2. Background
The four-acre site is used by SCE for above-ground transmission and distribution lines.1 SCE acquired the property in 1958. Total book value for the four acres is $32,593.44. The site would be an addition to an adjacent, 28-acre retail and community shopping center development project planned by Montalvo. The current occupant of the four-acre site is Boething Treeland Farms, which would occupy a smaller section of the Mandalay-Santa Clara 220-kV right-of-way once the Montalvo project is completed.
SCE states that it has worked closely with Boething, a horticultural licensee that occupies 40 acres of other SCE land in the City of Ventura, to ensure that the nursery could use a smaller facility next to the subject site. If the Boething license remained in effect, it would generate only $4,000 per year in revenue. In contrast, under the proposed lease with Montalvo, the four acres will generate annual revenue of $95,000, which represents a substantial increase in revenue for the benefit of SCE and its ratepayers.
Under the proposed new lease, SCE would continue to own and operate its transmission facilities, and it would retain unobstructed access to the site. Revenue from the lease would be shared with SCE's ratepayers.
1 The site is bounded on the north by residential property, on the east by the continuation of the Mandalay-Santa Clara right of way, on the west by South Victoria Avenue, and on the south by other Montalvo property.
