Old Town Tustin Debates Worth of an Old Landmark

For eight years, Merry Powers has looked out the front window of her art gallery in Old Town Tustin at a clean street with neatly manicured trees lining the sidewalks.

But directly across the street, the old Utt Juice buildings stand in a concrete lot strewn with gravel and broken glass.

In the early 1900s, the buildings, at Main Street and Prospect Avenue, were home to Ed Utt’s bustling juice business in the heart of rural Orange County. He grew grapes on his own vines in Lemon Heights and bottled the juice.

Utt Juice had once been the largest employer in the city. But business soured in 1973, and the three connected buildings have been largely unused since. Today, the roof on one of them sags in the back, and doors are locked.

Now, locals are divided on whether to spare the structures -- little more than concrete boxes with an ornate metal cornice -- or raze them to build new homes and businesses.

Powers, along with other shop owners, wants the city to develop the land. But local homeowners and historians want to save the buildings or, at the very least, their facades.

It’s a classic dilemma between preservation and progress, pitting Old Town Tustin homeowners against local merchants.

Progress won the latest round.

After a packed public hearing Monday night, the Tustin Planning Commission voted 4 to 1 in favor of the latest design proposal, submitted by Prospect Village, a Huntington Beach developer. It calls for razing the Utt Juice buildings to make way for shops, apartments and restaurants with outdoor dining.

The City Council will vote on the measure May 17. Those in favor of preserving the buildings plan to be there to plead their case.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Brent Ferdig of the Planning Commission vote. Ferdig’s father spent his high school summers working at Utt Juice.

Ferdig and other preservationists argued that the area could lose its charm if historic buildings kept coming down.

“There are very few historic buildings in downtown Tustin,” said Linda Jennings, an Old Town resident and former planning commissioner. “If you want to look at new buildings that look old, you can go to Disneyland. We want to keep the old ones.”

Joyce Miller, president of the Tustin Area Historical Society, said it’s not just about preserving the building but the spirit of the town’s founders.

“I think people come to Old Town not just to shop but to soak up the atmosphere of 30, 40 or 80 years ago,” she said.

But David Bryant, past president of the historical society, disagreed. “There’s nothing there to preserve. It’s junk,” he said. “If we keep saving old buildings that no one can find a use for, then pretty soon we’ll have a ghost town.”

Old Town merchants said they feared this was the city’s last chance to do something productive with the space.

Four other developers have proposed plans for the site in the past few years but, as with Prospect Village, none of them wanted to preserve the Utt Juice buildings either.

Though merchants want to see new development, not all want the buildings demolished. “We don’t believe in battle lines being drawn between the homeowners and merchants. There needs to be a compromise,” said Jim Bartolomucci, whose wife, Annette, owns Mrs. B’s consignment store on Main Street.

Still, the Bartolomuccis are more interested in seeing people shop and eat in the area than saving the Utt Juice buildings.

“We die every day because of the lack of people,” Jim Bartolomucci said.

Said Powers: “If you don’t have people in Old Town, we don’t make any money. We need this project.”