Irvine : Fair Board to Assess Buffalo Ranch Costs

The Orange County Fair Board will decide this morning whether to proceed with plans to move buildings on Irvine’s historic Buffalo Ranch to the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

An architectural consultant hired by the board to assess the plan’s feasibility will release a report today that estimates how much it would cost to move the buildings. The report also will examine where the buildings should be placed on the fairgrounds.

If the board decides to move ahead with the plan, fair officials would begin negotiations with Irvine Co., which owns the Buffalo Ranch, and prepare an environmental impact report, said Jill Lloyd, a fair spokeswoman.

It is doubtful that all of the dozen or so buildings on the ranch complex will be moved to Costa Mesa.

“Some of the buildings are more unfinished. One looked more like a garage and has a barn floor,” said Lloyd. “We won’t consider (taking) those.”

The fair probably will seek the ranch’s larger, more prominent buildings, such as the tall red silo tower at the center of the complex. Fair officials want to use the buildings for classrooms, meeting halls and offices.

The Buffalo Ranch’s future has been a controversial topic in Irvine and Newport Beach ever since the Transportation Corridor Agencies proposed relocating several ranch structures to make way for the expansion of Ford Road.

The ranch--at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Ford Road--was an amusement park in the 1950s known for its bison and other livestock that roamed the hilly area. In the 1960s, the architects who designed UC Irvine, Fashion Island and parts of Irvine used the ranch as their headquarters.

Until this year, the ranch was home to several businesses. But the Irvine Co. cleared out the complex in part because Ford Road construction will limit vehicle access to the site.

The ranchland is zoned for residential development, and the Irvine Co. has expressed its intention to one day build houses on the site.