LAKEPORT – The Board of Supervisors received a report on Tuesday that offered ideas for potential uses for the area's unused pear sheds.
In December 2006 the board approved using $18,500 in Community Development Block Grant money to fund the study, as Lake County News has reported.
Consultant Kelly Bearden wrote the study, which he began work on a year ago. He presented the report to the board on Tuesday.
Bearden said the local pear industry peaked in acreage in about 1976, with about 8,000 acres in production at that time. There are now about 2,000 acres of pears in Lake County.
The good news, said Bearden, is that “it seems that we've reached the equilibrium point,” with the market and production in balance. Sometimes profitable crops lead to overplanting, a situation that is now causing concern in the Central Valley, where almond acreage has increased in recent years.
The pear industry has had a number of challenges in recent years, said Bearden.
For starters, there's been a shift in consumer usages and taste. Where once consumers used a lot of canned fruit, they're switching increasingly to fresh pears.
Then there is the issue of globalized production and competition, with countries like China putting in huge acreage, Bearden said.
At one time, California had about 22 pear canners, but now there are only three. In July 2000, the bankruptcy of the Tri Valley Growers – reported to be the state's largest agricultural cooperative at the time – also changed the market landscape for pear growers, costing them millions of dollars.
Bearden said he found most of the unused pear packing facilities in the “pear packing triangle” of Kelseyville, Lakeport and Finley.
He said the good news is that some of those pear sheds have now moved into other uses. Wildhurst Winery in Kelseyville now occupies one.
Looking at the county over the last century, Bearden said it's notable that wine and pear production usually don't do well at the same time. Currently, wine production is succeeding and pears are down.
Of the 10 pear sheds he located, the largest was Mt. Konocti Growers, which Bearden said has the best potential for reuse because of its large amount of infrastructure and size, including 136,000 square feet of space under roof, with 57,000 square feet of valuable cold storage.
“A lot of focus went into that one because it seemed to have the best potential for economic development purposes,” said Bearden.
He also looked at another pear shed in Upper Lake, which was closed in 2001 following the Tri Valley Growers bankruptcy.
Bearden said that property has 15,000 square feet of cold storage and is located on about 200 acres located next to the rancheria. “It's a marvelous piece of property,” he said, noting it has rich soils.
The property is ideally suited for a grand destination winery, said Bearden. The price is said to be around $5 million. Sewer improvements at the rancheria may eventually benefit that property, he added.
Bearden said he also looked at the Big Valley packing shed, which the Quercus Ranch operated until 2000. That shed's origins went back to the California Fruit Exchange, which started in the early 1900s. It's also being marketed as a winery location.
As part of the study, Bearden also looked at a local worm farm, which once was a pear shed. It's now commercially zoned and being used for composting leave and tree clippings.
“The property seems to have a lot of unique qualities to it,” said Bearden, noting it was listed for less than $700,000, which includes the sale of assets and a residential property on the site. It also has the potential for a quicker development.
Bearden said his main focus was on the Mt. Konocti Growers site. He said the facility's owners are very willing to take his recommendations for new uses for the property.
Among the suggestions are use as an events center and an RV campground on the site of a former transient farm labor camp. Bearden said it would take at least five to seven years to completely convert the facility's use.
The hope is that it could be used as a type of “agritourism experience” for tourists traveling in RVs and children, Bearden said.
Another possible use would be for case storage for wines produced in Napa and Sonoma counties. Bearden said the facility already is in a phase of partial reuse, with 18 wineries putting the space to use.
The next phase, Bearden suggested, is a kind of winemaker incubator or winemaker lofts, which is a business model becoming popular in the Pacific Northwest. He sees a need for the same thing here in California.
Because of Mt. Konocti Growers' scale of facilities and equipment, there are plenty of opportunities for reuse, he said. One of the potential issues for all of the facilities is wastewater that would be generated from a winery, which would call for hooking into a municipal-type wastewater treatment facility rather than a septic system.
Other obstacles are economic conditions. Bearden said the spike in gas prices last year almost caused him to cut out the RV park proposal. Then there is the problem of credit for property improvements.
“The economic conditions and the frozen credit markets are a real concern,” he said, noting that the ability to refinance commercial property “is a market that's completely gone,” although it's hoped it will return. But loans for small businesses are at a fraction of what they were in 2007.
Wine industry expected to keep growing
Board Chair Denise Rushing said a big part of the analysis that went into Bearden's report is based on the assumption that the winegrape business will continue. She asked him why he believed that.
“One word – 'Lodi,'” said Bearden, explaining that there are now many popular wine regions in the state that didn't exist 10 or 15 years ago.
Bearden said many people don't want to go to Napa and Sonoma and pay to taste wines that they could sample for free a few year ago. Besides that, new destination wine areas across the nation are springing up. He said he thinks people are looking for new experiences.
Rushing said gas prices likely will rise again, and she asked if local tourism is expected to increase due to Sacramento and Bay Area residents wanting to travel yet stay closer to home. Bearden agreed with that assessment.
The county's food security group has identified cold storage as a local need, said Rushing, pointing to the report's identification of important cold storage facilities. She said one of the smaller facilities could help enhance community food security.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington agreed that the wine industry appears to be a niche for the county, but he worried about putting all of the county's eggs in one basket. Like Rushing, he also said he expects gas prices to go up again.
Besides wine-related uses, Bearden told the board that there is the potential for expansion of current products, like the Lady of the Lake sparkling pear wine that is produced at Mt. Konocti Growers. He believed other pear-based products also would succeed.
Supervisor Jeff Smith liked the idea of the RV park, pointing out that the location is only 65 miles from Interstate 5, which is a well-traveled corridor for snowbirds who are traveling at certain times of the year. Those travelers likely could be pulled in for a few weeks at a time.
Looking around the supervisors chambers, Supervisor Rob Brown wondered where the pear shed owners were, and asked what their involvement has been up to this point. Bearden said he spent a lot of time with Mt. Konocti Growers.
Finley resident and pear grower Phil Murphy wanted to know the study's cost and who lobbied the board to do it. Farrington said it was presented to the board as an opportunity, and Rushing added that the board discussed it as a way of benefiting the local economy.
Doug Willardson, a county administrative staffer, said county staff spoke with some pear shed owners before deciding to do the study. Murphy said that sounded close to lobbying, and he wanted to know who was involved.
Willardson said he couldn't remember everyone involved, although the Scullys – who own one of the still-functioning local pear sheds – where there.
Brown said he didn't think anyone approached the county to ask that the issue be studied.
Murphy said many of the pear shed owners are multimillionaires and don't need the assistance of taxpayers to run their businesses. “I didn't feel that this was necessary a year ago,” he said. “All the points I made a year ago are still valid today.”
The county's pear sheds aren't all-weather structures meant to be used year-round, Murphy said, adding that the discussion is essentially about ground.
There are many places to put tasting rooms, and he suggested someplace like downtown Kelseyville – which is close to shops and restaurants – makes more sense than the pear shed locations, which are not centrally located and will be hard to market.
Murphy, who said he's lobbied against this and another project to benefit pears in the last two years, said he's been proven right on both occasions, and he wants the board to listen to him more closely next time.
The board was not required to take action on the report.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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