Coast panel, conservancy to join talks with developer over Banning Ranch project revision

The developer intending to build homes, businesses and parks on Banning Ranch -- one of the last privately owned and undeveloped pieces of land along Orange County’s coast -- is heading back to the drawing board to craft a scaled-down version of the project.

But this time, other groups will be at the table.

Newport Banning Ranch LLC plans to meet with California Coastal Commission staff and members of the Banning Ranch Conservancy, a preservation group that opposes building on the land, over the next several months, said Chris Yelich of Brooks Street, a real estate development firm associated with the project.

On Wednesday, the commission—which has the final say over projects along the state’s coastline—voted to postpone making a decision. The next hearing on the project is set for January.

“We’re going to go back through our land plan and make adjustments where there have been issues raised by coastal staff,” Yelich said.

Newport Banning Ranch initially sought to build 1,375 homes, a 75-room boutique hotel, a hostel, 75,000 square feet of retail space and several parks on about 95 acres of the 401-acre expanse adjacent to the Santa Ana River overlooking Pacific Coast Highway.

After seeing that commission staff was recommending that the panel deny the project, the developer reduced the number of proposed dwellings to 1,175, meaning that 80% of the land would remain open space.

However, the downsizing didn’t satisfy the commissioners, who voted unanimously to delay their decision on the project’s development permit for 90 days. The move will allow Newport Banning Ranch to devise a more modest development that commissioners feel adheres to the California Coastal Act, which prioritizes access and preserving “environmentally sensitive areas.”

Though the area has been used for oil operations since the 1940s, many animal species, including burrowing owls, the California coastal gnatcatcher and endangered San Diego fairy shrimp, have remained on the land.

Commission staff recommended denying the project because it “would have significant adverse impacts upon terrestrial and vernal pool [environmentally sensitive habitat], including impacts to important/rare upland habitats and wildlife species that are an important part of the existing functioning ecosystem that includes both the uplands and lowlands habitat areas.”

The staff report indicated, and commissioners agreed Wednesday, that the agency would consider a smaller version of the project.

The developer also would have to gain approval from the California Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources, which would oversee oil cleanup and consolidation efforts, commissioners said.

“There has to be a project that is less invasive,” commission Vice Chairwoman Dayna Bochco said. “You chose a place that is very, very sensitive.”

Steve Ray, executive director of the Banning Ranch Conservancy, said that while the group intends to purchase the property and preserve it as open space, members are willing to sit down with the developer to discuss plans for the project, as long as they are given access to the site.

For decades a chain-link fence has surrounded the scrub- and grass-covered bluffs, wetlands, dirt roads and active oil wells, shielding them from public access.

“The question is going to be where the development is going to be proposed and of what size will it be proposed,” Ray said. “If they continue the way they have been … we’re going to have a problem.”

Though the developer and preservationists disagree on how the land should be maintained, both want the oil fields cleaned up and the land opened to the public.

“Hopefully the community will be happy that the Coastal Commission wants the property open to the public,” Yelich said. “We’re proposing to clean up an existing oil field and turn it into a community asset. That’s what we’re most excited about.”

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Hannah Fry writes for Times Community News