Should school district sell, lease or keep valuable parcel? One group hopes the answer is ‘preserve.’
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Jan. 31. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at the latest local news and events.
Adjacent to the 384-acre Banning Ranch property in coastal Orange County, which is being cleaned up and renamed the Randall Preserve, lies a valuable unused parcel owned by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.
Declining enrollment means there’s no reason to expect the 11.36-acres the district bought in 1965 to be of great use to NMUSD, which made the purchase with the thought it might be a suitable place to build a campus one day.
My Daily Pilot colleague Sara Cardine reported over the weekend that the district in October put in place a citizens advisory group — the Banning Ranch Surplus Land Committee — to learn more about the parcel, its history and zoning to mull possible options for the site. That committee is expected to make a recommendation to the Newport-Mesa school board in the coming months. Prior to that, the public will have an opportunity to provide input during a meeting set for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5 at NMUSD’s district headquarters in Costa Mesa.
Will the school district sell, lease or just continue to keep the acreage, which it purchased for $473,999 all those decades ago? One local group has a suggestion: Preserve it as open space.
“Terry Welsh is president of the Coastal Corridor Alliance, formerly named the Banning Ranch Conservancy, which began as an effort to preserve the larger Newport Beach property but has since morphed into a wider conservation effort to preserve parcels adjacent to Randall Preserve,” Cardine writes.
Welsh told the reporter that the parcel NUMSD is considering options for contains rare vernal pools that fill up with fairy shrimp after the area gets a decent amount of rain. The shrimp bring in migrating and foraging birds, he explained, even burrowing owls and gnatcatchers.
“We would love to see the school district utilize it and make it a nature lab or something like that. You could bring kids out there and show them a vernal pool,” Welsh told Cardine last week. “This is a treasure in our community — why not teach young people about that and teach them to be stewards?”
Members of the Coastal Corridor Alliance plan to attend Monday night’s meeting of the citizens advisory committee to advocate for an open-space option.
“I wish there was a true, hardcore Randall Preserve activist on that committee who, at every meeting, would stand up and say we need to save that space,” he said. “That’s what we’re going to work toward.”
MORE NEWS
• The Newport Beach man who ran out of a hospital when a nurse tried to sedate him during a mental health episode has been found dead. The body of 43-year-old Scott Breneman, owner of West Caught Fishing Co., was found on the Huntington Beach side of Talbert Park last week. The Newport Beach Police Department notified Breneman’s family members on Thursday but did not provide the Daily Pilot with any specific information, including the cause of his death. Lisa Breneman, his mother, declined to comment but conveyed that she wanted to express her deep gratitude for those who showed up on a daily basis to help her search for her son and who shared information about his missing status on social media.
• An After School Satan Club will hold its meetings on a San Clemente school campus beginning Feb. 12. According to this report in the L.A. Times, Truman Benedict Elementary School will play host to the club, the second such group organized by the Satanic Temple in California. Reporter Nathan Solis writes, “Organizers stressed that they do not plan to recruit students or parents who do not want to be affiliated with their club. The Satanic Temple does not view Satan as a deity or otherwise supernatural figure but instead as a symbol against societal norms, according to the organization’s teachings. The Satanic Temple is selective when it comes to potential sites for its program, focusing on school districts that already have existing faith-based clubs.” According to the article, it was a Truman Benedict parent who invited the club’s presence there after their child “was handed a permission slip to a Christian-focused after-school club, which did not align with their values.”
• Operators of the O.C. fairgrounds’ Equestrian Center are pulling together a new vision for the decades-old facility. According to this Daily Pilot news report, Orange County Fair & Event Center officials on Thursday presented ideas for future programming for the 7-acre parcel. The board’s facilities committee will be tasked with refining plans and giving monthly updates in advance of a June 14 deadline.
• An unoccupied 30-foot cabin cruiser ran aground in Laguna Beach last Thursday night. The vessel hit the rocks at Victoria Beach; emergency responders received a call about the incident at 8:10 p.m. After establishing no one was aboard, authorities searching it found a kayak and a surfboard. Damaged by its rocky landing, the boat was deemed unseaworthy.
• Another storm system is brewing and is expected to bring a good dousing of rain to O.C. beginning tonight. Forecasters issued a flood watch in the county that will be in effect from tomorrow morning through Friday morning, City News Service reported. High winds are expected and a high surf advisory will be in place from 2 a.m. tomorrow through 6 a.m. Saturday. Orange County beaches could see waves of 4 to 6 feet,
with some as high as 8 feet, according to forecasters.
PUBLIC SAFETY & COURTS
• 73 men have filed a civil lawsuit against Hoag and an O.C. doctor charged with sexually assaulting his patients, and another suit is in the wings. Dr. William Thompson IV, an infectious disease specialist who was arrested on Sept. 20, 2023 and is facing multiple charges of sexual assault, was described by one of his former patients as a wolf in sheep’s clothing last Thursday when a news conference was held in Irvine to announce the suit. Attorneys at the Manly, Stewart & Finaldi Law Office representing the 73 men say they believe the total number of victims could reach into the hundreds. They say a second civil lawsuit is expected to be filed in the next two weeks, bringing the total number of identified victims to more than 80.
