A Return to the County’s Citrus Roots

TUSTIN —  Topped by his customary straw hat, landscape architect Rick Fennell peers through dark sunglasses that reflect long rows of citrus trees as he stands at the edge of a housing development named the Orchards.

He recalls how he wanted to bring the orange back to Orange County.

“I was reading the [planning] guidelines for the Tustin Ranch area, and it kept talking about the old orchards,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why not reintroduce a disappearing land use? Why not re-create the feel of an orchard to invoke a sense of years gone by?’ ”

The result is a garden-like landscape, in three sections about the length of two football fields, containing orderly rows of about 130 dwarf kumquat trees--similar in look and color to orange trees but smaller and easier to maintain. Another 120 bottle trees were used in place of eucalyptus, which traditionally provided a shield around temperamental orange groves.

Historians and real estate experts say this is one of the few places in the county where a piece of the region’s agrarian past has been rebuilt instead of torn down and lost forever.

Over the last 50 years, more than 60,000 acres of county orange groves have been steadily razed to make way for various developments. Efforts to preserve those groves have mostly failed, largely because of limited public funds and an ever-growing demand for housing.

Few felled trees, if any, are replanted, but the idea of paying tribute to the county’s agricultural past has taken hold elsewhere.

Officials plan to incorporate an orchard into the proposed 159-acre Sportstown Anaheim, which was unveiled this month. And small groves at W.O. Hart Park in Orange and George Key Ranch Historic Park in Placentia were designed to memorialize the passing citrus era.

“Some developers used to leave trees around houses, but the new residents didn’t keep them sprayed or control the pests as an orchardist would,” said Carol Jordan, a member of Orange County’s historical commission and longtime Tustin resident. “It was too much of a hassle, so some years ago they just stopped leaving them.”

In the case of the Orchards, Fennell said he was surprised to encounter initial opposition to his plan.

Some Tustin planning officials and the development company, Laguna Hills-based John Laing Homes, were skeptical. And Irvine Co., which owns the land, had halted similar projects because orange trees proved too difficult and costly to manage.

So Fennell proposed using dwarf kumquat trees, which are hearty, require less maintenance and water, and bear a small tasty fruit similar in color to an orange. To help prove his point, he presented some trees as gifts to officials at Laing Homes, and he wheeled two trees into the Tustin City Council chambers during the meeting in which the plan was approved.

“We had some real concerns at first,” said Terry Crowther, project manager at Laing Homes. “But then Rick came up with the idea of using kumquats, and I didn’t even know what the hell one was. So he had some delivered, and now people are making jam out of the fruit. It’s become kind of a fun thing.”

The Orchards opened about a year ago but is not yet completed.

“We’ve sold 93 of 223 units, about two a week,” Crowther said. “On this type of thing we expect to sell about one a week, so this is double what we expect to do.”

Resident Amy Burchit, who has lived at the Orchards since September, said the trees did not influence her decision to purchase a home there, but said she and her husband, Jim, enjoy having the open space nearby.

“It’s a very unusual design for a townhouse, and they’ve taken a lot of time to plan it out,” she said. “We really like it.”

Tustin Councilman Thomas R. Saltarelli, a real estate attorney, said he isn’t surprised that the project has proven successful.

“The development community, by way of recessionary times, is looking for unique and better ways to attract homeowners,” he said. “This is one of those innovative ideas.”

Jordan, the historical commission member, said she is encouraged by efforts to maintain a link with the county’s past.

“People moving in here now don’t know the difference,” she said. “But if you talk to any old-timers, we’ll talk about the orange trees and the scent of the blossoms. There were a lot of trees then, and a lot are gone. I miss them.”