PUC boots local tree grower PUC boots local tree grower (November 11, 2005)

Pacific Nurseries ending 50-year run on Whisman Road

By Jon Wiener

Don Baldocchi says he knew for a while that his days in Mountain View were numbered. After all, he was paying $2,000 an acre in annual rent in the middle of Silicon Valley -- a sweet arrangement that couldn't last forever.

When Baldocchi purchased Pacific Nurseries out of bankruptcy in 1997, the company had spent more than four decades growing plants on a 6.3-acre parcel at Whisman Road and Tyrella Avenue and selling them to landscapers throughout the South Bay.

Last Friday, Baldocchi received a 30-day notice from his landlord, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, or PUC. The agency is selling off one of the city's last agricultural parcels in the city to make way for a housing development.

"It's been a long time in coming," said PUC real estate manager Gary Dowd. "Don Baldocchi has been a good tenant of ours for many years. Unfortunately there are times when things like this come along."

Staring down the prospect of spending $4 billion to retrofit the Hetch Hetchy aqueduct system for seismic safety, the PUC board tasked Dowd with selling off excess property along its right-of-way to the highest bidder. In this case, that bidder was KMJ Urban Communities, a partnership willing to shell out $8.1 million for the parcel.

City zoning administrator Al Savay said that the site's zoning allows for seven to 12 units per acre. KMJ did not immediately return a phone call about its plans.

The nursery grew everything from large trees like redwoods and oaks to small shrubs and flowers, selling them to landscapers through its headquarters in Hillsdale. After getting the eviction notice, Baldocchi notified the five employees at the site that they would be losing their jobs and began trucking thousands of plants to another growing yard in Stockton.

"This is typical of what's happened to nurseries over the years -- the urban areas push us out," said Baldocchi. "It's kind of hard to grow plants when development pressures are so great."

Neighbors were upset by news of the eviction. Ev Shafrir, who lives in a condo at nearby Windsor Lochs on Walker Drive, complained that the homeowners association never had a chance to weigh in on the land's future.

The nursery had already lost two acres to the construction of the Hetch Hetchy bike path, which opened last year but now may have to be relocated. When the city announced its plan for the trail, connecting the Stevens Creek Trail with the Middlefield light rail stop, neighbors were vocal about keeping the nursery.

Now, lamented Shafrir, it appears there is little they can do.

"We had a sea of green. We had western sky, western sunsets. It's all going to go away."

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.