Dick Peixoto seeks to protect Measure T land with Purchase | Santa Cruz Sentinel
Watsonville voters slammed the door on the potential development of a piece of farmland just south of the city on Riverside Drive in June 2013. Organic farmer Dick Peixoto has locked it behind them.
Peixoto’s Lakeside Organic Gardens recently purchased the 55-acre Sakata property, targeted for city annexation in last year’s unsuccessful Measure T campaign. “It’s a good move for us as a company, and a good move for the (Pajaro) Valley to have that buffer to stop development from jumping out onto agricultural land,” Peixoto said. “We’ll keep it in farming. We have no interest in developing it.”
Watsonville has had its eye on the Sakata land and an adjoining 25-acre parcel owned by the Kett family for two decades. Measure T, spearheaded by Councilman Daniel Dodge, was the latest effort. The measure would have amended a 2002 growth boundary, negotiated after two failed attempts in the 1990s to annex the Sakata-Kett properties, to permit another annexation bid and the potential for commercial development. But in June 2013, voters soundly rejected the proposal.
Peixoto, who also bought 45 acres west of Highway 1 and 88 acres in Pajaro from the Sakata’s 450-acre offering, said he was seeking to acquire land, and the threat of development spurred his decision to acquire the Riverside Drive property.
Though Measure T lost, the pressure to develop the farmland remained, he said.
“It is excellent ground and the target for development,” Peixoto said. “It’s another way to get around Measure T.”
Dodge, who saw a property with easy freeway access as prime for retail, said he thinks the measure failed because the debate veered away from the real economic needs of Watsonville. A retail development would have provided the city with generous sales tax revenue.
With the Sakata property off the table, the city will have to look elsewhere for development, he said.
Dodge said it’s time to lift deed restrictions that prohibit significant retail development on the 94-acre Manabe-Ow property, annexed by the city in 2007.
“We have to look at the all the opportunities within the city, and now more than ever those deed restrictions need to be taken off Manabe-Ow,” Dodge said.
Peixoto plans to transition the Sakata properties from conventional to organic farming, a process that takes three years.
During that time, he’ll have to grow organically but sell his produce as conventionally grown, losing the organic price premium.
“It’s a tough thing to do but part of being in the organic business,” Peixoto said.
It’s also another reason why Peixoto, who leases farmland throughout the valley, decided to make ownership a priority. With leased ground, Peixoto said there’s no guarantee beyond the term of being about to stay and maintain the land for organic production.
If you own the land, “once you make the transition, you’re there forever,” he said.
Back to All Media