For 28 years Performance Nursery has been proud to be a part of the Moorpark community. Our existence here has now been placed in jeopardy by Southern California Edison (SCE) employees, who know little about this community, or Performance Nursery's active role in the community. Edison has given Performance Nursery just until Oct. 15, 2014 (with a meager 75-day notice) to vacate the property and take its business of almost a half-million plants and 82 employees elsewhere.

The bottom line: Performance Nursery is very actively involved with supporting its community; and the business it operates improves the SCE property by deterring trespassing and unwanted activity, beautifying the land with lush greenery and preventing overgrowth of weeds among other benefits.

 

Community Involvement

In the 28 years of operation on the nearly 42 acres of SCE land from Tierra Rejada Road to Los Angeles Avenue, Performance Nursery has been involved with:

·      Donating/loaning plants for Moorpark High School's graduation ceremonies.

·      Donating/loaning plants to local Catholic and Lutheran churches for Palm Sunday ceremonies.

·      Donating/loaning plants to local Boys and Girls Clubs.

·      Donating/loaning plants and vehicles to the Rotary Club of Moorpark's Annual Civil War Reenactment.

·      Donating/loaning plants to artists for use in their displays, booths at trade shows, or in their art.

·      Donation of time, roses and man-hours; and hosting auctions for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

·      Donated a venue and hosted wine-tasting events for Women and Children's groups.

·      Worked with and donated plants and man-hours to Make-A-Wish foundation.

·      Donated plants to Ronald McDonald House Charities in Orange County, Calif.

·      Donated resources to Pathways To Independence, resource for young women in need.

·      Donated plants and man-hours to California Association of Nurserymen for their high school auction.

 

Impact of Vacating the Moorpark Land

What will it mean for the community if Performance Nursery is forced to quit the land it currently leases from SCE? It has been documented that once a nursery evacuates an area and the land is allowed to remain fallow for a period of time, some of the following has been encountered by neighbors, municipalities, SCE itself, and nursery employees.

Neighbors:

·      Encroachment by overgrown weeds

·      Dust kicked up by winds that otherwise would have been controlled by the ground-covering plants and continual watering of the soil

·      Vermin and pest infestation

·      Neighbors who once enjoyed privacy due to nursery plants preventing looks into their back yards will lose the benefit; they will have to install their own privacy-protection measures.

 Community:

·      Loss of tax revenue

·      Loss of an ideal and contributing community member

·      Loss of land beautification; instead of seeing nice green trees and shrubs residents and neighbors will see only bare dirt and, eventually, weeds.

·      Depreciation of property value

·      Creation of a fire hazard; and ongoing need for weed abatement measures.

Southern California Edison:

·      Litigation costs

·      Neighbor complaints

·      Trespassing

·      Vandalism

·      Cost of vermin and pest irradiation

·      Cost of weed control

·      Cost of dust, erosion and silt control

·      Negative impact to public perception

Performance Nursery employees:

Performance Nursery employs 82 hard-working people. Closing this nursery would cause undue hardship to its employees, and their families. Just when the economy begins to improve, sales slowly rise and we plan to hire more employees, SCE made its surprise vacate-land order.

 

Summary

Not only is SCE acting unfairly with such a short notice, it is discounting or ignoring the many benefits that having a well-run nursery operation on the Moorpark land. Performance Nursery has 28 years of proven success on the property and offers numerous benefits to the community and for neighbors.

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Please contact SCE President Pedro Pizarro at pedro.pizarro@sce.com, with a copy to SCE's attorney at jeff.renzi@sce.com.