Pumpkin patch finally up for sale Pumpkin patch finally up for sale (January 27, 2006)

Developer Summerhill Homes also targeting Marilyn Drive nursery

By Jon Wiener

A Palo Alto-based developer is planning to purchase the 15-acre farm field at Grant Road and Levin Court, one of the last pieces of agricultural land in the area. The long-anticipated sale clears the way for as many as 65 homes to be built there.

Summerhill Homes is in exclusive negotiations with the owners of the property, where it plans to build single-family units "that are consistent with the surrounding neighborhood," according to the company's senior development manager Katja Kamangar.

The company is also planning a similar but smaller project at the six-acre Satake Nursery on Marilyn Drive, and city officials say they expect an application to re-zone that site by the end of the week.

Russ Satake, owner of the nursery, said negotiations are not completed and that talk of a sale is premature at this point.

The sale of the Grant Road field, perhaps better known as the "pumpkin patch," comes as little surprise to the real estate agents, neighbors and city staff who have inquired about it for years, even after the owners made it clear they did not want to sell. After widower Paul Mardesich died in August 2004, passing the property on to his daughters, new rumors surfaced every month about an impending sale, and the city's planning division moved the site to the top of an internal list of upcoming large private projects.

The pumpkin patch is located in an unincorporated pocket of Santa Clara County surrounded by single-family homes inside the Mountain View city limits. The city has "pre-zoned" the area for up to six units per acre and intends to annex the property, a process that could take as long as two years and will likely require an extensive environmental review, according to planning manager Whitney McNair.

A similar situation is playing out at Satake Nursery. The owners have kept the site as agricultural property for years, but the city's general plan calls for the site to be used for single-family housing in the future.

"The bottom line is that the city views both of these sites as the best use being residential," said Kamangar.

Darlene Plamondon lives on Preston Drive, kitty-corner from the farm field. She takes her 4-year-old grandson to the field every fall to visit the pumpkin patch run by Farm Fresh Produce.

"We've all known this was eventually going to happen," she said of the sale. "The only way we could have really prevented this is if everyone chipped in and bought the property."

Plamondon's grandson is among thousands of Bay Area schoolchildren who visit the farm every year.

The farm field and the nursery are the latest casualties in a citywide effort to replace old agricultural properties with new housing. Last year, the city council endorsed a plan to include a 10.5-acre orchard in a residential master plan for the South Whisman area. And the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission evicted California Nurseries in order to make way for a condo complex on a 6.3-acre parcel along the Hetch Hetchy right-of-way.

The only remaining agricultural sites in Mountain View are the city-owned "vector control property" at Moffett Boulevard and Highway 101 and some scattered pockets along the Stevens Creek Trail route. Some might also include the Cuesta Park Annex, which city officials plan to develop as open space.

Plamondon, though, says she understands the pressure to develop. High home prices drove her son Keith, a sergeant with the police department, all the way to Livermore. He's now looking to move closer to home, but has been having difficulty finding a place to live.

The farm field is worth an estimated $29 million, according to the county assessor's rolls. Living across from a valuable property in the midst of skyrocketing housing prices, Plamondon and her neighbors said they knew it was only a matter of time.

"It's the inevitable that's going to hit us all," she said. "We've been so spoiled."

Kamangar said Summerhill is planning to organize a neighborhood meeting to unveil the company's plans after the sales go through. She declined to give any further details about the impending deals or the planned developments.

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

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