• The man accused in the 2021 freeway shooting that killed a 6-year-old Costa Mesa child was found guilty Thursday. Marcus Anthony Eriz, 26, was found guilty of second-degree murder and shooting at an occupied motor vehicle, both felonies, and sentencing enhancements for discharging a firearm that caused the death of Aiden Leos. Eriz faces 40 years to life in prison. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for April 12.
• Democrat Bryan Clavecilla of O.C. was among 16 people Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed as Superior Court judges statewide this week. Clavecilla has served as a commissioner at the Orange County Superior Court, as a senior deputy district attorney and assistant head of court at the Orange County district attorney’s office Central Justice Center. He will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Linda Marks. The annual compensation is $238,479.
SPORTS
• When we met here last week, there was speculation the Chargers were interested in hiring Jim Harbaugh as head coach. On Wednesday afternoon the announcement was made that the man who coached the Michigan Wolverines to a national title will indeed be leading the Chargers. It is expected, the L.A Times reports, he’ll be officially introduced tomorrow. Also, Joe Hortiz, the Baltimore Ravens’ director of player personnel, will serve as the Chargers’ new general manager, the team announced yesterday morning.
• Shohei Ohtani closed the chapter on his tenure with the Angels when he accepted his 2023 American League MVP award on Saturday night in New York. In accepting the honor, Ohtani expressed thanks to his former team: “To the Angels organization: Ownership, front office and the entire staff, thank you for the past six years. I always appreciated your support and allowing me the opportunity to play this game I’m so passionate about. To my teammates and the coaching staff for helping me and encouraging me throughout the year. I felt your support every day.” He also said he’s looking forward to the “next phase in my career” with the Dodgers.
• The CIF Southern Section Council approved a proposal yesterday to make its football playoff format used by all team sports, beginning with the 2024-25 school year. According to reporting by L.A. Times prep columnist Eric Sondheimer, the proposal passed by a 79-8 vote means that schools will no longer be put in playoff divisions based on previous years’ results. “Such sports as basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball and water polo will face a culture change as schools that suddenly have a powerful team will get put in playoff divisions with the usual powers depending on that season’s results,” Sondheimer notes.
LIFE & LEISURE
• The works of Chris Crosson, aka “the sandcastle builder,” have captured the eyes of the public ... and some unique commissions. Contributing Daily Pilot writer Susan Hoffman, who documented Crosson’s “Happy New Year” monument-style sand sculpture mentioned in the Jan. 3 edition of this newsletter, caught up with him again last week as he was creating 9-cubic-foot sand sculpture for a corporate event. Crosson’s artistry has grown since he first entered a sandcastle contest in 1994, Hoffman reports, and he now sells an instructional kit with tools to others interested in the craft. On a recent day UK resident Colin Broadbent saw Crosson at work on a sculpture for MLK Jr. Day and commissioned him to sculpt a tribute to his favorite team, Manchester City FC, the Premier League football club.
• Apparently the dead of winter is a good time to test the mettle of lifeguard hopefuls. Sixty-five applicants turned out over the weekend to try out for the Newport Beach Fire Department’s summer lifeguard openings. Participants competed in a 1,000-meter ocean swim, followed by a 1,000-meter run-swim-run event. Those with the top scores will be invited to interview for one of the approximately 40 open positions this year. The starting pay? A modest $19.63 per hour.
• It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year: Girl Scouts of Orange County coordinated a “mega delivery” for cookies on Saturday at Wild Rivers water park in Irvine. More than 1 million cookie packages were delivered to troops via a multi-lane “drive through” operation, enough to supply about 9,000 O.C. Girl Scouts with tasty stock to sell.
CALENDAR THIS
• Disney’s “The Lion King” returns to the stage at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The majestic Tony award-winning musical opens tomorrow night and runs through Feb. 25. Tickets start at $39. In conjunction with the show there will be a donation drive for new toys, games and craft kits to support Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Patrons who wish to support the drive can drop off the items in the orchestra level lobby.
• The Year of the Dragon is nearly upon us! The 42nd annual UVSA Tet Festival will welcome the Vietnamese Lunar New Year Feb. 9 to 11 at the OC Fair & Event Center. Performances, contests, scavenger hunts and more. Tickets can be purchased online or at the gate.
• The Surf City USA Marathon is this Sunday, Feb. 4. The event also includes a half-marathon, 5K race, beach mile and virtual races. The marathon course starts and ends on Pacific Coast Highway near Huntington Street and passes by the Huntington Beach Pier. Most road closures and detours will be in place between 4 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday. All the details can be found here.
KEEP IN TOUCH
Thank you for reading today’s newsletter. If you have a memory or story about Orange County, I would love to read and share it in this space. Please try to keep your submission to 100 words or less and include your name and current city of residence.
I appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.
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