In a split vote, the Saratoga City Council on Wednesday opened up the possibility for the city’s heritage orchard to be managed as a commercial operation, with an outside organization selling fruit grown on the city-owned land for a profit.

The heritage orchard, a 14-acre plot of land sandwiched between the Saratoga Library and city hall, is a working orchard with hundreds of apricot, prunes and cherry trees that city officials preserved years ago as a way to recognize the region’s agricultural origins. There are few of its kind left in the Bay Area.

The Saratoga-based Novakovich Orchards had been maintaining the orchard and selling its fruit for a profit until 2020, when the home orchard and landscaping company Orchard Keepers won the management contract.

Novakovich Orchards used traditional farming methods and sold the fruit it grew for its own profit, but the Orchard Keepers have said they’re focused on regenerative agriculture techniques that use a cover crop to improve the health of the orchard’s soil overall. The city and Orchard Keepers have also started an annual community harvest, when Saratoga residents are invited to pick fruit at no cost, and the remaining fruit is donated via nonprofits to food banks.

The city council’s Feb. 5 decision comes as the Orchard Keepers’ contract is set to expire this April. The city is gearing up to solicit bids for a new contract.

The 3-2 vote – with council members Tina Walia and Yan Zhao opposed – opened up the possibility that the orchard could return to a profit-earning operation. The vote directed staff to create a request for proposals in which a portion of the fruit harvest would be for commercial purposes and a portion would be done by volunteers and donated to food banks.

The council majority also requested that applicants address five categories: approach to orchard management, experience managing a commercial orchard, Saratoga heritage and local presence, community engagement and cost to the city.

When the city last voted on a contract for the heritage orchard’s management in 2022, the Orchard Keepers’ quote was around $135,000 annually, without plans to sell the fruit, while Novakovich Orchards quoted about $155,000 annually for a model that involved some commercial sale of the fruit grown in the orchard.

Several community members turned out to speak on the item, some strongly in favor of the community aspect and some vehemently opposed to it, arguing that unfettered community access has been detrimental to the orchard’s health.

“The current condition of the orchard is deplorable in my mind,” resident Brad Renn said at the meeting. “It’s not the heritage orchard of Saratoga.”

Some council members agreed.

“When I go to our orchard, honestly, it looks like a graveyard to me,” council member Kookie Fitzsimmons said. “It just looks like a bunch of bones. And yes, it’s really fun to see families have fun, but that’s having a cost to the trees.”

“I don’t understand enough of the business model around operating an orchard to fully authorize us moving to commercial harvesting,” said Mayor Belal Aftab, who ultimately voted in favor of opening the possibility to a partially commercial operation. “I would be open to having another conversation about that, because I can’t vote in favor of fully moving to commercial harvesting without understanding what potential business models might look like.”

Matthew Sutton, Orchard Keeper’s founder and president, said low amounts of rainfall and higher overall temperatures have also been negatively impacting the orchard’s productivity. Others said the current model has been beneficial to the community.

“The orchard needs to remain part of Saratoga and Saratogans,” resident Marcia Fariss wrote to the council. “Denying our residents participation in the apricot and plum harvest is denying us our heritage, history and sense of community.”