FPUD amends Silverthorn Ranch Nursery lease

Silverthorn Ranch Nursery leases approximately 7 1/2 acres of Fallbrook Public Utility District property, and Dec. 9 FPUD’s board approved an amended lease.

The 4-0 board vote with Don McDougal absent reduced the leasehold from 7.57 to 7.51 acres and authorized the cultivation and harvesting of additional legal agricultural crops.

“It was just to coordinate with the Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project and also allow them to utilize the property for any approved agriculture purposes,” FPUD general manager Jack Bebee said.

The lease is on FPUD’s Alturas Road property and is just south of the area for FPUD’s Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project facilities. FPUD initially approved a six-year lease with Silverthorn Nursery in October 2015.

The original lease was for 7.57 acres. On July 22, the FPUD board approved a construction contract with Filanc Alberici JV to build FPUD’s portion of the Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project.

The U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton infrastructure will include piping to deliver the water to the boundary of the Naval Weapons Station and Fallbrook behind the FPUD solar facility site on Alturas Road; construction of the facilities from the NWS boundary is FPUD’s responsibility.

The water will be treated at the Alturas Road plant and delivered into FPUD’s distribution system. A construction road will access the main worksite at the Alturas plant, and the boundary of the lease with Silverthorn Ranch Nursery needed to be adjusted. Silverthorn owner Wayne Loomis agreed to the reduction of the lease area by 0.06 acres.

Loomis is also interested in growing industrial hemp on the leased property.

“Under the current language you couldn’t do that,” Bebee said.

The lease language before the amendment limited the agricultural activities to operations necessary for the cultivation and harvest of ornamental plants, palm trees and cacti. The new lease allows the harvest and cultivation of any legal agricultural crop.

The cultivation of industrial hemp will require government permitting.

“There’s a whole permitting process they have to do if they want to do that,” Bebee said. “They’re responsible for all the permitting.”

The lease amendment also added a sentence that any necessary permits to cultivate a specific agricultural crop will be the sole responsibility of Silverthorn. The lease previously prohibited on-site sales, and that sentence was unchanged.