Commentary: Banning Ranch development will allow restoration too
Drive by Newport Banning Ranch on any given day during the school year and you’re likely to see it buzzing with activity. Under the guidance of the Newport Banning Land Trust, high school students from Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa high schools, among others, frequently use the expansive tract for field experiments and exploration.
It’s a hands-on look at nature that is hard to duplicate in the classroom, and it’s all part of the educational focus of the Newport Banning Land Trust, which has made the region’s environmental good health its mission.
On the other hand, the mission of the Banning Ranch Conservancy has nothing to do with education or, for that matter, with conservation. Instead, the Conservancy is interested in one thing: stopping the restoration of the 400-acre Banning Ranch parcel.
This singular anti-restoration, obstructionist focus of the Banning Ranch Conservancy is in stark contrast to the Land Trust, which since its founding four years ago has worked hard to promote a variety of environmental and conservation programs. For instance, while the Conservancy has been busy suing the city of Newport Beach over park creation, the Land Trust has been working with volunteers to collect seeds to restore native coastal plants and meeting with environmental-leaders to promote conservation efforts across the region.
The Conservancy has taken notice of the Land Trust’s activities, yet sadly its members appear to be far more interested in protesting the Land Trust’s involvement in local environmental events than participating themselves, even those that benefit the broader community.
From the beginning, the Land Trust has stated that it was founded by the owners of Newport Banning Ranch, who have a proposal in front of the California Coastal Commission to set aside a fraction of the property for diverse housing and commercial amenities to include a bike and coffee shop, as well as a nature center. The Conservancy, true to form, claims that the Land Trust’s formation makes its community involvement suspect.
Indeed, the Conservancy ignores the fact that the Land Trust was founded for good reason. It is the Land Trust that will serve as stewards of the more than 300 acres that will be set aside as a publicly accessible nature preserve once the property has been cleaned and restored.
After 75 years of oil exploration and operations, Newport Banning Ranch today is a patchwork of industrial brownfields and fragmented vegetation, fenced off from the public and accessible only to a few remaining oil riggers. Under an amended development proposal now before the Coastal Commission, the property would be cleaned up and fully restored by the owners using private funds, and more than 80% of it permanently preserved and opened to the public, with biking and hiking trails and a nature and Native American educational center. The new proposal significantly reduces the development footprint to less than 20% of the property, and calls for 895 new housing units — about 35% fewer than the previous proposal, plus a 75-room hotel and a small commercial center to support the community.
Nonetheless, the Conservancy’s sole mission of obstructionists-in-chief keeps its members from objectively assessing the proposal on its merits, just as they continue to callously dismiss the Land Trust and its educational efforts.
If the Conservancy were truly interested in what’s good for the environment, its members would look at the proposal with clear eyes and embrace the chance to restore Newport Banning Ranch and make it a community asset once again. Unfortunately, it appears their rhetoric is more important than being supportive of the environment.
--
NICK ROUSSOS lives in Newport Beach.