NEWPORT BEACH : Conservancy Starts Membership Drive

The Newport Conservancy, the community group trying to raise millions of dollars to buy Irvine Co. land slated for development in the city, has launched a massive new membership campaign.

The group has blanketed about 30,000 homes in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Irvine with folded, colorful wall maps showing land around Upper Newport Bay, where the company plans to build homes.

“It’s the largest mailing we’ve ever done,” said Sally Coombe, a spokeswoman for the conservancy. “It’s not the donations that are important in this case. We just want (the communities) to know about us and be aware of what we’re doing.”

The properties the group hopes to buy are the Upper Castaways, covering the lower western portion of the bay, and Newporter North, on the east side of the upper part of the bay. The conservancy has pledged to preserve the two holdings, which total more than 130 acres, as open space and parkland if it successfully raises enough money for the purchase.

Both plots of open space are owned by the Irvine Co. Much of the development firm’s holdings around the bay are earmarked for construction of homes, condominiums and commercial and office-space developments.

The maps mailed out last week describe the rich archeological history of the land as well as the various birds, animals and plants that fill the undeveloped property near the state ecological preserve.

“Once they build those houses, it’s gone,” Coombe said.

The Irvine Co. has supported the group’s efforts and has said it would sell the land to the residents for fair-market value.

The group hopes to win membership from residents throughout the county who support the idea and use the bay. In particular, they hope to gain about 10% of the Newport Beach community, or about 6,500 people.