North Tustin Too Tough a Customer for Gelson’s

For residents in the hills of affluent North Tustin, it’s a question of market value--or, more precisely, the value of a market.

Worried about an increase in traffic and decrease in property prices, neighbors have managed to stop the development of an upscale grocery store on the edge of their unincorporated community, where it’s difficult to find a home for less than $350,000 and the median household income is $90,000 a year.

“We don’t want their froufrou store,” said longtime resident James McKinney, referring to the proposed Gelson’s Market project at 17th Street and Newport Avenue. “We got all kinds of places to buy food around here. I don’t care how fuddy-duddy it is.”

At a time when Orange County development is in a tizzy and other well-to-do communities would view a project of Gelson’s stature as alluring, many North Tustin residents have balked at the prospect of losing an 86-year-old slice of farmland to any type of commercial construction.

The property has yielded corn and strawberries for a roadside stand since 1912 and is a neighborhood hot spot during the holidays, whether for pumpkin patches and hayrides or Christmas tree farms.

The intense opposition and a letter-writing campaign prompted the grocery store’s president to pull out of the plan altogether Wednesday, saying the company cannot afford to move into an area “where there is not complete support.”

The county’s only other Gelson’s Market--known for employees who escort customers to find missing items and personally unload grocery carts--is in Newport Beach.

“Due to a substantial amount of written correspondence sent to upper management expressing opposition to our presence at this location, we have decided to withdraw . . . from further negotiations,” said Robert E. Stiles, president of the Encino-based chain.

Developer Douglas Prescott, whose family owns the 6.2-acre property, said he will move forward with his plan for a retail center and is looking at several other specialty stores to fill the 30,000-square-foot space that had been set aside for Gelson’s. A restaurant and a dozen small shops also would be built if the project gains approval from the Board of Supervisors.

Prescott, himself a North Tustin resident, said he plans to keep his neighbors apprised of development plans for the farmland, which since 1982 had been designated as the site for about 40 new homes. Prescott recently requested that the land be rezoned from residential to commercial to make way for the current project, which he contends is supported by many in the area.

“North Tustin has changed . . . and the needs of the community have changed with it,” Prescott said. “We have a tremendous amount of interest in this project. It’s going to be first-class.”

Still, neighbors said they will resist any commercial development on the property and know their work is not done.

“We may have won the battle but we haven’t won the war,” said Kathy Allumbaugh, a member of Residents to Keep North Tustin Residential. She said the way her neighbors rallied against the Gelson’s project was encouraging, with people writing letters, donating money and hammering signs in their frontyards.

“I’ve never seen this community come together like this before,” Allumbaugh said.

Manny Padilla, who has lived in North Tustin for 24 years, said neighbors plan to monitor Prescott’s plans for the busy corner near Lemon Heights.

“I don’t think this thing is over by a long shot,” Padilla said. “But it’s like trying to get someone with a size-10 foot into a size-5 shoe. It just doesn’t fit in the community.”