has been a citrus grower all his life. He once owned one of the city’s largest groves.

But Christensen feels a strong obligation to Babe’s wishes that he provide as much as he can for her heirs. Though she had no children, she had a great network of friends she left money to--more than 70--plus five local charities.

“We got bids from nine real estate people who let us know they were interested in Babe’s property,” Christensen said. “We didn’t hear a thing from the city.”

It isn’t clear why not. Eckenrode says the council asked City Administrator Robert D’Amato to look into it. D’Amato says there was no such direction.

Christensen won’t say the amount of the highest bid, except that “over $2 million would not be inaccurate.” It came from HQT Homes of Tustin, which plans to build 16 homes on the property. Escrow closes in September.

But Eckenrode insists it’s not too late to stop it.

His idea, once HQT’s housing proposal reaches the City Council: Turn down the plan, negotiate with HQT to buy the property, and create an advisory committee to recommend what should be done with the acreage.

“Even if we can’t keep it as an orange grove,” Eckenrode said, “our city needs open space; we’ve got none left.”

Christensen counters that it’s highly unfeasible to keep the small plot in oranges.

Right now it’s costing Babe’s estate more than $7,000 a year just in water to keep the trees growing. Yet the crop won’t yield more than $2,000 worth of oranges. Its trees, planted in 1903, are too old to produce a strong crop, Christensen said. He might not even pick its current oranges, with HQT’s bulldozers closing in.

Eckenrode well remembers the bulldozers, when he moved to Placentia as a young man in 1970.

“I used to go pick some of the oranges in a grove behind my house,” Eckenrode said. “But one day they were gone. Ten acres of oranges bulldozed away in a day.”

That was about the time that Christensen sold his own orange groves along Valencia, and when Babe sold off most of her 20 acres.

“Babe didn’t want to be surrounded by neighbors,” Christensen said. “She kept this small grove surrounding her house so she’d have some privacy.”

Driving down the lane to her spacious home, past magnificent huge palms, one can easily envision life there when the orange groves dominated the city. Still on the grounds is a huge barn, a caretaker’s home and a small place called the “hoopie house,” a playhouse for the young people around.

“She was a grand lady, always active,” said Jeanne Christensen, Jack’s wife, who has been collecting many of Babe’s papers.

Babe graduated from Stanford University. She lived around the world with two different husbands, both in the oil business.

But she insisted on returning to Placentia, to the same house on Valencia Avenue where she was born.

It was the same house where her mother Lucana had married Will McFadden. Lucana’s grandmother was Ysidora Pico, sister to Pio Pico.

It’s now a house awaiting a bulldozer.

Not that Carl Quinn, an HQT partner, is taking Eckenrode’s opposition lightly.

“He’s a very influential council member,” Quinn said. “But we build houses; it’s hard to comment on a proposal from the city that we haven’t even seen.”

Several years ago, city officials approached Babe about making her estate a historic property. That’s the way the city’s historic George Key Ranch on Bastanchury Road was preserved. It now includes a working orange grove owned by the county--Placentia’s only other grove left.

But Babe had said no. Such a move would have cut her off from selling the 3 acres of oranges left; she feared she’d need that for financial security.

Babe’s commitment in her final years was to her heirs. And if Eckenrode does much to interfere with HQT’s plans, Christensen predicts that “you’ll see about 70 different lawsuits coming against the city.”

Another council member and neighbor to Babe’s property, Chris Lowe, said he’s keeping an open mind. A lot will depend, he said, on how people in his district feel.

Well, maybe they’ll step forward to help Eckenrode’s cause. Wouldn’t it be nice to see an orange beat back a bulldozer?

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com