FOCUS: ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY NEWS : PLACENTIA
The Brower orange grove soda-sponsorship plan has gone flat, leaving a local preservation organization with only three months to raise $2 million to save the property from development.
City Council members rejected a request Tuesday by local preservation group Preserve Our Past, asking the city to pay $12,000 to the private firm Public Enterprise to evaluate whether the Placentia orchard could find a corporate sponsor in a big soft-drink company. The plan was to have a corporation sponsor the orange grove and turn it into a tourist site.
Preservation group founder John Penner, who was counting on the city’s support, called this a major setback.
“Looking to the city for support is pretty moot,” Penner said. “The only way to go is to raise the money ourselves, privately.”
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
