By Cassie Macduff / Press Enterprise
The view from the top of a knoll in California Citrus State Historic Park is Riverside Councilman Chris Mac Arthur’s favorite.Lush, green groves cover acres of undulating hillsides as far as the eye can see, not a housing tract or shopping center in sight.
It is exactly the kind of unspoiled scenery the 23-year-old citrus park was intended to preserve, said Mac Arthur, a second-generation citrus grower and California native. The 400-acre park, in Arlington Heights, got a new lease on life last week when the Friends of California Citrus Park signed an agreement with the state parks system to oversee the groves, maintain the meeting hall, picnic shelter and amphitheater, and subcontract with an events planner to book its venues.
MacArthur and others at a signing ceremony last Monday credited former Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge, now president of the nonprofit group, and state Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird, who attended to sign on behalf of State Parks.
Loveridge has made the citrus heritage park a focus since taking the reins as mayor in 1994. Laird saw the community support for the plan and threw his weight behind it.
The ground-breaking agreement was four years in the making, said Cynthia Karimi, Friends executive director, a graduate of UCR’s Public Policy program. read more