An orange grove, a centenary, in Tarzana, seems to be about to become the site of luxury houses, a transformation that would mark the end of the commercial bustle in the San Fernando valley, where harvest was once a pillar.
At 14 acres, Bothwell Ranch represents less than a thousandth of what was formerly, before the orchards and the valley ranchs made room for large expanses of housing and commercial buildings to serve residents. Citrus production in the midst of houses of several million dollars is far from being viable, and the plot of land now belongs to a developer who intends to fill most of houses.
Los Angeles town planning officials held a public audience on Wednesday to collect comments before deciding to give owners the green light to build 21 houses of two floors while preserving a third of the site on Oakdale avenue as a Grove Orange in publication managed by the leisure and mountain conservation authority for educational purposes.
City officials still collect information on the planned development, but Henry Chu, the city zoning administrator for the project, said on Wednesday that he was inclined to approve it in a few weeks.
Although it is difficult to imagine today, Los Angeles was the best agricultural county of the nation for most of the first half of the 20th century, according to Rachel surls, co-author of “Concrete cows: the rise and the fall of agriculture in Los Angeles.” Citrus cultures were also an integral part of this success as for the brand and the sale of southern California as a bucolic and desirable.
“The Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, various specialists in citrus marketing and organizations such as Sunkist oranges were partially to make Los Angeles look like this golden, almost tropical agricultural paradise, where people could come and get a whole new start,” said onls. “This positioning of Los Angeles as a place where citrus grew was really, really key to the growth of Los Angeles.”
With history in mind, the municipal councilor Bob Blumenfield announced in 2022 that after years of negotiations, an agreement had been concluded between the new owners of the site, Borstein Enterprises, and the leisure and mountain conservation authority to preserve a third party.
“Although I want there to be a way to save the entire Bothwell Ranch, with this partnership, we can save a large quantity to be led by one of the best land preservation organizations in the country,” said Blumenfield.
The Ranch Bothwell takes its name from Lindley Bothwell, which bought agricultural land in 1926 after obtaining a diploma in agriculture at Oregon State University, said Blumenfield. At the time, the citrus orchard was about 6 years old and totalized 100 acres. The Bothwell family has sold pieces of land over the years, but has maintained an agricultural operation for decades until the death of Ann Bothwell in 2016. The Ranch survived even though other ranchs were chased by an increase in the value of the land during the boom of the housing after the Second World War.
It is now likely to be replaced by a development called Oakdale Estates. The owners said that they intended that houses include environmentally friendly characteristics such as “cool” roofs that reduce thermal reflection in the atmosphere and a new street with a system that captures and filters rainwater before reusing it to irrigate landscaping that will include citrus.
Two rows of citrus fruits should line the Oakdale avenue on the west side of the site in tribute to the past of the field, according to the plans of the development. The conceptions for residences call modern farms and Spanish architecture, intended to embrace the heritage of the San Fernando Valley.
Abelardo Hernandez, on the left, and Al Trujillo Orange Orange Trees in Bothwell Ranch in the San Fernando valley on August 27, 1998.
(Frank Wiese / Los Angeles Times)
A project critic, Jeff Bornstein, said at the city meeting on Wednesday that development should be reduced to further preserve the orchard.
“We have very few things that mark our legacy of the past in the San Fernando West valley,” he said. “We have to save much more of these trees.”
Citrus fruits planted in the 1980s exceeded their first years of fruit and suffered from the effects of underwater, said a developer representative.
When seen on aerial photographs, the Ranch looks like a lush green anachronism – picked up from the agrarian past and carefully but absorbed without a belt in a jewelry box in the suburbs of red roofs and turquoise pools and tennis courts.
“We are invaded”, like the late Matriarch of the late Bothwell told a journalist in 1998 With a sigh. “But you can't stay in the middle of Boulevard Ventura and say:” Stop! “”
Staff writer Julia Wick contributed to this report.
