Small victories add up for Banning Ranch campaign

Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force

Banning Ranch, which is 412 acres of coastal bluffs and wetlands in the Newport Beach area of Orange County, has recently been the recipient of some small but important victories. The Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force has been working hard for five years to protect this property.

photo courtesy Robin Everett Banning Ranch

Our biggest victory happened in Newport Beach when the City Council declared the property should be designated as open space. Though the majority of the property is unincorporated, and this fight will be fought again at the county level, a small portion is within the city limits of Newport Beach, and the council's support will give us much needed momentum when facing the Board of Supervisors at a later date.

Newport Beach is currently revising their general plan. Three years ago the city appointed various members of the community to the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC). Their main function was to study the effects of redevelopment on various parts of the city, including Banning Ranch. After years of study, the GPAC put forth their plans to the public. The Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force of the Sierra Club mobilized its members to attend these meetings and fight for an open space designation for Banning Ranch, and our voice was heard.

The GPAC's final recommendation was for open space, but with one caveat, in the case that the money could not be raised to publicly acquire the land, the property could be developed. For this fallback position, GPAC recommended 850 homes, 35,000 square feet of retail, and a 75-unit hotel. The plan was then reviewed by the City Council, which agreed with the open space designation, but increased the amount of development for the fall back plan to 1,375 homes and 75,000 square feet of retail, retaining the 75-unit hotel. The revised plan is now being reviewed by the GPAC before going to the voters in the fall. No matter which fall back plan is accepted, if the General Plan is approved by the voters in November, we will now have an open space designation from Newport Beach.

However, now we have the enormous task of raising the funds needed to purchase Banning Ranch, which leads us to our next victory. SB 153, introduced by Wes Chesboro (D-Arcata) and Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) in 2005, will be, if approved, the next park bond for California. This bond will provide funds to acquire open space for public use. Assemblyman Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) inserted specific language in the bill that would provide $20 million dollars for park projects adjacent to the mouth of the Santa Ana River, which could be used for the acquisition of Banning Ranch.

Though $20 million is not enough to purchase the entire 412 acres, it is a great start and a great momentum builder. The bill did not make it out of the Assembly last year, but it is expected to return this year.

Lastly, we recently had a victory with the California Coastal Commission, on the subject of altered coastal bluffs versus unaltered coastal bluffs. The city of Newport Beach is not only undergoing a general plan update, they are also undergoing the creation of their Local Coastal Program (LCP), which guides the development and protection of coastal resources. The LCP that was developed by Newport Beach makes a distinction between altered and unaltered coastal bluffs, essentially allowing for decreased protection for those bluffs that have been altered, though they do not specify what altered means. This could have had enormous effects on the bluffs at Banning Ranch because the bluffs have been altered by years of oil production, but fortunately the distinction was denied by the Coastal Commission.