Last stand for San Fernando Valley's orange grove: 1,100 trees to make way for high-end homes

Right in the middle of the San Fernando Valley – along the border of Woodland Hills and Tarzana – are some 1,400 orange trees in a grove that's been here since the early 1920s. 

About 1,100 are targeted to be removed to make way for 21 single-family high-end homes and this last orange grove – in a valley that used to be filled with them – will be a memory.

While it may seem like the end of an era, Brad Rosenheim, a consultant who works with the developer Borstein Enterprises says, believes it was a long time coming.

Rosenheim says many of the trees are no longer healthy and don’t provide viable fruit. 

He says, aesthetically, there will be some orange trees kept but not that many.

"There will be orange trees. As a matter of fact, two rows of orange trees right here will be retained and as they grow older be retained with newer orange trees," he said.

Rosenheim says they're doing that as a nod to the past.

Back in March of 2020, LA City Councilman Bob Blumenfield told FOX 11 News In Depth, "We can not stop it from being developed. It is private property and it most likely will be developed. We can not force someone to keep it as an orange grove."

San Fernando Valley resident Jeff Bornstein said he is not happy about this. 

Bornstein doesn't live in the neighborhood, but he's been fighting the idea of a development and is threatening court action. 

"That’s the only option that a person in the Valley, a citizen in the valley, has is to do that," he said.

Bothwell Ranch neighbor Goldie Schon has lived by the grove for seven years. 

"We need to praise this particular developer," she thinks. 

She says he's been trying to be a good neighbor. 

"This developer has talked to the neighborhood; has discussed things with us. Made changes for us. And, is doing everything within this development and these homes to acclimate to the neighborhood which is so appreciative to the people who live here," Schon said.

Rob Hollman is the Executive Director of the non-profit Bothwell Ranch Foundation. It was formed to save the ranch. 

He says there was a plan "that fell apart after eight months of negotiations. We had a private-public partnership in place. We thought we had the money in place." 

The idea, he says, was to make a grove a historical site that would be open to the public.

For the first time since we spoke on FOX 11 News In Depth in March of 2020, Councilman Bob Blumenfield tells us in a statement below:

"I have been working on this for five years and while I wish we could have saved the entire Bothwell Ranch, I am very pleased that 1/3 of it will be preserved and maintained by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA). The options for preserving this privately owned site were limited and explored extensively. I am grateful that MRCA has stepped up as a partner and that Borstein Enterprises is willing to donate a significant portion of the valuable site. MRCA's management gives the public ironclad assurances that it will be there in perpetuity with proper maintenance and public access. Preserving some of the trees and site as a testament to the Valley's history is a major victory with the remaining land to be used for single family homes just like the surrounding community."

According to the developer’s team there was approval of this project at neighborhood councils in both Woodland Hills and Tarzana.

There's no timetable yet on when work might begin.