The stalled housing market and plunging economy have slowed development in O.C., leaving more land available for agriculture. In 2009, farmers planted crops on 380 more acres — more than four times the size of Disneyland Park — than they did in 2007.
But the recent trend may reverse itself as the economy improves and the market for new homes awakens. Eventually, landowners will be able to sell or develop their land at favorable margins and farmers will have to move.
This fickle relationship has shaped the county’s landscape since World War II and will continue to do so until the edges are built out. In the meantime, more fruit stands mean more local produce at the table.
“It’s nice, but I think the writing’s on the wall,” Mike Bennett said, Orange County’s deputy agricultural commissioner. “As soon as the economy improves there will be that many fewer strawberry and avocado farms.”
Indeed, some of the strawberry farms in Irvine have already started to give way to condos again. The Irvine Co., the county’s largest landowner, recently declined one grower’s lease renewal so it could make way for condominiums and town homes.
That 248-home development, called Stonegate East, could be a forerunner of the next building boom. Other builders and developers are looking to the Irvine Co. to see how quickly it can sell homes. So far, it has exceeded expectations; its most recent development, Woodbury East, has sold more than 350 homes since last summer.
But that doesn’t translate to bad news for all farmers. While the county’s strawberry growers have benefited from the building slowdown, horticulturists have suffered. They depend on new office parks and master-planned communities to buy their plants. Since 2005, total sales for the nursery industry in the county dropped by almost half, from $241 million to $126 million, according to the Agricultural Commissioner’s office.
