Taxpayers to Spend Upwards of $25K to Maintain Citrus Grove

Despite tightening budgets and the possible loss of their redevelopment agency, Loma Linda’s City Council will continue to spend thousands to pay for the maintenance of a city-owned orange grove.

The plan is to continue paying for the groves to be watered, a cost of more than  $25,000 in water fees for the next year and a half, city officials said.

It is far from the ideal solution City Associate Engineer Jeff Peterson told the council during a recent City Council meeting. But it appears to the least expensive solution at the moment, he said.

Removing the 7,000 trees which sit on 60 acres of land could cost between $81,000 and $110,000, Peterson said. The city the would have to pay for the cost of weed and dust abatement.

There may come a day when the area of the grove, bordered by Redlands Boulevard,  California Street, Mission Road and Mountain View Avenue, will be developed. Then the trees can be removed and structures can go up, he said.

“That area may or may not develop,” Peterson said. “We don’t have a clear picture at this time. We’re hoping that it does, but we don’t have a crystal ball that will tell us what will happen.”

This is the second time the issue of maintaining the grove has come to the council. It’s future has been debated for some time. In August, the city’s Parks and Beautification Committee recommended the city stop maintaining the grove, especially after the grove’s manager requested the city begin to pay about $3,000 a month in water fees.

The water is the only city expense. The grove manager maintains the grove in exchange for the fruit, which he sells.

If the city decides to develop the area through the redevlopment process, the city would replace many of the trees in an effort to keep some groves in the area, city officials said.

“Basically we’re spending $25,000 a year to preserve old groves so that they look better until we can figure out how to develop the property?” asked councilman Ron Daily.

Which is why they are in a Catch-22, Peterson said.

Mayor Pro Tem Ovidiu Popescu defended keeping the grove.

“One of the things that compelled me to come on this council was my concern over the fact that many of our orange trees were being decimated and taken away and a lot of the times we don’t have control over it if it does not belong to us,” Popescu said. “But this is an orange grove that does belong to us. And we are in complete control of it. Sometimes it does cost us money to maintain the beauty of our city. I’m willing to place a bet that residents don’t mind us paying so that those trees are maintained.”

Resident Karen Nguyen, 27, who lives on California Street directly across from the groves, was torn over the issue.

“I’m used to having them there even though there are times when it seems a bit deserted and vast,” she said.

But she’s used to seeing progress come through and take things out, she said. So she won’t be surprised if they go.

“I would just as soon see them develop the area,” said Bill Strange, who lives near the corner of Mission Road and California. “Developing that land will raise our property values.”