Last City Grove Squeezed Out

Placentia’s last orange grove gave way Tuesday as bulldozers began digging up citrus trees to make way for a housing development that preservationists had bitterly opposed.

A handful of those activists stood near the intersection of Valencia Avenue and Bastanchury Road watching bulldozers pluck trees from the ground and oranges roll onto the sidewalk as they acknowledged defeat.

“We feel very helpless,” said John Walcek, co-founder of Preserve Our Past, a group formed last year to save the 3.6-acre grove.

The 8 a.m. commencement of bulldozing appeared to mark the final chapter of a months-long controversy that began last summer. That’s when residents learned of a plan by HQT Homes to build 16 houses at the site of the 94-year-old Brower estate, one of the few remaining orange groves in a county named for the citrus fruit that once dotted its landscape.

“The city should have allowed a vote,” Walcek said. “Then they would have seen what the will of the people is.”

In fact, City Council members in August gave the group five months to come up with a plan to save the orchard, delaying work until this month.

Preservationists first sought a corporate sponsor to buy the land and turn it into a tourist attraction. The Brower grove was one of the first to harvest Valencia oranges--the type preferred for orange juice.

When that plan failed for lack of a sponsor, the group asked the city to buy the $2-million property, which includes a small house, and maintain it as a museum or community center.

Preservationists also launched a petition drive trying to put the matter to a public vote and last week asked the council to stall the developer a little longer while they collected the 3,500 signatures required to call a special election.

Council members declined, however, approving the developer’s final tract map last week by a vote of 3 to 2.

Carl Quinn of HQT Homes said the company has waited long enough.

“The City Council was very generous” with the preservationists, he said. “They gave them five months. But we have our schedule. It’s not possible for us to wait any longer.”

Quinn said it will take about two months to clear the grove and grade the site, with completion of the project expected in October.

City Councilman Norman Z. Eckenrode, who voted to save the orange grove, said that he and many other residents are disappointed to see it disappear.

“I know that there was overwhelming support to save the grove,” he said. “But three council members decided to vote against it. I guess there’s no hope now.”

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Fruit Trees Felled

Last orange grove in Placentia